A Tiffany lamp will bring style and colour to your home

Filed under Art, China & Glass, Real Estate by on May 25, 2012 at 7:36 pm {no comments}

Tiffany Lamps remain timeless accessories that are fit to light up any room. They were first produced by Lewis Comfort Tiffany who was born in New York in 1848 and worked as an artist and designer. He was the American most associated with the Art Nouveau and aesthetic movements and designed stained-glass windows lamps.

Identifying Tiffany Lamps

A Tiffany style lamp is a type of lamp with a stained glass shade made by soldered together the pieces of stained-glass with copper foil. Originals are becoming rare and expensive but fortunately reproduction Tiffany lamps are still hand made today following the traditional methods. Each of these lamps are unique in that no two lamps will ever be identical given there will always be slight variations in the marbling of the glass or the colour hue.

Most manufacturers have tried to retain the favourite nature themes of those made at the beginning of the 20th century and many of these outstanding designs were made by women. Perhaps the best-known ones are the dragonfly Tiffany lamp shade designed by Clara Driscoll in 1900 and the random edged Wisteria Tiffany lamp shade featuring multicoloured mosaic’s intricately leaded; the work of Miss Curtis Frescel in 1902. The traditional designs never seem to go out of fashion and lamps are available with the original geometric, flower or irregular shaped patterns, in a variety of colours.

Choosing a Tiffany Style Lamp

The beauty of this lamp style is that they can fit well into a variety of home styles. For example if you are redesigning a living room you can use one both during the day as a display item and in the evening as a light although you must get the proportions of lighting to suit the mood.

In a large room an alternative is a Tiffany style ceiling pendant which can create an atmosphere no other lighting form can. They’re available in round or rectangular shapes in a wide range of styles and colours, and are easy to fit working easily with most modern ceiling lighting fittings.

It’s important to get the proportions of your lighting right as you will need different strengths of light for particular activities. You will for instance not require quite so much light when watching television as you need for reading. You can also add interest by having additional lamps at different height levels, perhaps by adding Tiffany tall lamp in one corner and a table lamp to create pools of light at different levels around the room. You could even use lights that are fitted to the wall to bounce light onto a white ceiling to make the room appear taller while small Tiffany lamps in dark corners will make the whole room seem bigger.

Rose Tiffany Pendant Shade

There are specialist suppliers of Tiffany lights and Many Department stores will also have a Tiffany section within the general lighting department. Reproductions are affordable with prices can start from as little as £25 for a Tiffany lamp shade if you shop around online. Tiffany style lights are a beautiful accessory to any room and can bring colour and style that no other form of lighting can achieve.

 

 

 

Organic Gardening 5 Tips To Get You Started

Filed under Environment, Gardening by on May 23, 2012 at 9:42 am {no comments}

Growing your own Fruit & vegetables can be incredibly rewarding as home grown produce is not only delicious but also cost effective. However, many gardeners use harsh pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers to help their garden grow. This is unnecessary when you are growing as a hobby, and your fruit & veggies are much more nutritious if they’re grown organically. Fortunately it’s easy to switch to organic growing and the steps below will help.

Step 1 Prepare your soil.

Because your soil is the foundation of your garden, it is important to make sure it’s full of the right nutrients to feed your plants. Mix in organic material like compost or humus and consider having your soil tested. The proper soil conditions can make the difference between a poor crop and award winning vegetables.


Step 2 Choose your crop.

The second step to build an organic garden is to choose your crop, what you intend to grow will affect how you structure your soil.  Also this will help you decide if you want to purchase plants or start your garden from seeds. If you start early enough you can use seeds. If not, you can purchase organic plants from your local nursery.

Step 3 Organise your garden.

Did you know some plants naturally protect other plants from disease and pests while others actually add important nutrients for the soil while growing? Peas and other Legumes add nitrogen to the soil while Marigolds for example, deter bugs and if you plant them around the perimeter of your garden, they’ll help protect your other plants from insect attack. Before transferring your plants into your garden, mark where you’re going to plant them. Make sure there is plenty of room between plants so they have room to grow and thrive.

Step 4 Use Natural pesticides, herbicides and fungicides.

It is said that home gardeners generally use more chemicals on their gardens than farmers do and this is probably due to home gardeners being less cost conscious.  Some of the cheapest alternatives are also very environmentally friendly with for example mild detergent sprays can protect many plants from harmful pests, while natural plant extracts such as essential oils are also effective. Also encouraging natural predators like frogs and ladybugs can keep your garden healthy.

Step 5 Regular Maintenance

Watering and weeding are important and keeping on top of this will both improve your eventual harvest and reduce the need for chemicals. Take care to not over water your plants as this can encourage fungus and rot problems. The soil should be moist, not drenched and the soil should have good drainage for when Mother Nature decides to do the watering for you. Weed on a regular basis to make sure your plants don’t have to compete with the weeds for nutrients and room to grow.

Choosing organic gardening for a hobby will not only improve your health, but will  also help improve the environment, and may beven improve your cooking skills as you experiment with the wide range of produce you can grow.

 

Green Energy – An Introduction

Filed under Environment, Green Living by on May 23, 2012 at 9:08 am {no comments}

Green energy is becoming something of a buzz word and hardly a week passes without some major news story involving the growing trend towards it use. Whatever your views on the peak oil theory and or the Global Warming debate, it is increasingly looking like green energy is the way of the future. Given this it is important to understand what green energy is, why it’s important and how you can use it in your life and how it professes to help the environment.


What is Green Energy?
Green energy is energy produced from renewable resources and therefore has little or no damaging effect on the environment. For example, fossil fuels like oil are expensive to drill for and the process is destructive to the environment and when used they produce a number of toxic by-products. These by products are also a major contributor to greenhouse gases which may be leading to and global warming. They also lower the air quality affecting everyone and in some instances pollute the water supply.

Green energy on the other hand, (solar, wind, and geothermal) do not cause anything like the destruction to the environment either during their generation stage or as a by-product. For example solar cells store and create energy, directly from the sun, which would be shining anyway so no resource is used up and it has no impact on the environment other than possibly absorbing light which would have landed elsewhere. Obviously there is some impact from their production and transportation to the site; however given they will last for many years this is soon recouped in overall savings.  The only downsides to this type of energy production is of course the need for suitable weather conditions, particularly for wind turbines, which obviously produce nothing when the wind is not blowing, and the fact that many view structures such as turbines as a blot on the landscape.

 

Benefits of Green Energy

The benefits of green energy are vast with the main ones being no waste or pollution from the energy sources or emissions. Eliminating these harmful emissions would substantially reduce global warming caused by greenhouse gasses.

Additionally, green energy means less drilling and mining to harvest fossil fuels. Inevitably these actions can lead to problems such as oil spills, and the destruction of forest and wilderness which often has disastrous consequences for the local ecosystem.

Looking beyond the environmental benefits, the other main advantage is that green energy (at least in the form of Solar Electricity) is cost effective. By covering the roof of the average house with Solar Panels it is possible to run the house on energy from the sun. With the ever spiralling cost of home energy this is an attractive long term investment, although the initial cost would be quite high.

The one area where there is still much debate is that of Bio Fuel. This unfortunately required (at present anyway) the use of corn and other grains, which are of course important sources of food both for humans and livestock. This inevitably pushes up food prices and is leading to an increase in world hunger. It is therefore debatable if Bio Fuel is really a green energy source as it’s by product is human suffering which is morally wrong.

How to Use Green Energy

The good news is that any move towards increasing your use of green energy can be done in stages. In fact it would be impractical to change your entire home over to sustainable fuel sources in one fell swoop. The easiest ways are to add a few solar panels, and support sustainable practices. Some energy companies offer green tariffs where you can specify a certain amount of your energy come from wind or solar. This is not available in all areas however.

One final type of green energy which is often overlooked is energy saving. Every watt of electricity not used is of course one which doesn’t need to be generated. So switching off un-needed lights and switching to low energy home appliances is another way to use energy more efficiently.

 

The False Promise of Green Energy

What green energy promises to provide is just so alluring-more jobs, a cleaner environment, a more stable economy, clean and bountiful electricity, fewer toxins and pollutants and, of course, the gratitude of generations to come. There's just one problem. It isn't going to happen that way. This book critically and realistically evaluates the claims of green energy and green jobs proponents who argue that we can improve the economy and the environment, almost risk-free, by spending billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars in return for what are ultimately false promises.

List Price: $ 24.95 Price: $ 15.35

Page 1 of 24123456»1020...Last »