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SKY CITY

This is my current challenge project. It's a giant lamp entitled "Sky City". This page is dedicated to this lamp. It will show what parts of it I've made so far, it will also show the mistakes. It will be a journal for this project. I'll enter the information as I build it, while it's still fresh in my head. The above sketch is a very quick and rough drawing of what Sky City will look like.

This projects challenge: I wanted to build a lamp with no center support. As in nothing in the center holding the shade up. Normally a lamp has a metal rod of some kind that holds up the shade. This lamp won't have that. In fact the design of the base, I'll be deliberately leaving a space open to show that the shade is "floating".

This project will also have many parts or steps in it. Each part or a step is counted as a separate part that has to be dealt with. Cut, foil, solder and attach. For example: a box with a 5 piece lid, and a tray; there would be 4 major steps. The lid, the base, the tray, and the support for the tray. The fish lamp had 13 steps to it: the shade, the 8 sides of the base (inside and outside), the arch edges, the flat part of the base, and the electrical stuff. Sky city will have 84 steps for the shade alone. I haven't even started designing the base yet. (Hopefully the base will actually be able to support the lamp, if it doesn't, I'm in deep doo-doo.

Currently Sky City has over 3000 pieces for the shade. The base will probably add another 300-500 pieces.

The rough dimensions are 17" x 17" x about 16"-17" tall. Basically the lamp is square, with a dome in the middle, and another dome on top of that. The base will look like an old giant tree. The whole project is basically going to look like an ancient building, sitting on top of a tree. It will have a sunset theme. Though it's a complicated design, looking at it, will have a simplistic feel.

This project will push any extra obsessive compulsiveness out of me. Why? Well for one thing I already figured out it's scale. It's roughly 3/8"=1'. I came to this conclusion after making up the wooden balusters. I bought them in a craft store. I attached each of them to a lathe, and painted them one by one. Then marbleized each one, to give it a pink marble or pink quartz look. I did this 72 times. They'll be glued around the border when the project is done.

Current observations: it's going to weigh a ton. And it will be very difficult to clean. I'll probably go mad after this project. If you see a raving lunatic on the news, that's me.

1. Pieces: currently over 3000, at the end it will probably be more like 3500.
2. Hours: 56 this is as of 10-21-98. This count is for the design only! It doesn't include the project, molds, or kiln time.
3. 9-3-99 - hours roughly 225.

4. 3-24-2000 - I lost count, I'll figure it later, or you can count up what I have.

I'm doing things a little differently, time wise. I'm putting the time on different sheets, per what I'm doing. The design goes in one place, the project, kiln, molds, etc., are all going on separate sheets. This will give me a better idea of the time break downs.

Below is the list of what parts make up this lamp. Basically it shows how far ahead I have to think to complete this, or any, project. As I finish more parts of the lamp I'll post the progress, this list will serve as it's index. All times are based by dividing the hours by 6. This is the actual order I'm going to construct the components in for the main shade. This list doesn't have any information on the base, because I don't even know what exactly the base will look like.

PART	DONE	CURRENT PIECES	ACTUAL PIECES	EST. TIME (Hours)	ACTUAL TIME (Hours)
Sm. Dome		88	72	15	15:45
Main Dome		681	726	113:30	69:15
Arches		108	108	18	6:45
Sm. Upper Curved Wall		28	56	5	7
Upper Floor (Sm. Dome)		24	24	4	2:30
Upper Wall (Sm. Dome)		52	52	9	7
Bottom of Floor		107	99	18	10
Stairs & Posts		76	72	13	11
Main Floor		100	100	17	10:30
Main Walls		320	296	53:30	18:45
Window Edges		228	228	38	9:30
Windows - Right		150	151	25	17
Windows - Left		146	144	24	12:45
Windows - Back		133	133	22	7:15
Windows - Front		128	121	21	7:30
Assemble Walls		---	---	---	2:45
Curved Walls		128	128	21:30	9:15
Header		48	52	8	9:30
Sky Lights		36	Unknown	6	Unknown
Fancy Floor (Middle Rail Area)		322	Unknown	54	Unknown
Upper Rail		42	Unknown	7	Unknown
Middle Rail		100	Unknown	17	Unknown
Rails For Balusters		24	Unknown	4	Unknown

What's Finished?

The length of time in months is irrelevant. It's there as a time marker only. Only the hours are important. The project will take a while, and if things come up while I'm building, then they take precedence.

3-17-1998 to 10-19-1998 - Time: 56:30 - Design for Shade

3-21-1998 to 3-29-1998 - Time: 6:15 - Molds for Shade

5-23-1998 to 5-30-1998 - Time: 3:30 - Wooden Spindles

8-8-1998 to 1-24-1998 - Time: 15:45 - Small Dome

10-22-1998 to 1-24-1999 - Time: 69:15 - Main Dome

2-13-1999 to 2-17-1999 - Time: 7:00 - Small Wall

2-18-1999 to 2-19-1999 - Time: 2:30 - Small Floor

2-27-1999 to 2-28-1999 - Time: 7:00 - Upper Wall

3-6-1999 to 3-10-1999 - Time: 10:00 - Bottom of Floor

3-12-1999 to 3-21-1999 - Time: 11:00 - Stairs and Posts

4-11-1999 to 6-4-1999 - Time: 10:30 - Main Floor

6-5-1999 to 8-20-1999 - Time: 18:45 - Main Walls

8-26-1999 to 9-1-1999 - Time: 9:30 - Window Edges

9-2-1999 to 9-12-1999 - Time: 17:00 - Right Windows

9-14-1999 to 9-29-1999 - Time: 12:45 - Left Windows

9-30-1999 to 2-20-2000 - Time: 7:15 - Back Windows

5-26-2001 to 6-15-2001 - Time: 7:30 - Front Windows

6-15-2001 - Time: 7:30 - Assemble Walls

6-15-2001 to 6-21-2001 - Time: 9:15 - Curved Walls WARNING about 600k of graphics

6-25-01 to 6-29-01 - Time: 9:30 - Headers

What's Left?

Everything. Here's a list, for the most part you won't know what I'm talking about until it's made. This is roughly the final order.

1. The sky lights for that floor (4)
2. The upper ceiling with the pretty design
3. The support channel for the base
4. Rails for the middle section
5. Rails for the upper section
6. Attaching roof to lamp

And for the base, as far as I know right now:

1. The wood part that holds the tree
2. The supports the hold up the lamp and make up the the tree
3. The wire guides for the skin of the tree
4. The copper that will make up the skin for the tree
5. The mold for the bottom dome
6. The bottom glass dome
7. The walls the go above the dome (4)
8. The supports that hold up the lamp
9. The electrical system
10. The final finishing, patina, polyurethane

So far that's what I'm thinking about, a general guide anyway. As I get more done I'll post all about it.

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Started on 1-26-99