Detailed wooden lamp on display at the Washington Library

    For several months, a handcrafted wooden lamp has illuminated the first floor of the Washington Public Library. The lamp?s creator is James Blakeney, a resident of Washington. Blakeney began working on the lamp in August of 2008. He spent his weekends turning, planing and smoothing the wood until the lamp was ready to put on display in September 2009.

    Blakeney explained that the lamp is made from several different pieces of wood that have been glued together. How many pieces of word are there in the lamp?

    ?I quit counting after a thousand,? said Blakeney. ?There is so much to glue, that even if you had six hours together, you wouldn?t gain six hours, because you have to wait for the glue to dry.?

    From a distance, the lamp appears to have been painted different colors from beige to dark brown. Not so, said Blakeney. He said the different colors of the lamp merely reflect the 14 different kinds of wood he used to make it.

    Another mystery about the lamp is how Blakeney can bend the wood to make it lie perfectly round in the shape of a circle. That?s simple. He doesn?t bend the wood at all.

For more, see our March 22 print edition.