Olive oil lamps - let there be light & there was light ! - Jan 7 with Simon Leach

TTT dddd dddd well greetings everybody and happy New Year to you these are our small little personal olive oil lamps and as I promised we would have a go at making some simply a wick in a bowl you can see how simple it is the wick is actually made of the in this case is just some jute twine that works fine just don't use anything that is like nylon or anything like that that is not good they burn for literally four hours and you can adjust the wick as I'm doing make them bigger or smaller you don't want them too big these have got olive oil in and that is really the origin of these kind of lamps they originated in the Mediterranean through well up to really basically until electricity came along I suppose they're rather nice they don't smell they don't make smoke and it's actually a really nice soft soft light I think what do you think yes okay so I thought I've had it in mind to have a go at making some of these different designs I wanted to do just the basic as any Mediterranean home probably would have had before electricity came along you know going back hundreds if not thousands of years these kind of lamps have been used maybe not just throughout the Mediterranean probably in other places but I know for a fact that they were made there and other styles of light this is a very simple design I got off the internet of from archaeological digs done in places like Israel and the Middle East just a simple bowl with a what looks like a pouring lit but it's not really a pouring lip it's basically just the place where the wick comes out of anyway you could have a go at making a few of these let's start off by making this very simple one and see how we get on with that now what I've got here is 8 ounces of play okay just 8 ounces so just Center this going up now these were made of course the ones I said I seen some pictures of some the ones that I've seen were probably well they were not high fired they weren't even glazed they were simply terracotta so a narrow ish but and just a nice sort of boli's form like that now the ones I did I actually rolled them rolled the the rim on them but you don't really need to do that I'll be honest that's just what I did so there you don't really want to fuss with these so you don't really want to make them so that they need trimming on a thing want to keep them this simple simple and as quick as possible to make as I said this is just eight ounces of clay like that alright and now what we're gonna do well that's just leather him like that yeah I want to do a few different designs of these and Shh sort of bring you in on it so to speak I don't know that they will work necessarily but I thought we'd have a go well think about these kinds of lamps is what you have to bear in mind is that this kind of oil olive oil is not like kerosene is thicker so it's it gets sucked up the wick somewhat slower than kerosene so typically these kind of lamps are not very tall there are the flat and they're wide wider rather than higher if you see what I mean that's so that the so that the oil does not have very high to travel if you if you know what I mean so not very not very deep you see but somewhat wide so that the the wick can lay in the oil and just come out the side here and you'll find that then they'll burn quite satisfactorily okay so just bring the camera down here a touch closer because I'm going to what I'm gonna do is so I'm going to take this I'm going to do is I'm going to put that there like that and I'm gonna take this and that's it that is it as they say that is it now you can add as this one does have here a handle on the back and there's many different shapes you can you can come up with to do it for holding it like that yeah this one here works better than this one because I don't know if that that twine that that jute that jute twine stuff is it's not really proper wick but you don't need proper wick where this one in here is a bit of a wick actually from up from a hurricane lamp that I trimmed down this one this one works a little bit better than the other one does the other one with the string the jute string it works but it's it tends to consume the wick faster got a bear in mind that a wick a wick does get consumed slowly that's why you have to trim a wick you know what I mean trim the wick you do need to trim wick they okay let's just whip him off so oh yes gosh just go on online online and look up put in something like a search Mediterranean olive oil lamp and you'll you'll see many many different designs that were used old old designs you know quite interesting I'm gonna make another style now and I've never made one of these before so it's going to be interesting before I do that I'm going to show you a different style that I've made which is like this it's actually still needing a bit of trimming on the bottom again rather wide not very deep the bowl this was thrown as a bowl and then folded in you see each side folded in and then where they kind of overlapped here I just sort of joined them together so this will have multiple wicks coming out of these holes and the oil will be in the base there this one's a little bit raised up okay that one needs trimming on the bottom there I'm gonna take another Locker play I have another idea and that is to make more of a traditional let's call it Aladdin style this one may go wrong because I made one of these before so I'm just having to think in my head about how I'm gonna rush and make this so they want to make it too wide at the base so just nipping that in a bit at the base there and now breaking in well hope you all had a good Christmas and you're enjoying being back to work it's always nice I think to get back to get back in the routine after sort of seems like ages getting back in the swing of I don't know I like a bit of routine all right so so again don't want to make this too high so my plan here with this basically you know what I mean by the Aladdin style lamp it's sort of it has like a handle on one side here doesn't it and then you've got the body and then it's got a little bit of a snout here on the other side where the flame is so this is again eight ounces of to play so I thought if I made made a little Bowl to fare like that and then now this could be just I've got to squish it now like this so the idea is I squish it and join it so you can see what I'd done of course wet clay wet to wet like this bringing it together it really makes it stick well doesn't it so sideways profile you see I basically got myself now a place for the flame here and on this end here where the handle is going to be so I'm going to fashion that now let's just bring the camera in a touch like that okay now what I might do is bring in a little assistance from my friend mr. propane [Music] just like that not too much just a little right now I've gotten the feeling harder push down here easy now this end here I want this to be a handle so what I'm going to do is I'm going to completely join that end up there like that this bit across the top here I'm going to rub my finger over to make a kind of seal you know that this is the point where the wick it's going to come out yes all right a little bit of sponge here just just add a little bit of wetness so here at the end bringing this together squeezing it a bit like that because I want that to be the place where it's you can hold it easy you can shake this now probably if I put a hole through there that would make it easier to hold on to it I'm pushing down a bit here in the middle because this I want to make here make here a filling if you look at the any of these oil lamps online you'll see that they often have a bit of a depression here in the middle because that's where you pour the oil you see the wick is gonna come out there so I have to feed the wick in feed the wicked this is literally the first time I've ever made one like this this design so it's exciting isn't it this is the handle so there where the handle is going to be I would want to put some sort of Criss crossing there or something to make it so it's it's it's easily it grips my fingers you see there in the middle okay let's bring the camera down here we're a quick look dddd all right so it's got a decent handle here to to to grab hold of what I need to do of course is is put a hole in the middle where we pour the oil to fill it up that should just going to ideally one would wait a little bit for this to go a little bit just a mere fact of having a hole there like that will give it a sense of give your fingertips a sense of confidence to pick it up because you'll sort of feel that hole holes are not very easy to cut in clay that is kind of as wet as this that's what I'm saying probably a little better fitting if I'm waiting a touch maybe I'm going to I'm gonna put a hole well I was looking a bit a bit crude there Simon I know it is but you know what but this how they were made you know back in the day wasn't a lot of fuss yeah if one was gonna make a load of these he'd make them get him to such a point and then you know you would you would finish them off when they were a bit more but it is what it is you know we just we just got to do it now and we we haven't got time to and you could all do all sorts of if you if you go online and look at these you'll see there's all kinds of sort of decorative things that they put on rather nice Mason so that was eight ounces of clay 8 ounces of clay let's give that a shot with the old zapper [Music] so he wants it when you have your when you have when you when you're filling this from your from your from your bottle but as you as you pour the oil in here this is going to act as a sort of help to drain the oil down into the lower into that lower chamber easy what fun yeah well I'm not saying it's the most elegant perhaps Aladdin type light lamp that I've met that has been made but it's it's the most elegant one that I've ever made because it's the only one I've ever made the next one if I keep practicing will be better will it not let's get him out put him on there did I cut him off maybe I didn't alright so they're on the base I'm just gonna thumb him off this is it's very basic isn't it but you'll be able to you'll be able to to come up with your own your own style you see that's actually it's quite good to hold on to their it feels quite good so what I probably do with that is take some of my roller wheels you see and just roll roll why don't we do it now they are so you're gonna take one of your roller wheels you see you probably shouldn't be doing it's probably a bit soft but I'm gonna do it anyway just because so I'm going to just push that here in oh so simple oh so simple but you know it has its own little charm doesn't it all right as to give you some inspiration in the darkness in the darkness of winter I want you to make your creations I want you to show them to me send me a photograph of your of your of your of your lamps that you've made because I know that this will inspire you meant it yeah you can decorate them you can decorate them any way you like can you make them make them personal see I think there should work who's not very not very deep but it's got a sufficient reservoir and you've got your handle and you've got your simply just the wick comes out here that's pretty simple isn't okay this put might just need a little bit of finishing off when it's a little drier anyway just to show you that okay folks there is Mediterranean biblical style olive oil olive oil lamps to light up your darkness in the middle of winter we need light don't we we need light in our lives so I hope this will inspire you yeah go to my website Simon leach Potter comm we've got workshop dates are there for this coming year that we're now in and go there if you want to come on a workshop keep practising workshop go there pick a day contact me and we'll take it from there okay hey thanks a lot keep practicing let your light shine and I will see you soon bye bye now

Channel: Simon Leach

Views: 17,878

Rating: 4.9530201 out of 5

Keywords: olive oil lamp, how to make oil lamps, olive oil, olive tree, healthy olives, olive harvest, light of the world, let your light shine, mediterranean oil lamps, place your light on a lampstand, jesus light of the world, god is light, the entrance of thy words brings light, clay is the way, wick making, aladdin's lamp, jesus said I am the light of the world, walk in the light, arts and crafts, workshops with simon leach, wheel thrown pottery

Id: Vl6MHV9652w

Length: 28min 23sec (1703 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 07 2019