The Lamp I Almost Gave Up On

I struggle to throw things away, especially things that still have some life in them.

small cream ceramic countertop lamp with natural linen shade

Take this lamp, for example. There was nothing wrong with it. It looked okay and was in good working order. It simply didn’t fit the new direction we were taking with our decor.

I thought about buying something new, but after searching for what I wanted, I was taken aback by some of the prices.

What I really wanted was something with a handmade look. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized—I could make it look handmade.

That was my lightbulb moment. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)

My husband had given me some air-dry clay as part of my Mother’s Day gift this past May. I hadn’t had much experience working with clay, so I started reading about armatures and how I might build a new shape around the existing lamp.

I also remembered I had leftover chicken wire from a project my daughter and I worked on together in the spring. With the lamp, the clay, and the chicken wire, I already had everything I needed to try it.

small cream countertop lamp covered in chicken wire

I began wrapping the chicken wire around the lamp's base, using my jewelry wire tools to bend and shape it until I had a form I liked. This was the most challenging part for me because I had never done anything like it before.

I just kept reminding myself that I really had nothing to lose. If it didn’t work, I could take it apart, give the lamp a good cleaning, and donate it. That was enough to keep me going.

It didn’t need to be precise. I just wanted to fill some of the gaps and create a surface that would allow me to apply the clay in a fairly thin layer.

small countertop lamp covered in chicken wire and stuffed with tissue paper

This is when the lamp really started to take shape. Piece by piece, I pressed the clay onto the form, slowly covering the chicken wire and building out the shape.

small countertop lamp covered in air-dry clay

After I finished the first layer, I let it dry completely. It wasn’t intentional, but I didn't come back to it for two or three days.

And...cracks.

Lots of them.

small countertop lamp covered in air-dry clay with large cracks on surface

I was a little alarmed at first, although I have to admit, the cracked finish looked kind of cool. It just wasn’t what I had pictured for this particular lamp.

So I added a second, thinner layer of clay, covering all the cracks and hoping they would disappear for good.

They did not.

Once the clay dried again, some of the cracks returned. They weren’t quite as bad this time, but they were definitely still there.

After a little more research, I went back and applied a third layer, focusing mostly on the cracks and smoothing some of the larger bumps.

small countertop lamp covered in air-dry clay with lumps and bumps over the surface

It worked, but this was what I would call the ugly duckling stage.

This was also the point when I started questioning how much time I had put into this project versus just paying for a pretty new lamp and calling it a day.

I was over it!

In a fit of my own madness, I decided it might be cute enough and slapped on some decoupage, hoping it would somehow make everything better.

It didn’t. LOL.

If anything, it made it worse because the sheen highlighted every lump and bump on the entire lamp.

Clearly, it was time to sand.

Okay, lumps and bumps—your days are over.

I took the lamp outside, put on a mask, and sanded it over a container to help contain the mess. In case you’re wondering, I used 65-grit sandpaper first and then 220-grit to smooth the surface.

And finally...

small countertop lamp covered in air-dry clay with sanded finish

There it was.

Not perfectly smooth. Not perfectly symmetrical. But that wasn’t what I wanted in the first place.

I wanted something simple and understated that looked handmade. And now it does—because, in part, it is. As for that awful layer of decoupage, it ended up giving the lamp a bit of visual depth and texture, and I would call that a happy accident.

I learned quite a bit about clay and armatures along the way, but my favorite part of this project is simply knowing that I gave something I already owned another chance.

It would have been much easier to replace the lamp.

Instead, a little leftover chicken wire, a package of clay, some patience, and more sanding than I had planned gave me something that feels completely different in our home.

Sometimes changing the way we look at something is enough to help us see possibilities we hadn’t noticed before.

And maybe that’s part of the fun of creating—not always knowing exactly how something will turn out, but being willing to see what it could become.

What do you think? Was it worth the time and effort?

And is there something in your own home that might deserve a second look?