Project Bicycle Wheel: Part 2

It took some time coming, but I finally finished my bicycle wheel project. Come to find out - it has been done since my last post on the subject.

I started out thinking that I would make a lamp out of my beaded-up bicycle wheel. I decided to purchase an inexpensive bottle lamp kit. I pulled the axle, rod, and bearings out of the wheel hub and wired the lamp through the hub:


At first, I was pretty excited about how well it was coming together. When I put a small light bulb in the socket, however, I did not like the way it was starting to look. The bulb seemed out of place and awkward. I experimented with different ways to cover the bulb. I hung beaded strings from the spokes similar to a chandelier. I also made a shade out of spare bicycle cassettes. I was not happy with the way things were looking so I decided to put the project aside until something inspired me.

It wasn't until I moved out of my apartment and into a house, when I had my wired-up bike wheel hanging out on the floor next to my dining table, that I realized why I was not satisfied with the wheel: I liked it much better when I was not trying to force my original idea of turning the wheel into a lamp. I liked it better as a simple piece of wall art. I disassembled the lamp kit, grabbed a nail and hung the old wheel with paper bead spokes on the wall over my dining room table. I like the way it looks and the brightly colored beads add a nice bit of color to an otherwise bland room.

It took awhile to figure out that I already had what I wanted out of the project almost from the beginning: a fun piece of art made out of an old bicycle wheel.