I inherited something beautiful a couple of years ago- my grandmother's lamp. My dad told me whatever I did, do not sell or get rid of it, he would take it back if I didn't want it. The very notion is laughable.
I grew up seeing this lamp next to my grandmother's hospital bed. She lived at home, but was confined to the bed because of severe arthritis. She passed away when I was 5 years old. I remember her being really sassy and having a ton of personality. She was a single mother of 4 kids who always spoke highly of her, took care of her and were all by her side until her last breath. My dad was the only one of her kids that was a homeowner at the time, so all of her cool stuff came to our house. As an adult antique collector, I had to have this lamp, and when my dad gave it to me I swore on my life that nothing bad would happen to it.
Now the lamp sits by my own bed. A couple weeks ago during a photoshoot in my home studio with photographer Emma Wondra, hairstylist Kimberly Schmidt, and models Ava Montelena and Jasmine Marie, I as the makeup artist, found myself playing with glitter and light concepts that deviated slightly from our original plan. Here are some behind-the-scenes snapshots of Kimberly and me getting the models prepared:
Emma asked if my grandma's lamp worked, and if she could use it. She temporarily moved it out of my bedroom and into the studio. Only one of the two bulb sockets still worked, which created a cool light effect. Emma shot between the bulbs to create the hazy, dreamy effect in the final images. You can see below that she also used an antique mirror of mine to bounce and multiply the light source.
I am so happy with how the photos turned out. This is just one of them. As a makeup artist I was thrilled with how the light captured the makeup, but as a granddaughter I was touched that we were able to use the lamp for another purpose. I think that grandma would have thought this photo was very cool.