Lamp from Black Iron Pipe and Fittings

I know you all are probably getting tired of seeing things and more things covered with my Grandma’s dictionary pages, but wanted to share one last project with you – a Christmas present I made for my sister.

To give you a little background story: my Grandma Mabel loved words and loved to read. She was a teacher, as were her son and my cousins. At holidays at her house, we would always have the dictionary out, looking up words and proving each other wrong. We’d also play “dictionary” – has anyone played that game? One person secretly chooses an unusual, random word from the dictionary and says it out loud. Everyone makes up and writes down a fake definition on a slip of paper. The person who chose the word writes down the real definition. All the slips of paper are put into the middle of the table and the person who chose the word shuffles the papers and reads the definitions (fake and real) out loud (with a straight face). Everyone jots down which one he/she thinks is the correct definition. Points are given if someone picks your definition, or if you pick the correct definition. It was always a fun game, and there was never a lack of weird and funny definitions coming out of my weird and funny family.

All of us in our family picked up the love of reading from my Grandma, my sister especially. I thought it would be nice to make her something for Christmas that had a little history/meaning to it, so I made her a lamp with a shade wrapped in pages from Grandma’s dictionary. I built the base from black iron pipe fittings, fit it with a “vintage” fabric covered cord. It was a fun project – it took a few trips to the hardware store, but it is rewarding to see it glowing with all those words!