March 27, 2018
To obtain the 100’s of vintage mason jars needed for our lights, we travel many miles but are rewarded with great stories to tell. Here’s a few.
Most frequently, we ramble down dusty roads to old white farmhouses where grandparents have raised large families. Houses now left with handmade curtains, a few photos and a cupboard of vintage mason jars. Sadly the families have had to part with the possessions but hold fast to the memories.
We have rescued jars from the farm ‘ditch-piles’by digging under layers of household pots, plates, and castoff toys. But more commonly,we walked down dark steps into the food cellar below the house. Some jars still holding preserves, but most often replaced with the new version of twist-on canning jars.
One adventure took us to an older home damaged by a bad fire. The smell was so strong and everything was charred, but there were shelves upon shelves of old mason jars.So we bought a few and told the folks, if they clean up, we’ll be back for the rest. Miraculously, we polished the jars up so well they looked like they had never been used.
__________
Perhaps our two favorite stories involve the estate of a 103 year old woman who claimed to the reporter on her 100th birthday…
“I think I’ve lived so long because I only ate the foods I canned myself.”
And one of our last memories was obtaining over 1800 jars from an old school bus!
<
Traveling along rural roads of Maine, we meet up with interesting folks for these treasures of vintage mason jars - jars that have held food to sustain families throughout the hard winters of Maine. From blueberries to dandelion greens, these jars have held ‘life’ for generations.
It's so rewarding knowing our handcrafted mason jar lights begin a ‘new journey’ in homes throughout the United States and entire world!
March 23, 2018
Why are so many people crazy about windmills? Perhaps because of the history and importance of them on America's farmlands.
We are crazy about them too and wanted to offer lighting fixtures folks could put into their modern farmhouse decors that are so popular today. So catch the wind...
If you want more history of the windmill...read more...
Windmills are machines designed to convert the force of the wind into power to be used by humans. In the Great Plains, windmills were used, and continue to be used, primarily to pump water for consumption by people and domestic animals. Windmill installations typically consist of the actual wind machine and a tower (derrick) to support it in the air.
Most windmills used in the Great Plains were of self-governing design. This means that they automatically turned to face changing wind directions and automatically controlled their own speeds of operation to avoid destruction from centrifugal force during high winds. The first commercially successful selfgoverning windmills in America were invented and patented in 1854 by Daniel Halladay in Connecticut. By 1863 the factory producing Halladay's wind machines had relocated to Illinois, closer to a growing market for windmills in the Great Plains and Midwest.
Windmills started to appear in considerable numbers in the Great Plains during the 1870s, but the heyday for their use spanned the decades from the 1880s to the 1920s. Dozens of companies produced them. In time, tens of thousands of these wind machines came into use, principally for pumping water from drilled wells. A small minority of the early windmills converted the force of the wind into rotary power for operating small farm machines such as feed grinders, corn shellers, and wood saws.
The initial windmills in the Great Plains employed wheels and vanes made from wood, combined with cast iron and steel mechanical components. Manufacturers painted them in bright colors similar to other farm machines. All-metal windmills began appearing in the 1870s, but it was not until the 1890s that they came into widespread use. Production of steel windmills gradually supplanted that of "wooden" mills, although the latter remained available commercially into the 1940s. Starting in the 1920s, some residents of the Great Plains began using specially designed wind machines to produce electricity principally for domestic use.
Over the years windmills became visual icons in the Great Plains. One reason for this phenomenon probably stemmed from their appearance. Windmills on their towers constituted some of the very few vertical elements in the otherwise horizontal Plains environment. Furthermore, many residents of the region associate fond remembrances with windmills and their life-giving water, from cool drinks after long hours of field work to the experience of learning to swim in livestock watering reservoirs. Many Plains residents to this day express their emotional attachments to windmills as historical and aesthetic survivals connected with earlier times.
Several economic and technological factors contributed to the decline in use of traditional windmills in the Great Plains. The first major competition the wind machines met came from small internal combustion engines, used by some farmers and ranchers for mechanical work, including pumping of water supplies. The decline of agricultural commodity prices in 1921, following World War I, reduced the ability of people to purchase new windmills, a situation that worsened with general economic depression during the 1930s. The passage of the 1935 Rural Electrification Act enabled many rural people in the Plains to begin securing comparatively inexpensive electricity, which they then often used to operate power pumps, further decreasing demand for windmills.
In the half-century following World War II, windmills remained prominent elements of the built environment in the Great Plains. In most counties in the Plains "windmillers" still continue their business of installing and repairing windmills, which remain available from manufacturers both in the Great Plains and beyond. Because of personal sentiment, many residents in the region have carefully preserved historic windmills as tangible links with their past.
March 16, 2018
Its getting closer to the time of year when we can start enjoying the outside.
So preparing your farmhouse or cottage for some porch sitting goodness, starts with great lighting. Our mason jar exterior porch & ceiling lights created from authentic, vintage mason jars dating back decades ago, is just the right start.
March 13, 2018
We are honored to be a part of such a prestigious magazine as County Sampler with our Windmill Farmhouse Lighting Fixture! Check it out!
December 07, 2017
We are so excited to be featured in the January 2018 COUNTRY SAMPLER magazine! Lamp Goods will showcase their original Windmill Chandelier Light Fixture
December 02, 2017
We've done many commercial spaces and love the way they turned out. Here are a few..