How To Repair Strings On Rain Lamp

I've always wanted a vintage rain lamp and after searching for a while, I finally found ane on Craigslist at a decent price. It was only $35 and listed nether "vintage lamp." We quickly fabricated our mode over to pick it upward, only to find out they had used motor oil in the lamp. After dumping most of it out, I carried in home in a trash bag- what a mess.

If you lot aren't familiar with rain lamps, they were popular in the 60s-70s and used a thick fishing line where oil runs downwards giving it the advent that information technology is raining. They come up with a variety of figures inside- from a manufactory bike to a dancing couple. My lamp has the "Venus" figurine with plastic orangish flowers- perfect! But what I wanted.

What they are not- swag lamps. This is a swag lamp.

They are also not oil lamps. This is an oil lamp.

So at present that we have the basics out of the way, in that location isn't a lot of information online about these lamps. We knew nosotros had to clean information technology, I don't retrieve it had been touched for forty years and as yous tin imagine, the oil attracts all sorts of dust and bugs- the motor oil didn't aid.

So, nosotros ready aside a whole day one weekend to make clean this beauty upwardly. It took about six hours full. The dirt was so caked on the leaves of the flowers that even after soaking them, each petal still had to be scrubbed by hand to get the grime off- both sides.

I thought I would put this tutorial together for anyone that needs to make clean their own rain lamp. This is what worked for ours- apply at your own gamble, they tin can exist fragile, and if yous break a strand you will be in for a lot of piece of work restringing.

The offset thing we did was notice a large flat work space and lined information technology with plastic bags and paper towels- you are going to demand A LOT of paper towels. This is a messy project.

Here you tin can meet the black gunk stuck on the strands and in the holes at the lesser, along with the black filth stuck within the flowers. To brainstorm, make sure your lamp is empty of as much oil every bit possible.

Get-go, nosotros very gently removed Venus, the calorie-free bulb, and foliage. You lot tin only practice this past putting your easily through the filaments and weaving the items out. Be very careful. The line-fishing line is sturdier than you think, but it is still a very delicate procedure. I gently scrubbed her with Dawn dish soap to remove the dirt and oil.

Unscrew the base pieces from the lamp. I placed the lesser "tub" and all of the foliage in hot water with Dawn lather to remove the oil and crud.

Once the bottom is removed, you should see your motor. Ours had what looked like to be a date on it (hopefully) so we are crossing our fingers that it is a newer motor that has been replaced. It used to be that once your motor was ruined, you were basically out of luck every bit it was most incommunicable to repair. Luckily, someone has listed replacement motors on ebay, so if y'all fire out your motor, you can now supercede it.

Nosotros wiped down the motor as much every bit possible to remove any of the leftover motor oil.

I had to scrub every petal and leaf by manus. The dirt was and so stuck on with grease that the soak didn't remove it. This process took the longest. I placed them on a newspaper towel to air dry.

We used a newspaper towel to wipe the gunk off of every filament.

We then went ahead and washed the entire base with water and Dawn. In that location was a lot of muddied oil stuck in hither and we wanted to go it all cleaned out.

We used a toothpick in all of the holes in both bases to remove whatsoever build upwards.

Equally you can see, there was a lot of motor oil and dirt inside the holes. This can cake the flow of oil if it isn't cleaned out.

The fun office, was putting it all back together. Just like above, y'all have to squeeze everything back through the filaments. When you put the flowers in, make sure none of them are touching whatsoever of the fishing lines.

Now for the fun part! Later all of this work, nosotros wanted to make sure she has a place of prominence in the house. And then we hung her correct in the entryway when you come up in the front door.

She is just as beautiful now equally she was in 1967!

A couple of things to notation- mineral oil is commonly used in rain lamps. This can be institute at your local store in the chemist's shop section. Because I am paranoid, I ordered the original oil they used in them from eBay.

We also ordered a color changing light bulb that is controlled with your iphone. It changes the colors of the "rain" and can even be set to music.

Enjoy Venus in all her glory!

Vintage Rain Lamps on etsy.

Vintage Rain Lamps on ebay