Arts and Crafts lamp with inlay stem.

I wanted to do something different for the stems of these table lamps and some kind of blending of woods kept coming to mind.

I did a recent blog that covered the shade construction in grueling detail so no need to mention any of that 8^)

The lamp sits about 22” tall, the shade is about 18” square at its base. Wood is walnut with a zebra wood inlay. Top cap and stem banding is jatoba. Mica shade panels (“light amber”, 0.030” thick).

Finish is Watco oil (natural), pre-cat lacquer, and paste wax.

The stem

I like the tapered look so I went with that here.
My idea was to make a tapered core (poplar), then add a layer of the zebra wood veneer, finally topping with some walnut that has a portal cut into the center.

Simple to think about, kinda a pain to execute!

I started by making a core with a 1/2” square hole (joined two pieces together) 1-3/4” square by about 18” long

This was tapered from 1-5/8” to 1-1/4” on the table saw with a jig. I then made a bunch of side skins out of walnut (1/4” thick) and used a template to route out the portal.

Fast forward and I now have these skins glued over the veneered and tapered core, edges cleaned up, and slots routed for the shade support corbels.

I wanted a face grain look on all four sides so I routed (later) some 1/4” deep chamfers all edges.

Shade supports

The corbels were also shaped with a router template to get the curves and proper angle (about 2 degrees) with the stem correct.

The router also added the proper chamfers

The base

Again, to attempt to keep the grain orientation the same on all four sides, I made the top plate for the base by making a mitered “box”

For strength and again to keep the grain bias to minimum, I added a bottom plate with the grain running at 45 degrees.

I used a simple jig to help position the foot pads. Each pad is held in the corner with a small piece of DS tape.

glue was added and the base was set on top with some 1/4” key stock spacers used to center everything and give the 1/4” overhang I wanted.

Good pressure for a good glue joint 8^)

The corbels were glued into place and a top cap (jatoba) helps keep things secure. The screws will be hidden by the electrics.

Many plans for these lamps call for the shade to just rest on the corbels, no physical retention used. Having a house with vile critters called “cats”, I always find a way to retain things securely 8^)
In this case, I wanted to extend the threaded tube on up past the shade top.

In order to get the wires to pass through to the sockets a small cast iron “hickey” was used (yes, that is what it is called =8^O )

Here is a photo of the shade retainer block in position.

You can see how I covered the exposed threaded tube with a 3/8” copper pipe sleeve. The light bulbs are vintage looking LEDs.

Comments welcome, thanks for looking in!