Post #595980 by Polynesiac on Sat, Jul 2, 2011 8:52 PM

Scored some cool vintage lighting in Pasadena a few weeks ago:

These floats are not true fish floats, but round glass with netting. The one on the right is about 12" diameter, thin glass and resembles lights I've seen sold from Trader Vics and hanging in other vintage tiki bars. The two on the left are the really interesting ones:

These two are obviously DIY float lamps, made back in the '60's. They are very well painted, round, glass light covers (similar to ones you can buy at Home Depot) that the maker wrapped in wire netting. I'm not sure why they're wrapped in wire netting, but it adds an interesting look to them. All 3 of these lights came from a vintage home tiki bar/room that the owner made himself back in the 1960's. I was told that there was a sliding glass door that he rigged up to thunderstorm with strobes and water every time a button was pressed. With the exception of a few things, the guy made everything himself! Including this way cool cork fish float wall light:

He did a real good job of cutting the cork and fitting in the colored replica floats. If you turn it over, you can see how he rigged up the lighting:

He had it hard wired to a wall switch, so I had to cut the cord to get the cork/fish float piece out. The first image above was taken with back lighting to give an idea of what it would look like with the lights on.

The last pieces that I found were a crapload of cork floats. Nothing super fancy there, except that many of the corks still had the price tag on them! Check it out:

They came from a store called "Pally's". Any So-Cal'ers ever hear of a store called Pally's?

Gonna rig up some new lighting and hang these little gems next to the other float lamps!

Polynesiac - putting the "F" back in "ART"

[ Edited by: Polynesiac 2011-07-02 20:58 ]