Tiki idea on Martha Stewart

Today on the Martha Stewart show, an artist (Heather Wells)presented a lampshade idea with cocktail umbrellas. The idea was actually very cool. Starting with a plain white paper shade, she glued umbrella tops (cut off stem) around the shade in overlapping circles around the shade. Seems like an interesting alternative for those that don't have access to true Oceanic Arts style lamps.

Although this pic is using many colored umbrellas - I actually preferred the sample they created on the show utilizing only one color on the entire shade, ie. just green umbrellas, or just orange. I think it's a cool inexpensive idea for tiki bars.
One funny note on the show - the artist stated that it was a great idea for a kids room or a Tiki Bar. Martha retorted sarcastically - "Well, who has a Tiki Bar!". The artist said - well my friends have one in their basement. Martha then said - "Well, I'll have to build a Tiki Bar!" Sounds like a great opportunity for some fast thinking Tiki-philes to get some serious national exposure! I'm gonna email her today with the whole Tiki-central story. I'd love to jump on the idea of bringing a home Tiki-batr story onto the show - If you're interested let me know asap, looking for home Tiki Bars and Tiki artists and Tiki Bar creators to join forces and create a segment on the show!

Here's the link to the artist, Heather Wells' website - to see more of her lampshade ideas.
http://www.brightlights-littlecity.com/

and a link to the Martha Stewart page with instructions to make the lamp -
http://www.marthastewart.com/page.jhtml?type=content&id=stv3170018&layout=martha

All of yerselves who think collectin' Tiki flotsam and jetsam is hard now just wait and see what happens if Martha gets her claws into the idea!

Her towells rock!!

I'll do it!

I totally agree with you woofmutt, Martha Stewart is the queen of commercialization, but..... She has definitely maintained her direction towards promoting her own products as opposed to collectors and antiques. I agree Martha Stewart and Tiki is a double edged sword. However the flip side is increased awareness to existing "tiki" across America. More knowledge may help to stifle the de-tiki-fying of our favorite haunts, keeping our favs like Sam's Seafood in Seal Beach still on the map instead of on the cutting room floor. In addition, think of all those NEW tiki lovers burning up the phone lines trying to get to Rev BambooBen, Crazy Al, Flounder, Munktiki, Tiki Farm, etc. for new bar creations, paintings and bar supplies. It's up to us Tiki lovers to channel and educate Martha Stewart and her viewers, and keep them out of Big Lots and the Party store.

RevBambooBen - you're on the list!

[ Edited by: jpmartdog 2006-10-04 09:01 ]

Although it's not much to look at she does have instructions on how to make a tiki bar on her site.

http://www.marthastewart.com/page.jhtml?type=content&id=stv2120058&contentGroup=MARTHA&layout=martha

On 2006-10-04 08:09, woofmutt wrote:
All of yerselves who think collectin' Tiki flotsam and jetsam is hard now just wait and see what happens if Martha gets her claws into the idea!

Tell me about it..
My dad used to collect folk art fish decoys...
Were like 30 - 75 a piece..

"Martha" got into them.. suddenly they were 80 - 300 a piece, and the quality ones disapeared!!!

I know Basement Kahuna would work on that project. He's away from the ol' computer right now unloading stuff to sell at Hukilau.

If Martha likes it, attitudes would change. Can't hurt. Those people would not be into vintage.

So I had some umbrellas laying around and I thought I'd try this. I originally wanted to make it all green, but it takes a lot more umbrellas than I thought so it is blue/green. Turned out good for a 15 minute project.

WOW - Nice job - I think it's pretty cool. We so often hear from people around the country that don't have access to vintage tiki, I feel this will cast a delicate glow on their tiki bars. I think it's a cool technique that captures a little essence from a blowfish and a little essence from an Oceanic Arts lamp.

Now what if you put a yellow bulb in there..... might be cool!

[ Edited by: jpmartdog 2006-10-04 17:17 ]

That's beautiful!! I'm gonna put together a couple of those this weekend!

everbody needs fish float lamps to go with their ex-con k-mart trinkets!

[confused]I'm in!?!?!?![/confused]

JP - do you know her or something?

Hey...wait a second, after 2 seconds of thinking....why whould she choose ARTISTS to do anything when she can import cheapo tikis from china? THis is MARTHA STEWART after all.

cool umbrela lamp, though. and that blue green one looks really nice. IT would fit nicely into a tiki bar.

[ Edited by: Polynesiac 2006-10-04 18:02 ]

[ Edited by: Polynesiac 2006-10-04 18:09 ]

This idea was posted last year, I definitely prefer more of an analogous colour scheme
Cool Lamps for your TIKI bar

Say what you will about Martha but the girl likes a stiff drink. She's profiled many a cocktail on her show before and was pretty damned liberal with the booze in her egg nog demo...Martha is a champion of cocktails, and I bet she'd love a good Tiki bar.

-woofmutt- (Hey! That's me!) Tiki Central May 3, 2002 *****

Lest anyone think I was knockin' Martha in my post way up above I think she's great, gettin' folks to think about quality in their lives. (And then sellin' 'em inexpensive Chinese knock offs of quality items!)

This lamp idea is swell! When done in the single or two-tone they look pretty danged vinatge. An experiment with a coat of shellac may give a lamp that genuine Tiki bar look. Then add 4 decades of smoke and dust. Which, actually, yuh could do with this Ralph Lauren agin' effect stuff they sell at Home Depot...Works great. Pricey but a little goes a long way towards makin' today look like yesterday.

***** That 5/3/2002 thread goes off topic (!) into an interestin discussion on the marketing of hard liquor.

Do the cocktail umbrella lamps and shades hold up well over time?

This would be cool if the base was hidden.

Martha Stewart style tiki party ideas. Maybe not surprising, but there aren't any tikis in her tiki party pics.

http://www.marthastewart.com/901705/tiki-party-ideas/@center/905082/party-themes-and-ideas

http://www.marthastewart.com/search/apachesolr_search/luau

http://www.marthastewart.com/search/apachesolr_search/polynesian

[ Edited by: tikilongbeach 2013-04-01 12:26 ]

Hey Tikilongbeach, What kind of glue did you use?

I didn't make those. Those are pics from Google images. I haven't made any of the lamps yet because I want to know if they'll fall apart in 2 years.