It's a catch 22: They're cheap, pretty and abundant, but rarely is there enough of any of them to make a set. I'm talking thrift store dishes of course, and being a full bag lady who frequents a Value Village at least once a week (my thrift store of choice), I've been wracking my brain as to how to exploit this largely untapped resource.
One day it came to me. While -- you guessed it -- surfing the internet, I came across a ceramic modern-esque lamp, the base of which was made up of cylindrical, bulbous and elliptical shapes that reminded me very much of stacked dishes. And Voila! The ceramic dish lamp was born.
Promptly I made my way over to my local Value Village and with contagious zeal began filling my shopping cart with miss matched bowls, ramekins, tea cups and the like.
At home, I broke some of my bounty in a creative frenzy, stacking the dishes into different combinations on my dining room table. Finally I settled on the one you see above (right), and Bob's your uncle. Although there were some growing pains when it came to actually making my stack into a lamp, such as finding a ceramic drill bit, learning how to actually drill the hole and conquering lamp electrics. But it was worth it, and I am proud to share with you the process, below.
The great thing is that this lamp is just the beginning of what you can do with stacked dishes; think of threading them on a suspended cord and hanging a few resulting "garlands" together, at different lengths, or even using them threaded on floor-to-ceiling poles as room dividers, kind of like those '70s pole lamps!
Have you done anything creative with old dishes?