day one and two!

I have been digging around in boxes of old CD's which back in the day before Dropbox I used to back up my work (do you know Dropbox, it's a marvellous invention). Some of the photos (the ones made with cheap lining paper) were marked 'day one and two' and these are the first experiments I ever did in making lamps all those years ago.

At first I lit them with a lamp holder that sat in a milk bottle (I talked about this in my Do What You Love interview). I had this milk bottle with a bulb in it sitting at the side of my desk and I would hold different things over the light to see what they looked like. It must have been on constantly for the first week or two and I actually slightly damaged my retina doing this. My vision in my left eye has never been the same since. I have a little blind spot (so don't try this at home!).

Anyway it's always great to look back on these things, like old sketchbooks and photographs, as it reminds you of different routes that you could have taken but didn't at the time. I love the houses and I plan to re-visit them. At the time that was way too much hand cutting to do for one lamp but now with laser cutting I have a chance! I also love the double layering idea. I bought some plastic spacers to play with this years ago but never carried it through. Something to play with for later.

I'm enjoying writing my book. I'm being quite disciplined about it as I have such a definite deadline. If I was to spend as much time as I am with the book on experimenting with my own work I think I could develop lots of new ideas....ones that fly around but I haven't quite pinned down yet. When the book is done this is what I want to do. To play.....a lot! To play like it's 'day one and two' again and like I have no idea where it is going to take me!