show us your Puffer fish lamps... Tributes to the little ones!

Well I was snapping shots of my room and figured there should be a thread for the Puffer fish!
Those that gave their lives to end up hanging from some dark ceilings all over the world!
here's my pair ....

like snowflakes their is no two the same right?

Here's my phone-photo of mine!

She's orange and referred to as 'Puff Fishy"

I have 2 others, smaller and not made into lights.

:drink:
Tacky

Thats great ... I guess I should give mine names huh?
lets see ahh....
I know BLUE BALL and INFLAMED! lol

What are you guys feeding them?... they look a little bloated.

hmmmm maybe if I painted a bulb that color ......kinda cute but where's the cord?

But it's a TROPICAL fish, innit? If those are all Exotica girls in that other thread, this is a puffer fish!

Okay okay, I'll stop being mean --for a little bit! I appreciate your enthusiasm, T-Ville, so here is my blower:

He has a special feature: His eyes. They are very realistic, hand blown glass eyes I picked up out of the estate of a taxidermist in Germany, I have no idea which animal they were intended for:

Here is one in the process of becoming a lamp

Sorry, not the best shot of the Trio..... Upper Left corner.

Here is a Flickr set I built to make your own....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chipandandy/sets/72157606819830641/

My two Puffers!

I think they need colored bulbs. They're a little bright even for a 4watt!

THOSE EYES ARE INSANE!!
lol
Love it !
Ya see the thread is groovy for 2 reasons ....EYEdeas and also the setting they are hangin in ,er' is that 3 ideas?
We get to see where they spend their time too!

I'm puffer fish-less! Gotta get me some...

Here's mine. Homemade last year. Went the craft store and got stuffed animal eyes for him.

I am looking for the bigger puffer fish to make several lamps -18"-20" or so.

This is for Sven...

...just poking you! :)

more soon...

Only one so far, they're hard to find up here. Someday I'd like a little school of them hanging from the ceiling.

I love my Oceanic Arts pufferfish.

I just sent 8 large puffer fish lamps to Survivor Samoa. Can't wait to see them on TV!

Here is a pick on a very vintage puffer in my old bar

Trying to get back to selling more.

I got the red one at Oceanic Arts and the rest were found in a box at a yard sale that were converted. But a word of warning, if you're going to make a pufferfish lamp wear thick gloves, after I completed the first one it was like I went a few rounds with a hedgehog.

[ Edited by: naugatiki 2009-06-21 08:26 ]

I just finished making this puffer lamp. I used taxidermy glass eyes like Sven did on his. Here's a pic with flash and without flash. Thanks for everyone's advice on TC and at the Rumpus Room. I am NOT an electrician and would have never finished this little project without the tips!

Here's my big puffer lamp that's about 21" long.

Here's my puffer in a mock fish float lamp that I made

And here is my order of 28 puffers that was delivered to my warehouse this week. I was mocking up an order online to see how much it would take to fulfill a minimum requirement, and they decided to fill the order without a confirmation! Long story short, I've got a few extra small/medium puffers if anyone needs any. I'll be making lamps out of the big guys, and a few of the medium ones.


The big guy is 23", the 3 behind him are 19", the second row is 9-10" and the third row is 4-6".

This thread is inspiring me to work on my pufferfish lamps. Having drilled the holes today I've noticed a lot of fibers on the inside, perhaps cellulose. Does anyone know of an efficient way to get them out. I'm conderned about them being a fire hazard. Anyone try rinsing one of these with water? I failed to find a thread with step by step instructions. Perhaps I'll google that.

Darilyn

I wouldn't rinse the fish out with water as you may end up with a reconstituted dry fish and that could be real bad. The link below is a good thread to start with and has a bunch of good tips. Good luck and have fun.
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic=7028&forum=18&start=0

The easiest way that I've found to get the cotton out of the puffers is to stick a drill w/small bit into the hole that you opened for the light socket, and swirl the drill around at a low speed. The cotton wraps around the bit, kind of like cotton candy, and you can pull large chunks out at a time. If the hole is bigger, or you don't have a drill, you can use the "fork twirling spaghetti" method. Definitely a no-go on the rinsing idea, though. The fish would probably break down and there would be a sticky, bio-mess all over (from what I would imagine.)

Thanks for the tips and the link I couldn't find because pufferfish was spelled as two word.

My girlfriend and I spent a few hours tonight with various homemade implements defuzzing my puffers (now that sounds funny).

I'll try the drill bit next time.

Darilyn

Use a wire brush on the inside to get cotton out.
You can get them at a hardware store, they look like a toothbrush
only they are made with wire bristols, get the brass bristol brush.
You can use this to scrape the inside of the fish.

Here is one I purchased from Bongofury.

I have a few more. I just need better lighting before I post them.

:) I love the Pufferfish lamps, I have three medium and 2 large.

But taking good photos at night is hard for me. They always come out blurry! :(

Working on covering up all the cords with the fish netting etc, soon.