The making of the Gazebo style table lamps

Was: Some tips on hand saw piercing

Hanuman kindly gave the oppertunity for me to show some of my
favourite finished piercing work as shown on my recent posting re
tips on saw piercing.


I have received direct emails from many Orchid members commenting on
the photos and asking questions. I shall reply to all personally but
I thought I would post some answers to some of the questions for all
to see. The lamps were made approximately ten years ago and we made
three identical pairs. The bases were made of guilloche or engine
turned enamelled silver. The flower bowl was made from 20ct, rose
gold and the bowl and stem patterns were hand chased. The flowers
were all made from 18ct gold and the flower stamens were set with
diamonds, sapphires and rubies. Many of the mounts around the shade
and base are set with diamonds. The octagonal pillars are made of
rock crystal. All enamelling was hard fired.

The lampshade was made up of 18 seperate hand engraved and pierced
panels set in an 18ct gold shade frame, each plique a-jour enamelled
panel was 5 inches x 2 inches x 1mm. thick. The shades were single
spinnings which I saw pierced into panels after engraving the whole
design. Then each panel was pierced for enamelling. The plique a-jour
flower design on each panel was carefully set with diamonds after
enamelling.

Finally if you look carefully on the base there is a ladybug insect
sitting on a water lily pad. This was Ed Evans’s trademark idea, and
used as the light switch which he has included on all of his table
lamp designs. The ladybug is connected to an electronic switch system
in the base, which turns on the lamp when the bug is pressed and also
dims and brightens the lamp when the bug is pressed a second and
third time, pressing the bug for the fourth time switches the lamp
off.

Please ask any further questions that I have not answered, if I can
answer, I will gladly.

Peace and good health to you all

James Miller FIPG.

It really is an impressive set. I can’t even begin to estimate the
time required for piece like this. I once worked on a piece for a
month. I am usually tired of working on a piece after about sixteen
hours. How many hours did you invest in these lamps?

Bruce Holmgrain
JACMBJ