Oh dear, this is my first contest entry here, let's hope I don't mix something up! So hubby told me last night about a contest about goods made on the homestead. We create many different edible and medicinal goods, but most of those have never been photographed properly so I cannot show them, they're not an interesting subject visually.
So I decided to show another passion of mine - luminaria, a collective term for lamps of any kind :) What's more, those are handmade from beginning to end and with as much of our own materials as possible. Even more importantly, they help us save some money, getting us closer to our homesteading dream!
And I've been wanting to show you some of our lamps anyway, so that's a perfect occasion!
Here's a very humble tea candle holder made out of old scratched shot glasses, wrapped with handmade paper! This is a special batch of super thin paper, mixed with some torn pieces of printed text documents from the office. I think it's a great combination!
Next is a bigger lamp, made out of bamboo sticks and handmade paper. Note the translucent piece of pine bark that's embedded in the center of each sheet of paper, beautiful detail!
In the last years, we've made plenty of bamboo lamps, but our favorite model is the tripod (we also call it "teepee"). We've done some smaller, 60-70 cm high lamps, like that one with very saturated with herbal decoration handmade paper:
As well as some that are double that height, like that purple Vinca and pine bark handmade paper lamp:
We use natural jute rope from a local rope maker, our handmade paper and homemade glue. The bamboo sticks are imported, but we've taken steps in that directions as well. Last summer we planted a clump of Arundo donax (giant cane) near our garden, in a wet spot, in hopes to propagate it in the future.
The canes of this plant would be a perfect, local, sustainable replacement for imported bamboo.
Thank you for reading and thank you @knowledge-seeker for the opportunity to take part of that competition