here's life

You’ve been in a gym. They have those bright, white, lights in the ceiling, right? Well, I picked up a couple at the SStore a month or two ago. I’ve gotten these before and made end tables out of them. The ones I got recently were special because they are made of glass—-the bell of the lamp is a huge piece of ribbed glass. Yesterday I was talking to my brother about making stuff, (he was working with wood) and I decided I should do something cool, since it was Saturday.

So, I took one lamp apart and started working on turning it into a table—I don’t know what else to make, even though the world, and definately my house, have enough tables. I went to a thrift store and picked up a glass plate, and was trying to use it to connect the bell to the feet. I didn’t have a diamond tipped drill or even an abrasive bit, so I was using a regular bit. It really didn’t cut very fast, even with the bits of glass powder as aggregate. That is, until, you get the friction to start heating the glass red hot. Then it goes through like through hot, umm, glass. But, we all know that uneven heat and glass don’t mix very well. I got two holes drilled, but the third one caused big cracks to form in the plate. Maybe I pushed too hard, or not hard enough. Or both.

Instead of glass, I cut the bottom two inches off a thin stainless pot I had found, and bent the edge over so it wasn’t sharp. I backed this up with some wood, and fastened it all together with drywall screws and tapered disks of wood.

I have not yet caulked the glass top down, I might want to put some lights in there first—-I drilled a hole through the base so I can run some wires if necessary.

What do you think? Should I light it or just let it refract and reflect ambiant lighting? I also need some ideas of what to put inside it–I need something to cover up the ugly wood disk that holds down the glass.