More home made lighting

Nice lights Kahaka. You should step up production and double your prices. They look very professional and are individually artistic at the same time. Send me the link. [email protected]

Kahaka those lamps rock, can you send me an invite to view your yahoo album. Also pm, I would like to talk to you about getting to put in the raffle for the Tiki Pa'ina.

"May the Tiki Gods bless you and always keep your life Tikifull!"

[ Edited by: Tiki-Toa on 2004-06-23 08:21 ]

Nice lights Kahaka. You should step up production and double your prices. They look very professional and are individually artistic at the same time. Send me the link.
.

Thanks for the compliments, Benzart and Tiki-Toa! I'd pump out more of these guys if I wasn't teaching summer school... I think I'll have to take next summer off completely! I sent you link via yahoo's email "invite."

Tiki-Toa... I sent you the email too. PM or email about what you had in mind for the raffle deal.

Getting a little off the topic, does anyone know anything about that print of the blue faced exotic woman sandwiched between those tapa drums? As of late I've been running in to references or similar pics (This is the third this week) of her and it's slowly working up to a fixation, any useful info would be welcome.

And back on the topic Kahaka quit your day job, I'm sure there a lot of bars across the country screaming for such lights.

naugatiki, if you use the search tool on Tiki Central you should be able to find tons of info on her from past posts, this piece has been talked about lots. Good luck :)
http://www.tretchikoff.co.uk/

[ Edited by: DawnTiki on 2004-06-24 19:34 ]

Just thought I share a picture of a lamp I took in Tahiti.

Tahitiki

On 2004-06-22 20:29, KAHAKA wrote:

Kahaka, are these lamps swag lamps or table/accent lamps? What're you using to make the cloth hold that curved shape? They've got a nice shape & I like the way you matched the pattern at the seams.

Rev. Dr. Frederick J. Freelance, Ph.D., D.F.S

[ Edited by: freddiefreelance on 2004-06-25 09:57 ]

I can vouch for the professionalism, style and quality of Kahaka's lamps - I've got a pair of 'em hanging in the Castaway Lounge.

I'm runnin' out of ceiling room, but I could probably use a few more - send me that link!

(Teaching summer school instead of creatin' beeeeyootiful lamps - what were you thinkin' K?)

Kahaka, are these lamps swag lamps or table/accent lamps? What're you using to make the cloth hold that curved shape? They've got a nice shape & I like the way you matched the pattern at the seams.

These are actually swag lamps. Pretty much all the lamps I do are swag. I used strips of lexan(sp?) plastic bows to curve the wooden frame. The lexan is clear so the light shines through it. Thanks for the kind words!

Lexan makes sense, in fact that was the first thing that came to mind when I saw those curves. Nice work.

Link sent, Dr. Z!

16 more days of summer school... the countdown started the day I started!

Found these bamboo vases at a yard sale and decided to turn them into lamps because I am not good with the gardening. This is a shot of my bedroom... just finished putting up the wall last week.

[ Edited by: KAHAKA on 2004-07-26 20:24 ]

I'd forgotten about this thread...Kahaka - great use of thick bamboo. Bamboo has so many uses...

Here are some fishing float lamps I made:

"I just made"?!? C'mon and spill- those are some swinging globes you got there!
We need close up photos, blueprints, step by step instructions, etc.. From your photo it looks like either you've figured out how to frost glass AND perforate those globes for lamp installation or you've got a great source for frosted, pre cut floats. These are the most traditional looking float lights I've ever seen on Tiki Central, especially if they're "homemade"!

Kahaka, I'd like to take a look.

Yeah, Polynesiac, how did you frost the floaties? Doesn't look like you used paint.

He put them in the freezer for an hour.

Polynesiac, is that jute(hemp) you used to tie that big boy?

My first attempt was with that stuff, but it's nasty. Splinters all over the place. Oh and it really doesn't hold a knot well at all, you've got me very courious!

[ Edited by: Tikiwahine on 2004-07-30 11:50 ]

I can't give away too many secrets... but the floats are all repro floats. I buy them pre-tied with that nautical rope (sorry I don't know the exact name of the rope, but I do get splinters occasionally) and can supply you with them too (with or without lights) - send me a PM if interested. Yes, I add the holes and all the light fixens...

"Hey, at least I'm housebroken."

[ Edited by: Polynesiac on 2004-07-31 13:37 ]

[ Edited by: Polynesiac on 2004-07-31 13:40 ]

Aloha, Alnshely! Great work...I've got a ton of old barkcloth lying around...my question is about the mod-podge...I know it's some sort of matte? yeah? Why do you coat both sides with it? does it preserve as well as adhere? Thanks, Grey

Chef,
ModPodge acts as a finish, like varnish, it comes in both Glossy and Matte varieties. It also shrinks the Tapa a little so it dries real tight, so getting both sides real well is important. It is a glue, a finish and a dope.
Mahalo,
Al

This lamp (on the left) was made by Oceanic Arts for the Mai Kai. The Mai Kai never collected it, so it was eventually aquired by Martiki. I added the tapa and the rain cape as per Martins detailed drawing. This is a cool big bowling pin lamp.
Mahalo,
Al

[ Edited by: Alnshely on 2004-08-13 11:18 ]

Excellent job Al.
You can almost see the Mai Kai in spirit.

good job Al as usuall.

i wanted one (or two) of those tiki lava lamps, but i already had two ordinary ones. so, i tikified them by mod podge-ing tapa scraps onto the bases and caps. i made good use of a vintage lampshade by Fleckstone-ing a Marshall's suffering bastardoid bottle.

Very cool, dogbytes!
those Marshalls bottles are just screaming out to be made into lamps...nice one!

Wow, Al... that looks super sweet. A+ cool.

Wow, Polynesiac... your lamps are looking sweet as well.

Aloha everyone!

Though the existing photos for this thread are no longer available, I just wanted to thank everyone for having participated in this discussion and sharing your work.

Going by the photos and everyone else's input, I got up the guts to create my own.

I'm in Denver, so my access to Tapa (especially within my price range) was very limited for this project. Therefore, the closest "tribal" cloth pattern I could find at the time, was African. Having learned a great deal from this project, I plan to make another using tapa and the woven cording.

Anyway, here's a picture of my work.

So you are aware, this light is portable, meaning that it's not set up with an electric light fixture. I chose to do this because I'm not confident in my wiring skills and keeping the lighting battery powered means that I can set up the lamp almost anywhere. The light derives from a dissected set of those color changing tiki head party lights. The battery pack lasts about three hours, but there is also an electric plug in, if needed.

If memory serves, the lamp is 5 feet long. 20 inches in the center and 16 on the ends.

Nice job Eleio.
Glad to see that the efforts from others is still rubbing off here.

Wired or not, you have created an Excellent light and Portable is Great!

Thank you both for the kind words.

Mahalo

Bumpity! Boy, it sure would be great if people could fix their broken links of pics from their Shutterfly accounts! I'm sure there are so many great pics on this thread, and they're all gone! Being that I have made a lamp too, at Monkeyman's lamp class, I'd love to see everyone else's work. Any takers on reposting their pics? It would be a simple matter of uploading those photos from Shutterfly to Tiki Central's server, and then they will never disappear! Anyone?

Giant bump because I didn't know where else to put this without creating a new thread, but here is my lighting experiment. Not a light fixture but something anyone could do with lighting, on the cheap, with what I think are great results. See experiment photo below.

Lately I've been partial to cobalt blue glass, so I have start to accumulate them at little or no cost, from neighbors 5 cent garage sales to park trash bins. After cleaning the bottles up and putting them in front of my window, I noticed the sun light through them was gorgeous. So thought of duplicating that at night. After a couple of trials, with under-the-counter LED and mini fluorescents, I came up with two linked mini fluorescents, low behind the bottles. Changing the warm bulbs with cool bluer ones. A battery powered LED tube bar in behind the small jars of the top small shelf. Of course green, red or amber glass bottles will have similar effects. An indirect bonus effect from this same experiment was that my wood tiki and warm painted wall which are behind the blue glass bottles, retains the warmer light source while anything in front of the blue bottles reflex's the cool blue light of the bottles. The mixed temperature lighting turns out to be pretty cool. One can do their own thing with placement of their own glass bottles, lights and objects to be lit, for all kinds of results. Have fun with it.

[ Edited by: creativenative 2014-07-23 01:51 ]