I grabbed this lamp at a thrift store because I knew they were worth a little bit of money and I could potentially resell it after fixing the wiring. This 90’s/banker’s lamp/art deco design is fun! But, I also wondered if changing the color of the black lamp parts to something more colorful might bring some life into it.

I spent some time looking at spray paint color options and was hovering around pale pink or blue because I love 80s colors. Ultimately I chose Rustoleum Gloss Harbor Blue because it had slightly more color saturation than a pale baby blue.

After realizing how hot the halogen bulb got in such a short time I decided to swap it out for an LED version. Not knowing much about halogen lightbulb sizes it took me some time to find the right replacement but anytime I can find an LED replacement I will swap old lightbulbs out for energy savings and safety.

The wiring on this guy wasn’t too complicated, just a dimmer switch in line with the power cord. When I am not sure if I will remember the wiring setup, I just take photos as I take a lamp apart and then go backwards through the photos to put it all back together.

I had to splice and solder in in some additional length of wire coming from the halogen bulb fixture and then also do the same for the power cord to the bulb and dimmer. The original wiring used permanent clamps that I had to cut off to get the lamp apart for cleaning and rewiring. Luckily I really enjoy the splicing / soldering / heat shrink tubing application process.

In the end after cleaning and repainting the black parts, putting the lamp back together, and turning it on in the darkness I noticed the color of the glass even more (a light green) and the blue and green colors really worked together. Overall the style of this ended up looking very art deco /cyberpunk / 80s so I’m super happy!

A few weeks ago I went to an estate sale run by the family of the deceased in a 55+ park. There wasn’t much left in the house, but there was a box of antique needlework and crotchet magazines dating all the way back to the 1910s and 1920s. I was going to buy the whole box but because of my interest in the magazine contents the family decided to give them to me for free. Most of these types of magazines do sell on eBay but for me they are not necessarily worth the time and postage to individually go through them. Many people use them for the ads and fashion references. I thought that scanning and posting these online would keep the information in these magazines alive a little longer (they are disintegrating as we speak!) and let people access these old patterns for free. My personal favorite in this issue is the lion table runner. I also admire any craft that gets us making our own items and buying less stuff.

Tape packaging insert from a 3M brand in the 1960’s. Cellophane itself is a cellulose (plant material) film and is not necessarily seen in modern office tape.

This is a Rocket Brand coated cardboard cellophane tape label from the company 3M back when they included Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company in their logo. According to O’Reilly, this logo use began in 1961: “With the new logo design comes a standards manual that contains four approved variations of the logo. This one is based on the geometric paintings of the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian.”