Lamps and Lights

On Sunday, I packed up some of the stuff I wanted to get rid of and headed up to Maine to see if any of the antique stores wanted to buy it or take it on consignment.  What a great idea!  I sold everything at the first store and did much better than I would have at a yard sale.

And, of course, I couldn't leave without a few things.  I've been looking for lamps so not only was I immediately attracted to the color of this pair of 1931 Pisgah Pottery jars (above), I think they could make awesome lamps.  I don't know anything about Pisgah Pottery other than it's from North Carolina but a pristine pair seemed really unusual so I couldn't resist.

I stopped by Old House Parts in Kennebunk to look at door knobs and left with this aqua door.  I'm not 100 percent sure what I'm going to do with it but I couldn't pass up that paint color.  It could be a table top or I thought it would be an interesting way to unite a few small pieces of artwork.  You might notice I've made a few changes to the guest room.  A friend is giving me a pair of chairs for the living room so I moved the living chair upstairs which is a nice, softer chair for the bedroom.

I also came home with this (perhaps) chain off some kind of conveyor belt.  I thought this could be used to make a chandelier, only a really butch version.  A mandelier!

I thought if I copied a very traditional form but used the chain as the material for a ring from which crystals hung, it could make a really interesting twist on a traditional light fixture.  

To get some ideas, I thought I would head out to the country for some inspiration to a place where local designer Katie Rosenfeld says all your lighting dreams can come true.  I packed up my car for the journey...a few bags of trail mix just in case I got lost and headed out to:

The Yankee Craftsman

357 Commonwealth Avenue

Wayland, Massachusetts 

Here, way out in the boonies, is the most charming red farmhouse with an old-fashioned workshop in the back.  Burly dudes in place at their anvils, hammering, creating and restoring the most beautiful selection of antique light fixtures I've ever seen in one place. 

If ever there was place that could make a mandelier, it's this place.

Out back in the barn, ponies whinney, and two large floors are packed with chandeliers, pendants, sconces, lamps, glass shades and hardware.  

It's hard to get the scale but these two fixture above were probably six feet tall.

This little gothic pendant caught my attention.  I've always been attracted to church lights, crosses, religious statues for some reason.  (Nun in another life?)  But I also have a similar fixture I bought a few years ago in Maine and just never knew where to put it.  This fixture was $1799!

I couldn't wait to get home and dig mine out.  I like mine better.

Glad it didn't make it to the donate bin!

Upstairs in the barn is...just...amazing.

Your presence is detected and...

...hello!  Everything lights up at once.

So beautiful.

These fixtures are handmade at Yankee Craftsman.  I think these would be perfect

flanking the doors on my back porch when those get rebuilt.  And the prices are reasonable.

I really loved this collection of bowl pendants.  I'd love to have a huge dining room that could accommodate maybe five of them hung at different heights.  I'm sure they're quite heavy but they just give off this buoyant feeling.  Like hot air ballons floating in space.

I have some ideas for my mandelier but I need to do some drawings and look for some more parts.  But I'll definitely be back here to have them execute my vision.