Made out of discarded fuse boxes. Feel free to discard things our way! We like saving things from hitting the landfills.
See more here.
We set out to complete the pendant light for Miracle Thieves. But we probably set ourselves back a week. Not in the bad way – but in the way that made us happy to be the makers of our own designs. The wonderful thing about being both designer and maker is that during the making process, you stumble upon various discoveries about how, why and what things work.
We bought a new drill bit so that we could enlarge the holes to accomodate the copper tubes whose original purpose was to merely isolate the electrical from the wood.
We turned our dining room into a make space and started hammering in the copper.
After having hammered in all the copper tubes, we loved the way it caught the light and decided that the next thing we design should incorporate a copper tube feature. Room dividers, screens, head boards, and and and!
We wired up half of the bulbs to make sure the wiring worked. It did and it was looking good.
Then we looked at the back and realized it looked even better. It was an “Uh-oh-there-goes-days-of-work” / “AMAZING-chance-happening-this-is-even-cooler” revelation.
We took a few sockets out and shone light behind the copper tubes.
Apparently we couldn’t wait for our “next thing” to implement a copper tube feature so now we’re back to the drawing board.
Worth it.
On our bike route home we found huge chunks of beautiful wood in someone’s front lawn. We later discovered they were black walnut.
They were so pretty we found it hard to believe that anyone would merely discard them. I knocked on the front door in hopes to ask the homeowner whether or not the wood was up for grabs. No answer. Determined to find out, I left them a note in their mailbox.
The following day, I got a call from Aaron of Toronto Tree Removal (i.e. the homeowner). He had recently cut down the black walnut and was going to sell it to a mill until his client went chainsaw-happy on it. Now “worthless”, he said we could have whatever we could grab!
He forewarned us that this was a “godfather”-like exchange and would call on a return favour in the future.
Thanks Aaron! We’re looking forward to more godfather-like exchanges, especially if it means material for making.
Inspired by retro labels on fuse boxes, we decided to make our own.
We were asked by the lovelies of Miracle Thieves to make a pendant light for their space. Stumped on which one of our many light ideas to create, we searched for inspiration and found it in the dumpster.
Original surface.
On our bikes we stumbled upon an under-reno-house with a bin filled with old wooden floor joists. After a moment of hesitation and a debate about termites, we returned with our car, strapped as many beams onto our roof rack as possible and headed straight to our makeshift workshop in my mom’s garage.
Craig was happy to have an excuse to buy a new toy. Can’t get into the business of reclaimed wood without a proper planar, right?
Check out our process shots.
Finished product soon to come.
I wish we had the money to do this right. Future.
Thick natural brown card stock. EVERYTHING debossed. Gold ink in some of the indented words and logo. Users: a) circle what text is upper-level, b) strike out lower-level text, or c) reveal upper-level text by rubbing over debossed lines with graphite (secret note style).
Here is our first light! Made from the lighting supplies we acquired in NYC.
It’s simple but sleek, emitting a warm tungsten glow as it hangs over our harvest table.
Gold braided wiring
Brass hardware
We like lights. We’ll be making more.
