Welcome to Chris Miller's Hack.

Note: I didn't get to take a lot of pictures during this because a) I decided to do it today in less than two hours and b) i did not have

access to a camera until I had already finished.

My Hack is based on the premise "One Person's Garbage is Another's Treasure"

I feel that simply because something loses its original purpose does not make it worthy of getting thrown away. Rather, it can take on a new function.

In this case, old cans and bottles no longer house soups or detergent.

They house a light.

A glass lamp of mine had broken, so I only had the rod and base of a lamp left, which seemed useless: trash.

Also, there was a big heap of old cans and bottles that were about to get recycled: trash.

One plus one equals this:

I cut up and beat up cans and bottles to create an abstract, industrial lighting fixture.

With sharp edges and antiqued metal surfaces, the lamp takes on a life of its own.

It took a lot of tools that i wasn't familiar with (and yes, that is a blow torch in my right hand.)

I used various metal cutters to tear up the cans and turn the once-was cylinders into shards of metal, then build from the bottom up.

I didn't want the lightbulb fixture to look so ordinary, so i cut an end and a hole in a soup can to house the fixture and have an area to switch it on and off. The light switch nob is actually located outside the can, opposed to the lightbulb FIXTURE which is located within.

I took the blow torch and heated all the cans. I don't know if any of you have done this before, but whenever there is a bonfire, whether at the beach or camp, etc., we always throw our soda cans in and watch them crinkle up. Before they do this however, the paint on the cans burns away leaving a ghostly shadow of the once was label. This was the affect I was going for.

After the shards were built on top of one another, all it took was some hot glue and duct tape till the piece came together.

I plugged it in, and let there be light.