Monday, August 24, 2009

Blue Lanterns




I collect blue glass. I have for many, many years. I collect both the turquoise type sometimes known as "electric blue" and this deep blue, which is "cobalt blue." I also love hanging lanterns and have some of them, done in brass. These are some of my treasures which combine the two: cobalt blue and metalwork. The two hanging lanterns in this drawing are in my studio. They are made in India. The other thing is a perfume bottle whose provenance I don't know, but it's a really cool design. This is an ink drawing with the blue added in Photoshop. The metalwork on the globe lantern at right is brass-colored but I decided to only do a 2-color rendering here. If the round lantern looks familiar, it is because you may have seen it in the "Design Toscano" catalog, a temptation for people like me who collect unusual stuff. I am still thinking of how to put a light in it that is not a real flame candle, which would be difficult to manage. Something with a futuristic LED perhaps.

5 comments:

Tristan Alexander said...

I love laterns and things like this too. You could put one of the "fake" candles that have battery operates fliker lights in the one lantern!
I have tons of things from Tuscano but never saw that cool lantern before.

Anonymous said...

Tristan got to it before me -- there are battery operated 'tea light' sized candles available at your nearby Hobby Lobby or Michael's craft stores. I'm thinking of buying one for an LED Presence Light.

Pyracantha said...

Tristan and Regina:
I found those lights in a catalog and sent away for them. When I lit them up I found to my dismay that the flickering occurred in a simple repeating pattern, rather than randomly like a real flame. There are others with a more random pattern and I will find them when I can.

Mary said...

My husband worked for Design Toscano when he was young, manning the phones -- he has very warm feelings for the owners, who always treated him well. A friend who worked there with him bought us a larger than life bust of Einstein from the catalog (made, like most of their inventory, from "high quality designer resin"). We nearly gave Einstein away when we moved (we were going to donate him to the student lounge of the physics department where we went to grad school) but sentiment made us bring him along, and pretty much every time I see him, he makes me smile. Anyway, I have pretty warm feelings toward Design Toscano and their delightfully absurd catalog too...

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for posting this! I bought the Design Toscana lamp five years ago and LOVE it. But my cleaning lady broke it yesterday, along with my heart! I have been googling for hours trying to figure out WHERE I had gotten it and found your site, which lead me to the lamp again! I am so happy!
FYI-I have always used a real candle in mine-not a tea light, but larger-it has always worked really well. Again, thank you!!!!