Post #806949 by coldwarspacemonkey on Tue, Dec 20, 2022 11:33 AM

It all started with the “thing”. I found it at the local Habitat for Humanity Re-Store for a couple of bucks. The form vaguely reminded me of some old MCM lamps I saw back in the day. 8” tall, 6” outer diameter made of some sort of composite material. I’m thinking it’s a core for some sort of pump or filter, but it looked like a good start for a light.

It sat in the garage for a few years. In the meantime I had drooled over the beautiful lights in home bars here on TC, and reviewed some how-to’s (thanks Tikiskip and Prikli Pear!). This fall, after the temps in the garage subsided, I finally decided to take the plunge. So with proper sacrifices to the gods of tiki lights and rum I girded my loins and got started.

First up was to open up the “windows” on the thing. Awkward angles and weird material so it came out a bit rough.

Frankensteined some hardware.

Wrapped it with some cool Tiki Tony fabric from Spoonflower.

Added some cheap bamboo from AC Moore’s going out of business sale.

Some seagrass braid to cover the screw heads.

A coat of amber shellac to even things out and here it is in situ.

Lots of learning opportunities (in other words “mistakes”) for me in this adventure. I’m generally happy with it, with the exception of the chain I used to suspend it. That will have to do for the time being until I can figure out a better answer.