The Light Fantastic: Lamps, Lanterns, and Chandeliers

I recently became slightly obsessed with chandeliers, during my trip to India. Not even just chandeliers, actually. Even those weird creative lantern things that you see hanging from certain buildings like this cool pine cone in the Rockefeller library at Brown.

And then just this semester, I realized that some lamps are actually really cool too. I helped one of my friends assemble this tree-like one about a week ago. I think the only thing that could have made it better would be if the stalks were lit up too. :)

 

The OED defines a chandelier as "an ornamental branched support or frame to hold a number of lights (originally candles), usually hung from the roof or ceiling." I supposed that what I'm looking for is something that satisfies either part of that condition, that is, either "an ornamental branched frame to hold lights" or "a frame to hold lights hung from the ceiling." Or both, of course. :)

Light, of course, is totally amazing itself, but that's not what I'm talking about not, though I certainly will another day. Rather, I'm talking about the problem of bringing light into the indoor environments we have created, and how the creativity some designers have brought to their solutions is really cool! Chandeliers are stereotypically beautiful, but even structures with no glass at all can not only effectively distribute light but also look fantastic doing it. I'm aware that other kinds of furniture can be equally amazing, but the combination of light and the sheer variety of artistic forms that chandeliers, lanterns and lamps come in is breathtaking. Here are a few more pictures I took in India--I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!