Awww........

Janet, nice job on the lamp! Love the color too.

Same here, I can't see blue without thinking of Sharon

Janet, thank you so much for posting the link to your thread on DG! I remember lurking there years ago and it was so much fun to revisit it! I love the blue lamp. I've been trying to think of something to keep my shades covered so the water, leaves, etc. won't fall into them and your plate is giving me ideas. How do you drill the "small hole"?

Thanks, everyone, for the compliments......I needed a decent reading light in the courtyard. The brass on this was in pretty bad shape, and I had some crystals left over from a chandelier project. It's been outside for a year, and some of the blue paint has peeled a bit. I should have primed it. Word to the wise....

Some of the plates I use are ones I made myself from clay, so that made drilling the hole pretty easy----but that's not an option for most people!

Holes in glass or pottery can be drilled with an arrow-shaped glass drill bit that's readily available at most hardware stores. I use my cordless drill. If the plate is a really hard material like stoneware, having someone trickle a little water on the hole while it's being drilled will help keep it from cracking. But a terra-cotta drain dish turned upside-down would do the job just as well, and be really easy to drill. You just need to make sure the diameter of the plate is slightly larger than what you're putting it on. I have some that are just a shade small, and they do get rainwater in them. When it freezes, the glass can crack. The ones that stay completely dry are fine outside here all winter (down to low 20s).

The little light bulb sitting down in the hole usually does a good enough job of keeping the solar collector from blowing off, but if you're in a high-wind area a dollop of hot glue might be a good idea. That way you can easily pop the collector off when you need to change the battery in about a year.

Thanks for the drilling tips Janet! I've also read that if you keep water handy and keep dipping your drill bit into it to cool it off that helps too? I've always been afraid to drill holes in anything ceramic but I think I've found something that would be perfect to experiment with. I have numerous pieces of china which will be smashed anyway for mosaics so if I mess up it's no great loss! However, I think I solved my dilemma yesterday for the first shades I want to work with. I was at Lowes checking out their display of solar lights and found some with a large enough diameter to fit snugly inside the top of the shade. They were a little more expensive but I really like the shades I'm using for my first attempt with these solar lights so I didn't mind paying the extra $$ to get the look I wanted.

Can't WAIT to see photos Debbie

Waiting for photos! Patiently! (not......)

Well hold your horses because you're going to have to wait a little longer. The lights I bought are okay but as I was leaving the store I noticed others in an end rack that proclaimed...2X brighter. I glanced at them but liked the design better of the first ones I chose so didn't switch them. I tested the "amount" of light this morning and because the shades are frosted I think I need to exchange them for the "2X" ones...another trip back to Lowes!

Debbie, please post a photo of the solar light package so I know what to go get. Thank you so much in advance.

They do take time to charge up the first time, and if it's cloudy during the day you'll see a big difference in how much light you get that night.

Janet, I love the blue...it sure pops!!! It's my favorite color in the garden.

Inside, I love red but I have never really been fond of it outside.

Debbie, I searched the Lowes website and can't find the lights I purchased but these are very similar. http://www.lowes.com/pd_329366... The two I bought have clear ribbed "glass" but these look like they might be opaque or frosted? I hadn't planned to keep the glass on them but leaving them attached did create a unique look.

Janet, thanks! I might wait before I make the trip to exchange these. We haven't had much sun since I bought them so they might work after all!

Thanks so much Debbie. So, (and don't ya'll laugh) you really do have to buy path lights and take them apart? I thought you could purchase just the lights.

Debbie, I think it's easier to just buy the path lights. The solar cell itself is the most expensive part and anything I've ever found was about the same price if not more! You can actually make your own lights but then you need a sensor to turn them on at dusk, etc., etc., etc. I'm going to take the KISS approach and buy the "path lights".

I'm still researching the lights that Lowes has available. They have a set of four which have 3 LED lights in them = 12X brighter! Of course they're more expensive but the reviews are excellent. Decisions, decisions.....

BTW, did you know that in many of the solar lights, you replace the old batteries. I had a bunch of solar lights lining the driveway which eventually started going out. I found the rechargeable batteries on ebay for cheap, and got them all working again. I'm not sure this is the case with all solar lights, but it might be worth checking if you have some older ones that you want to 're-brighten'!

Thanks dear Brenda. I'm going to check my solar flutterbys to see if there are batteries in them.

Still haven't painted the shades because I like the swirled glass so much. May or may not paint. The pictures are really bad but the lights look good amidst the creeping Phlox and will even more when things are in bloom. I'm just happy to finally be getting something done.

Oh WOW Tee - Ten thumbs up!

I wouldn't paint them either.

BEAUTIFUL