This is a lamp that my aunt and I designed and I constructed a few years ago (er...10 years ago?!?!) for an auction to support women artists in Austin. It sold for $400 which I thought was a ton of money back then but seems like a miserly amount now!
Re: Lamp The slats are steel that I left the "dirty" patina on and then just coated with polyurethane. The shade is also thin steel but when I welded the rim on, it discolored it pretty bad (heat treated it essentially). Plus it was shiny. So I took an oxyacetylene torch with a big rosebud on it and just heated the whole shade up until it turned blueish. I did that in bands going from the bottom to the top. Then added lots of polyurethane which darkened it nicely.
We did another project together about 5 years ago but I don't really have any pictures of that! It was another auction, this time for the Sustainable Food Center. They used to have the auction every year called Hello Birdie! and all the art in it was bird houses. We made a water fountain tower with a little bird hole in it...not very practical but I think it brought in $1200 or so - one of the top sellers for the night.
Re: Lamp Texas, I love that lamp. It's very unique, and the more unique something like that is, the more I tend to like it.
You and your Aunt did an excellent job!!
I wish I could do stuff like that, but I don't know the first thing about metal working, nor do I have the place to do it in if I did know.
Re: Lamp Metal working seems like it should be difficult because metal is hard, but I find that, once you know the tools and techniques, it's easier than working with wood. Metal is less likely to split or warp, and you dont have to worry (much) about the grain.
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