Upcycling is one of my core values and beliefs, so when I tore apart some soon-to-be trash and wound up with dozens of one-foot aluminum tubes, I immediately had a vision for a line of custom lighting fixtures. These pendant lights are the first in the series.
They are informed in part by our love of all things nautical – their design echoes a lighthouse in part. They also have Eastern influences as well, in the use of natural wood and their lantern-like form.
They also have a modern mathematical theme: one has a square platform, and one has a hexagonal platform. This is a theme that will continue throughout the series. Future pendants will sport equilateral triangles, circles, and other shapes. I have a vision for a large front porch lamp that is a cascade of pentagons – stay tuned!
Construction
The tubing was somewhat ratty and cheap-looking when I started, so I turned it into brushed aluminum by simply polishing it at the drill press with a wire wheel. Protip: Wear leather or other heavy-duty gloves when doing so. When your finger strays into the line of fire of the wire bristles – and it will – you will be glad for the protection.
Once all the tubes for a given lamp were cut and brushed, I coated them with a single coat of Everbrite. It’s surprisingly viscous, especially once it hits the workpiece, so applying it is a tricky balance of getting a very fine film on the tube in a single firm pass, and then propping it up to dry. I did them one by one and used my finishing spit to keep any excess from drooling.
I tried several iterations of the diffuser shade, but in the end, I settled on ordinary tracing paper. I used 1/16” dowels to support it in the corners: I applied a very thin bead of glue to one side of each dowel, then carefully positioned it on the paper in the correct position so that the glue would not visibly spread on the paper. Several years have passed, and this approach has held up surprisingly well.
It might surprise you to learn that there are no fasteners in this design at all. The wooden layers are milled on a CNC from scraps of cherry, and the aluminum tubes are a simple friction fit. One dowel can slide thru all three wooden pieces with ease, but as you move from one to twelve dowels, the cumulative tolerances result in a very tight fit. The diffuser shade is similarly just a friction fit.
The cherry portions are finished with a single coat of Walrus Oil. I really love the stuff – it’s perfect for surfaces like cutting boards and cheese boards that will come in contact with food, but honestly it’s just a great all-around finish for many projects.
I picked up the electrical lamp bases on Amazon. In these particular pendants, the lamp (you probably call it a ‘light bulb’) is a warm white 4W LED lamp in an Edison-style base. I combined a rod with a suction cup to simplify the task of inserting the lamps; they began operation in March of 2021, and so far, they have not needed replacing.