Initially inspired by the steampunk movement, but based more on my love of Arts and Crafts design. These are lanterns based around high-powered LED lighting and made mostly of scrap hardwood.

The use of scrap hardwood turned out to be a very lucky accident. Before I started doing that, I typically worked in oak, which I was familiar with, and ended up with a not very impressive stained finish. The original lantern, not pictured here, was built that way. I used an old can of stain, and ended up with a rather bad color mix. Then at some point I found a source of fairly decent hardwood scraps. Working with these pieces made me mix types of wood on the same piece, meaning that I had to use a natural finish instead of a stain. I also had to base my dimensions around the various pieces of scrap. I'm very proud of the end result, it being an example of art stimulated by limitations.

The LED light source was another interesting thing to work with. Each lantern has a high-powered LED source mounted on a heat sink in the bottom of the lantern, with a high-efficiency switching power supply either mounted inside or as a "line lump" external to the lantern. A dedicated "buck puck" style LED controller is mounted inside the lantern, providing current limiting for proper operation of the LED as well as dimming control. I usually use a star assembly with 3 LED chips mounted on, from 700mA up to 2100mA depending on the size of the lantern.

The stained glass in all these lanterns was provided by Sylvan Woods Studio in Mundelein, IL.

At present I do not have any lanterns for sale, though I may eventually do so.

Click on the images to enlarge.

"Summer" lantern, 8.5 inches tall. Oak and Walnut.

Big lantern, 16 inches tall. Oak, mahogany, walnut, cherry.

"Night" lantern, 7.5 inches tall. Oak, ash, walnut, cherry.

"Rustic" lantern, 17 inches tall. Oak, ash, walnut, cherry, jatoba.

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