Agate Lamps for the Agate Cross B&B

For the Gitche Gumee  Museum and me -- the year 2014 has been interesting and has shown promise.  For the first dozen the years the museum did well with the business growing every year.  As many of you know, then there were three years of significant decline.  Although the number of visitors to the museum has continued to go up each year -- revenue has not.  But in 2014 the trend began to swing the other way.  Sales are on par with last year -- but they did not go down!  That is good news.  Now the challenge is to continue developing educational materials and perhaps some new types of mineral art.

Speaking of mineral art, here are photos of two agate lamp shades that I made for the Agate Cross B&B, located in Grand Marais, MI.  From what many museum visitors have said:  it is the best place to stay in the region.  According to some world-wide B&B travelers, it is one of their favorite B&B stops!  If you are interesting in booking a reservation, please call Lois and Jamey at 906-494-2990.

The first lamp is a ceiling lamp that will hang over their dining room table.  Since it is not yet installed (we will do that this week), most of the photos are shown with top lighting.

 

The next two photos are showing the bottom of the lamp shade.  For the first time ever I closed in most of the space with a circle of free-form agate with glass trim matching the side valance.  Notice the double-light fixture in the middle (with no bulbs).

 

The photo below was taken with the shade installed on a table lamp base.  I took the picture before I applied patina and installed the hardware.

The second lamp shade shown below is mounted on a wooden base that Jamey's son made.