A new lamp base

What an interesting day!  One of my clients brought an interesting glass "pot" for us to turn into a lamp base. Well well - we all wondered what was the use.  It has an inscription of "British Syphon"  and a patent number .

I went on the internet and found this interesting information regarding this glass pot:

 This is a Seltzogene soda siphon. These siphons are much sought after as ornaments. The lower glass globe contained the water (or another liquid) to be carbonated whereas the upper globe contained a mixture of tartaric acid and bicarbonate of soda.

This example is in very good condition and is marked British Syphon Company London - Patent 15686. It stands 50 cms in height and is very heavy for its size, weighing in at approximately 6 kilos.  Period:  20th Century

I also found more info on the following facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/CM-Creative-Corner/432376820168203?ref=stream&hc_location=timeline

It looks as if this soda siphon could date from the 1870's.  Unfortunately, due to age, the mesh wire is missing (the wire marks are still visible on the pot).  It is made of very thick glass (so that it dont break in the gas making process) and I think the wire mess was there for protection, in case the glass should break.

For now, it will get a second life as a lamp base and will still make its owners proud - for not many people has a lamp base which date from the 1870's  -  140 years later......

Coming together

Do you remember the old lampshade which came in for a facelift? Well, well it is soon becoming a new lampshade again. We are nearly there....

Antique lampshade

A lamp base came in for repair as it was damaged when the owner moved home.  She brought the lampshade with the base.  I could not resist taking a few pictures of the lampshade, as we dont see this style lampshade, any more.  Even more so... -  this one is kept in an excellent condition.

 

 

Beautiful, thick folds at the bottom

And the inside is as pretty as the outside

 

It reminds me of this lampshade, which we repaired and  then

changed the fitting so that it can be hanged.

A golden oldie

We are going to recover this.... it's ancient, and I have no idea how long it will take, but it's a challenge....

Antique lampshade restoration

I wonder how many people still remember these shades.  They have candle clip fittings and  are even lined!

We have recovered them, in rich red velvet and gold braid - good enough for a palace....

Brand new  -  dont get rid of yours.....

Very Large Oval

What I love about Lampshade making and restoration is - every day is different.  Yesterday, we completed a very large oval which was covered in ribbon.

We removed the ribbon - which took 5 hrs, as the client wanted to use it again - metres and metres and metres!. We lined the sides with netting and clear PVC on the outside.  Thereafter I covered the outside with a stunning light woven fabric.

Thereafter, the bottom was covered with Clear PVC and a double layer of netting, to dim the light shining through.

To finish it all off, we added a self fold at the top and the bottom.

And that's it!   It was one big job, but such a rewarding one!

Not throw it away!

How many times did you walked past the old lampshade and thought of replacing it?  Well, just look at the pics of a restoration we did, and please re-consider dumping your old shades.

Clip-on Shades

Do you have some of these shades in your home?  We can change the clip-on fitting to the candle-clip fitting and recover it.  This will then fit on chandelier lamps which are so popular at present. Herewith pictures of a recent change & recovery.