Design Indaba demo of the Bracket Lamp

lamp for Thingking

Wood base with switch and star shade

Wood

Switch detail

Studio Desk Lamp with Trace Paper Shade

Moving bracket

Perspex and small blue notebook

Tracing paper & book entitled: group practice in design

Brown shopping bag

Table Lamp + Inspiration = Soundtrack

Marc and Lyall have asked me to repost here about my inappropriate use of their wonderful table lamp. Yes, I confess, it became a soundtrack.
(you can also read my post here)

Recently two of my troublingly diverse interests conspired to create a soundtrack for the production Door which will play at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival this year.

This is how it came about....

Earlier this year, I was wandering around Cape Town's Cape Design Indaba, after running a workshop. I found myself drawn to a project display which attracted me due to its 'work in progress' nature. I love prototypes, they smell of pure idea and this one positively reeked :)

Run by two young industrial design graduates who call themselves ThingKing, their stand offered a kit table lamp fabricated as simply as possible - a metal flat bar, elegantly bent and cut. A bulb socket, light bulb and piece of A4 paper completed the construction. On sale for a donation (to a worthy charity) and on display as a stimulus to conversation about efficient design, I couldn't resist (especially the conversation) and I took one home to assemble for use on my work bench.

Here it is:

And as a lamp it's been very useful. But little did I know that this useful object would become the catalyst for a sound track.

Bracket clamped onto off-cut wood to make a desk lamp

Bracket with added A4 page

Bracket attached to a plank

The Bracket is made from punched 2mm mild steel sheet. The hole was threaded and a large bolt inserted to enable fastening. The Bracket comes without the bulb and fitting pictured. There are 3 different finishes: raw finish, zinc plated with clear passivation and zinc plated with yellow passivation.