Oil Lamp Casts a Silhouette on the Wall

Lindsay ~ 13 August 2006

If you’re a candle or lamp junky–or you need a birthday present for someone who is–you’ll want to check out these Lumen oil lamps. You fill them with oil and light the wick, just as you do with regular oil lamps, but, unlike with regular lamps, a nature-inspired sculpture alongside the flame acts as a shadow projector. The image is thrown onto the wall behind the lamp. It “dances about organically” as the flame flickers. The farther you move the lamp from the wall, the larger the shadow grows and the more it seems to dance.

Designed by Brooklyn-based artist Adam Frank, the lamps are available in five different styles: nest, magnolia, pine, cedar, or flock. The trees are pretty self-explanatory. The nest features a pair of eagles perched in a tree, and the flock features soaring seagulls. Each lamp has a polyethylene base to keep sensitive surfaces from being scratched, and each comes with two odorless and clean-burning 17-hour liquid wax fuel cells. The price for the lamps is $48, and you can get them from the artist’s site:

http://www.adamfrank.com/lumen/lumen_line.htm