Old Lamps to Classic Fountain
by
Bec1311224
Hubby said "what do you want for your birthday." (They never learn!) I wanted a solar powered fountain with battery back up. But, there's no way I could let him pay over $300 for it. So I found a solar kit on Amazon for around $80 that had pretty good reviews. While waiting for arrival, I scrounged my craft room and our outside stash. Found two great old lamps and I just knew I had hit gold.
Here are the lamps. They were metal and copper and already had wonderful patina. The white square on the bottom of the second one is marble.
So, I just removed the nut on the bottoms, disassembled them, rinsed the parts and removed all loose debris. The design came together very quickly.
Once dry, I used very generous amounts of silicone to glue it all together. I let it sit overnight. The kit did not come with the hose, so out to hubby's barn to shop. We found a length of hose used in cars. I like this much better than aquarium hose because it's got a very thick coating. The next morning, I ran the hose up the original opening through all parts. I added a thrift store ceiling fan/light globe on the top (1.99). The kit came with the "sprinkler" heads, and a circle of LED lights. Once installed, I set it in an old copper planter. Note, I did not put any silicone around the hose in case I need to change it later. I simply pushed an old disposable glove around the hose in the light globe to seal it up.
The pot didn't catch the water without a lot of oversplash. So, hubby cut the bottom off of an old black barrel. (About 12 to 15 inches deep) I dug a hole for it, then put about a 2 inch layer of sand so we could level it out. I placed the fountain (copper pot and all) on the sand, layered the inside of the barrel with rocks and added a few plants. Here's the final result.
So, we actually have many more old lamps (and you probably do too!). Lamps are perfect for fountain projects because there is no drilling involved. I will be making more since I have several flower gardens that would love a water feature. This one is right outside the front door, so I wanted it to work constantly. My future fountains will not have battery back up so the solar kits will be around $30 each or less. I can't wait to see the "lamp" fountains others come up with.
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I used to repair lamps of all sorts but now that I've seen this I don't think that I'll be repairing anymore now I'm transforming. Thanks for the idea Becky.
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I am praying for your family medical issue.
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