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dos and don'ts of installing a tord boontje garland light
DO: Admire and lust over it from afar.
DON’T: Put it up yourself.
DON’T: Put it up yourself.
Kidding. Just. According to the times of my frustrated twitter updates, it took me TWO hours to do. Two annoying, swear-filled hours. The instructions describe wrapping the 1.6 metre metal garland around a lightbulb as like “arranging flowers”. It’s so not. Detangling thorns, maybe, but not flower arranging. I was ready to give up after about five minutes and thought it looked quite nice as is (below). Just not very practical. So it was back to it.
But it’s done now and despite my mutters of “a piece of tinsel would have had the same effect”, it’s grown on me and I’m starting to love it. This was not love at first sight though…
Problem #1: The rubber ring they give you to stick on the end of the fitting (no clue on technical terms here – the plug thing that the lightbulb clicks into) so the metal can’t go inside is too thick so the lightbulb won’t click into place. So I had to cut the ring, and wedge it in as best I could, leaving a little gap.
Problem #2: The garland comes with a little hooky bit at the end that you attach to the pendant above the lightbulb – this is easy enough. But then you’re meant to “wrap” the garland around the bulb, hooking pieces of the garland onto each other. However, the garland just spins on its little axle and is REALLY HARD TO DO. Even harder? Getting it to look good. My first attempt looked like this (below).
Problem #3: Energy-efficient lightbulbs are not your friend here. I tried it, but did not succeed. They’re just not balloony enough so when the garland rests on it a little bit, it’s just like a skinny column instead of a delicate ball of leaves and flowers. So I swapped it for a big white bulb I magically had in my laundry and tried again. Still took three more tries, but we made it.
Problem #4: It’s not easy to redo. Because of all the intricate detail, it all sticks together, so trying to untangle it to have another go is quite the test of patience.
Problem #5: You get so annoyed at it, once it’s done, you don’t like it. Well, I didn’t anyway. I thought it looked weird and stupid. But I figured I’d leave it for at least a night (mostly because I didn’t fancy untangling it again) and check it out all lit up before I decided. Then it just grew on me and I love it a little more every time I look at it. I do wonder what visitors will think – there would be maybe one person in my life outside of work who would know what it was. Everyone else will have the same reaction: “um, what is stuck on your light?” and my very honest sister is very likely to say “it looks like you forgot to take the christmas decorations down”.
Anyway, it’s up. After two years! I like its sparkle factor in the daytime (above left) and its shadow play in the nighttime (above right). So what do you think?
PS: Just realised how many images I posted of this darn light! And how incredibly bad they are. Am on the search for new camera – any
recommendations?
xox