A wobbly lamp

As a christmas present to myself, I bought myself a couple of pottery kits. One of them was to make a lamp with one of those trendy filament bulbs.

Making the lamp

I had lots of ideas in my head about what I wanted the lamp to look like and I even got all professional and made some sketches. It came out completely differently though. Not that I was particularly unhappy with the shape but just amused that yet again I couldn’t really predict how it was going to come out…I’m going to stop planning.

Funnily enough, I didn’t take any pictures of making the lamp. As I wanted it to be quite large, I made two pinch pots and joined them together. I then squeezed the sides in in various ways to create indentations. Same thing I did with my very first wobbly pot.

Experimenting with the paint finish

Up till now I’d always done very simple paint finishes, done with brushes, mainly stripes (wobbly ones obviously). I thought I’d try something a bit different for this project and so I experimented with a spatter technique and different colours.

I tried different combinations of colours, different consistencies of paint (I was using acrylic) and different brushes to make the spatters. I found an old stiff bristle brush worked best. I eventually went for shades of purple and green…which match the colour scheme in my house.

Applying the paint finish

I did make the paint a little too wet initially which meant that it ran in places. Not what I was intending. I used it a bit thicker after that but it meant there are some unintended splodges.

The finished article

I’m pretty happy with the finished article at the end of the day. Slightly more splodgy and unsophisticated than I was planning but I happily turn it on every evening and enjoy it!