Lava Lamps
Lava lamps, a kitschy item from the sixties and seventies, started making a comeback in the nineties and are still going strong over a decade later. Aside from being interesting to look at, they make excellent conversation pieces and they can bring a soft glow of light to a corner that would be overpowered by a regular bulb lamp.
You can find lava lamps for bargain prices in many retail novelty stores or through many sites online. More rarely, you could even encounter an original lava lamp from decades ago at a yard sale or a flea market. Ebay is also a great place to look if you have a particular style and color in mind.
Lava lamps are sometimes referred to as hippie lamps because they originated at a time when people either had funky decor (the hippies) or went with a more simple and clean-cut approach (the conservatives) to decorating. It is forty years since the introduction of the original lava lamp and the rules for owning these funky lamps have changed. Lava lamps are no longer considered a hippie item, but instead a retro design piece and a way to approach lighting in a unique and interesting way.
The first lava lamps came in a pretty basic style—colored lava suspended in clear liquid, or oil. The lava settles at the bottom of the lamp when the lava lamp is not on, but as soon as the lamp is clicked on the lava in the bottom begins to heat and slowly floats to the top. It can take up to thirty minutes for lava lamps to fully heat up and reach optimal temperature, and in this time the lava does not rise or bubble in a uniform pattern, rather it slowly dances and stretches inside the lamp. Once lava lamps are properly heated, the lava bubbles and flows rapidly inside the lamp, creating a bubbling effect.
Some precautions about lava lamps are necessary. It is important to keep lava lamps out of extreme cold. Cold can crack the outer glass part of the lamp and also cause the lava to break off into small pieces. Shaking a lava lamp should also be avoided, as it will cause the lava to break up and tiny bubbles to form in the liquid at the top of the lamp. Lava lamps are meant to house a large piece of lava inside an oily liquid fluid. When the lava separates into tiny pieces it can mix with the oil and may never form back into the original large piece.
Whatever your reason for owning lava lamps, whether it brings back memories of the lamp you had as a child or in your college apartment, or if you just discovered the beauty of hot lava floating in oil and want to have one for your first apartment, one thing is for sure: Lava lamps are trendy lighting that will never disappear from the world of interior design.
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