Sunday, April 04, 2010

Here's that rain lamp.

I promised in this post that I'd post pictures of the "rain" (oil) lamp once I got it set up. Well, here it is!

Shortly after I brought it home, I took the whole thing apart and cleaned up 30 years worth of... gunge. Then I put it back together and was SO excited when I switched it on and it worked. I left it on the kitchen counter overnight, in a deep tray, just in case. When I got home the next night, the tray was full of oil. D'oh! Upon examination I realized it's because I put too much oil in and the level was above the screw holes holding the reservoir to the base. Had to disassemble it AGAIN, which annoyed me to no end, and clean it up even more, because... oil everywhere. But now, she is beeyooootiful.

What's interesting about this one is that it is not a swag lamp, like I'm accustomed to seeing. Even the table-top versions don't usually have an upper light and shade. In fact, I can't find ANY information about this model. I mean, I know it's a Johnson Industries model, and the original stickers are still under the canopy. But I don't see any renditions of THIS model online anywhere. How is that POSSIBLE??

I got it at an estate sale a few weeks ago, and was actually considering modding it to take that top part OFF. I've wanted a swag-style rain lamp for a while, to be hung next to my door so visitors can immediately see how much class I've got. Exactly how much. But after some reading, I'm starting to think this lamp is especially collectible. Which isn't what I'm in it for, it's never what I'm in it for. Now that I've got it set up in my front room with the pig lamp -- PIG LAMP! -- I'm kinda digging the height the shade gives it. It runs great, but the oil isn't flowing as I'd like, so I may need to clean up a couple of the holes again.

Pig Lamp!
Does anyone get the Carnivale reference?


  1. My grandma has one like that. I loved it as a kid. I remember sitting watching it for hours sneaking a touch when nobody was looking! Very cool find!

  2. Like the piggy lamp.

    And what's wrong with being crazy? There's no shame in that, we're the only ones who are really sane, are the crazy ones.



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