Today, I will tell you about the Turkish Lamp Fixture at Home. When the story begins, we are looking for some kind of lamp to go over our television in a pretty dark corner. We didn’t want anything too bright, but just enough to illuminate the area. Following my steps will definitely help you fix your Turkish Lamp.
Tools to Fix Your Turkish Lamp
i. The lamp you will use will be the centrepiece of the project, so be sure to pick something that will make you happy to look at every day. Again, in my case, we needed three lamps.
ii. An inline on/off lamp switch. You can place this anywhere on the electrical cord to fit your installation.
iii. A black tape roll is needed for lamp connection or uses heat shrink / a soldering iron, but in my case, the electrical tape will work fine.
iv. A lamp electrical cord. Make sure that it will be long enough to reach the outlet from where you hang the lamp.
v. Sisal rope for the electric cord of the lamp. In my case, we used a roll of 1/4 inch thick.
vi. Thinner Jute roll to wrap the lamp cords around each other. Choose one size to make a lamp with a single cord.
vii. And of course, scissors for obvious reasons.
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Steps to Fix Your Turkish Lamp
Step One: Prepare the lamp cords. The very first thing is to wrap the cords of the lamp. In my case, two of the lamps had been cut from their electrical plugs already, and the third had an absolutely enormous plug on it. The cords were also twined through the hanging chain, which we did not want to leave, as we were going to shorten the chain and wrap the cords in jute.
Step Two: Shorten The Chains. What we wanted was to hang all three lamps at different levels, so I set the lamp chains to shorten accordingly. Keep the links you remove, as once you have it hanging, you may decide to change your mind and put the links back in. If not, it’s always a good idea to keep things like that around to use in another project.
Step Three: Wrap The Lamp Cords. Simply tie a knot and start wrapping the jute as close to the lamp as possible. Our lamps have a cord that is made of a fairly soft rubber material, so the jute grabbed it just fine without slipping. if your cable is made out of a harder plastic, you may need to glue the initial knot in place to keep it from moving. Now it’s time for the fun part. And by fun, I mean the part that’s going to feel like it takes forever. Every time you loop around a wire, you want to be sure to push it tightly up against the previous loop. Make sure that none of the electrical cord is open showing.
The thicker rope is harder to work with, but it will cover the cord more quickly, while the smaller jute will take longer as you need more wraps to cover the same area. You should stop every so often to check your work and make sure that you are keeping the wrap tight. You don’t want to get past the area, only to find out you need to back all the way up to redo it. When you finally get to the end, you are going to tie it off with another couple of knots just like when you started it. You need glue if your lamp cord is made of a harder plastic. What would you do if you were wrapping only a single cord? You have to do this another two times before going to the next step. I am just going to speed this up and get through it as quickly as possible for both our sakes.
Step Four: Wrap the Electrical Cord. As we are having three separate lamp cords come together here, we wanted the point that continued on to appear to be bulkier than the individual cords did. To get started, use a piece of the jute to tie the end of the rope to the cord at your initial starting point. You could also use glue, but we prefer the look of the jute as it matches in and will be wrapped under the rope. Now, begin wrapping the rope around the electrical cord much as we did around the lamp cords.
Also, stop and check your work every so often to make sure you are keeping the wrap nice and tight for the same reasons as before. Keep wrapping for another four to six inches. Every so often, you are going to want to grab a piece of jute and tie a securing point on the cable to make sure it does not unravel. After that, just keep wrapping and securing until you have gotten the length that you need for your project. For us, that is approximately three feet, which will reach from the area where the cords will be hanging to down behind the television. Once you have reached the full length, go ahead and tie off the end with another piece of jute and rejoice that you are finally done with that part.
Step Five: Install The Switch. First, you need to remove the screw that holds the casing together. After that, carefully split the two wires of the cable apart. Next, place the wire into the case so that you know where to cut. Only cut one of the wires. Once the wire is cut, fit it into the notches in the switch. There is really only one way it can go, so don’t be afraid of messing it up. Finally, push the two pieces of the casing back together, insert the screw back in, and tighten everything up.
Step Six: Wire The Lamps Together. At this point, take your scissors and carefully remove the insulation from about an in of the end of each of the wires. I have already done that here, and you can see the bare copper showing on the end. Take two of the lamp cords and, using one wire from one lamp and a second wire from the other lamp, twist them together. Repeat that with the remaining two wires from the lamps, leaving them connected to both wires. Now follow the above steps and apply them to the other lamp. Finally, two sets to be taken, which have already been made by you, bring them together and twist them into two separate pairs. Now the electricity will be distributed to each of the lamps.
Now, we are going to wrap several layers of tape tightly around all of the exposed wiring. Wrap it from half an inch or so past the base of your exposed wiring all the way to a little past the tip. You want to be very careful and very thorough with this part. If you do not completely insulate the bare wires, there is a very real chance they will spark and catch fire. This is not something you want to take your time and do it right. When everything is done, I am hoping the three cords coming out of the bundle will look like branches of a tree. Again, just take your time to get a nice, tight wrap along the entire length, pausing occasionally to check your progress. Tie a couple of knots when you cover the remaining area.
Step Seven: Admire Your Amazing Lamp. You have done it! I know that I am extremely happy with how our lamp turned out, and I hope that you are just as happy with yours.
The thing that I left is hanging a lamp and plugging it in to enjoy its beauty. Creating something yourself is an amazing way to not only help your wallet and the planet, but it also feels good to be able to do it.
