December 21, 2010

Master Bedroom Blanc de Chine Lamps Part 2

I finally finished my master bedroom Blanc de Chine lamps! They look so gorgeous! Here are the steps I used so that you can recreate your own…

I had the lamp bases made by Ace Acrylics, an acrylic company in Dallas. Make sure to ask for a teardrop figurine base. I made mine 1" thick and about 1" larger in diameter than the figurines.

I ordered all the lamp parts from Antique Lamp Supply. You will need:
The first step is to refinish the brass figurine pipe and 2 of the knurled brass locknuts. I tried to spray paint mine with a chrome finish paint and it kept on dripping no matter how light I applied the paint! In the end, I decided to silver leaf the pipe & nuts instead…they turned out looking a lot better!

Now you are ready to assemble the lamp…this is the order of the parts going from the bottom up!
Below the hole in the base…
20711 – Knurled Brass Locknut
22702 – Steel Lock Washer
22720 – Steel Washer
Above the hole in base…
22702 – Steel Lock Washer
20711 – Knurled Brass Locknut –Refinished
At the top of the lamp…
20711 – Knurled Brass Locknut
22702 – Steel Lock Washer
Harp Base
40207 - Lamp Socket

Once everything is assembled on the base, you will need to thread the clear lamp cord up through the bottom of the base and out the socket. Tie a loose knot about 2 inches below the top of the wires. This is to keep the wires from easily being pulled through once the lamp is assembled. Connect the two wires onto the two screws of the socket set being sure that they are secure (it doesn’t matter which wire goes to what screw).

Next, push up the knot of the lamp cord to just below the lamp socket and gently pull the extra cord through the bottom of the lamp.

The next step to assemble the lamp is to put the socket cover over the lamp socket snapping it into place (the slit should be facing down and to the front for the switch). Finally, you can glue your figurine to the base using appropriate glue for both materials.
The last steps are to install the harp into the harp base and add your choice of lamp shade and finial!

If you get lost…you can go to http://www.antiquelampsupply.com/howto.php and click on the How-To -Book of Repairing, Rewiring, and Restoring and look at page 27-31.
Enjoy!

2 comments:

  1. Love this! Makes me want to go and find something to make lamps. You make it sound so easy.

    ReplyDelete