twin socket adapter

Lotta Jansdotter is an inspiration in so many ways. I’ve been a fan of her prints and books for a long time. The September 2007 issue of Blueprint featured her Brooklyn studio. The thing that caught my eye was the light fixture above her desk. It was so organic looking, almost like some complex molecule from chemistry class. (I wouldn’t know which one, since it was hardly my best class) I learned after closer examination, that the fixture is extremely simple to make. The light is made of twin socket adapters that you can pick up at any hardware store. There are infinite possibilities with the configuration, you just keep screwing the adapters into each other and the fixture grows. It’s probably the best lighting project for someone with absolutely no electrical knowledge. There’s no wiring involved.

I’ve made two of them for the shop. One of them is in the bathroom hanging above the Julia Rothman print. There was just an ugly socket sticking out of the wall there. This was a great solution to sprucing that wall up without major expense. If you want to get fancy, check out these fractal chandeliers. They are made with the same adapters but follow a more mathematical approach to construction and use up to forty four adapters.

Speaking of fractals, I found this amazing paper fractal sculpture and a fractal cabbage!

{Blueprint magazine photo courtesy of Reva}