Bloody Mary

Now, this is some striking table lamp! It casts dramatic coloured shadows when it's on, and its shinny red surface attracts the attention when it's off... I named it Bloody Mary because the base is mainly made out of a vintage red cocktail shaker, which was the part that gave me the idea to create the whole thing: a lamp that would have a classical shape, but made out of unusual materials.

It was not easy to find all the parts, being the design a complex one. But after much digging in the kitchenware department of my favourite thrift shops I found the metallic ice cream bowl that would serve as the base for the cocktail shaker, and the vegetable strainer and adjustable cake mold that would form the lamp shade. Then, a friend saved the project by providing me with glass nuts that she got in New York... they are nowhere to be found in Barcelona anymore!

Other bits are a recycled lamp socket and two metallic 'arms' that I salvaged from an old ceiling light (to hold the lamp shade), a metallic knob I recycled from a vintage lid and the cover of a sink plug (to make the finial), nuts and bolts, a stone to add weight to the base, new jewelry wires & red glass drops, and an all-transparent electric cord with switch and plug (new as well, of course), similar to the one I used for the Espressa lamp.

You can see some of the long building process in the pictures: gluing the glass nuts to the  mesh of the strainer to make the shiny lamp shade, sanding the metal to smooth the brim of the holes, assembling the glass drops and twisting the wires to make the loops that would fasten them to the brim of the lamp shade...

All and all, Bloody Mary is 47cm high, and the diameter of its shade measures 27cm. Oh, and I also made sure it will be easy to replace the bulb: in order to remove the lampshade, just loosen the nuts of the two bolts that hold it to the mast.