Embellishments > Lighten Up!

Neither your mood nor rooms in your home need to darken just because daylight is in short supply this time of year. Any space can become brighter with the addition of the right lighting fixture, whether it’s a decorative table lamp, a functional wall sconce or an elegant chandelier.

“I like to think of lighting as jewelry for a room,” says Randy Trainor, an interior designer and owner of C. Randolph Trainor, LLC and Interiors by Decorating Den. “For example, a red lamp is a terrific accent for a black and white room, while a floor lamp can become a decorative element like a piece of sculpture.”

NEW HAMPSHIRE HOME went in search of some illuminating gems, and here’s what we found.

ArcLight’s spotted jelly pendant is a swirl of green, sand and turquoise glass and signed by the artist who made it for Fusion Z, a California company that works with glass studios in the Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, Italy, Taiwan and China.

A little more than a foot tall and just less than a foot wide, the fixture uses a one-hundred-watt incandescent bulb.

League of New Hampshire Craftsman Phil Jacobs of North Conway owns the League’s North Conway shop with his wife Karissa and says this blown-glass lamp is a traditional Tiffany style with a contemporary surface design.

The lamp has a bulb under the shade as well as another in the base, and Jacobs calls his one-of-a-kind pieces “future family heirlooms,” since they’re designed to last for generations.

League of New Hampshire Craftsman Sam Wild of Wilmot decorates his wheel-thrown, porcelain lamp bases with impressed and applied textures and motifs that include frogs, beetles and geckos.

His signature pale green celadon glaze becomes an opalescent blue where it is thickly applied, such as on some decorations and at the bottoms of bowls. Jennifer Allen of Botanical Lampshades in North Sandwich made the shade for Wild’s lamp.

League of New Hampshire Craftsman Peter Bloch of New London is renowned for his wood lamps, torchères and sconces with their translucent quaking aspen (also known as popple) shades, which are transformed from logs that previously weighed up to two hundred pounds and now weigh less than a pound.

The shades provide a warm, candle-like light, and are tested for safety and durability by burning a bulb three times the recommended wattage for twenty-four hours.