i finished my light last night! the whole process started with the discovery that light made a canvas (moon) work on a different level. i wanted to experiment with light a bit more. nothing serious, so it had to be cheap. my first instinct was to check the ikea site to see what light options were available that i could play with, and i found the perfect “canvas”: the grono. i was so excited about my discovery, i was sure i’d have a great submission for ikea hacker. sadly, i’m slow to the game: lots of people have already submitted their grono lamps to ikea hacker.

but i’m still pretty happy with my lamp. details on how i made it, what’s on it, and what’s behind the title fisch after the jump…

i have old art history books that i bought specifically for collaging. i pulled them out recently, and was surprised to find one i had forgotten about: a modern art history book in german. i paged through it, and came across a reproduction of a paul klee work titled um den fisch (around the fish). being that i have a fish obsession, i knew immediately that my light would be fish-themed and revolve around klee.

i did a bit more digging, and found another art history book with the same klee print: perfect! then i found some pages i had pulled out of an old martha stewart and one page had a full color picture of a striped bass. materials found!

i started with attaching pages from the german art history book, using gel matte medium. i first slather the surface of the lamp, place the pages, then add another layer of the medium. no glue is used. i tore a few sheets, and did some layers - i wanted a rough, layered, weathered look. then i added washes of white and yellow ocre acrylics. then a little more paper. then more washes.

then i trimmed my fish out of their pages:

i attached the fish using gel matte medium. then i covered the entire piece with the medium, to lock down any unglued areas and to protect the surface.

here’s the final, with the lights on:

and another view of fisch with the lights off:

this entry was posted on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 at 8:06 am and is filed under fish, my work. you can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. you can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.