Watch This!

Support our friends over at local Pingala café and eatery down on 1 Mill Street by watching their Kickstarter video and donating! Just click the link below!

Pingala – Sculpture on the River

Last Minute Gift Guide

We’re back, and boy have we been busy. Since our last post we have been giving Conant Metal & Light both a website and branding makeover! We can’t wait until January when we can reveal all of the changes we made to show who we are today. Our focus has become a balance of creativity and sustainability. That means more repurposing, more custom design, and of course keeping up with the latest and greatest in energy efficient technology! Check out our Facebook page for updates on the website launch and other fun projects. But now, in the spirit of the season, here are some great ideas for locally made gifts.

Last Minute Gift Guide — Locally Made For Under $50

Want to stay local without spending a fortune? Or, is it just too late to buy online? Either way, you’re in luck. In this fabulously creative town, inexpensive gift opportunities abound, and the best time to shop is Holiday sHop. Come out this weekend and visit the myriad of artists and small businesses in the Soda Plant and throughout the South End. Below is a list of some of the unique hand crafts you’ll find, all under $50.

AO glass, located at 416 Pine Street, is your go-to-shop for unique hand blown glass products. Their online store showcases a range of products under $50.00, from miniature glass sculptures and ornaments to beautifully engraved drinking glasses.

photo credit: aoglass.com

With their organic shapes and texture, these iron key chains ($12-$16) and wall hooks ($40) have the soft look of clay. Made by our very own Chris Caswell. Come see them in our showroom.

Craving color in stick season? Want to brighten someone’s day? Come check out these beautiful hand blown ornaments ($24) by Macomber Glass Studio. You’ll see them dangling in our shop windows.

Steve Conant isn’t the only one in the repurposing business. His talented daughter Molly makes jewelry from unusual found objects. This beautiful necklace, for example, features a vintage brass token with an ostrich shell detail suspended in the middle ($38). Click on the image to check out her Etsy page or stop by the S.P.A.C.E gallery in the Soda Plant.

Photo credit: etsy.com/shop/RackkandRuin

Made from discarded children’s books, these switch plates ($9) are the perfect way to dress up a child’s room (that’s children ages 1 to 92). And they’ll bring back memories for you too. See a large selection in our showroom or visit Recycle Moe in the Soda Plant for her selection of upcycled bibs and notebooks, all under $50.

Solid aluminum vintage serving trays ($25-$30)—beautiful and functional. Whether you put them on display or use them to serve hors d’oeuvres, they’ll add luster to the occasion.  Visit the Conant Metal & Light showroom to find out more!

Taking inspiration from the light and shadow plays of nature, Tabbatha handcrafts translucent porcelain into functional works of art. Votives $38.00-$47.00. See them under our showroom tree.

Photo credit: tabbathahenryceramics.com

Zoë Ink creates beautiful, bold personal invitations, stationary and much more. Specializing in the art of letter pressing, most of her work is done in her Soda Plant studio on her antique Chandler & Price Platen press. Stop by the Zoë Ink studio during the Holiday Hop and give a gift that is unique, down to the card!

Photo credit: zoeink.com/index.php

These little creatures, called Tube Bots, are made by Soda Plant artist John Brickles from old vacuum tubes and clay ($12-28). Each has its own personality and captures a bit of the humor and unique, mad scientist aesthetic of its creator. Come see these and his larger, amazingly detailed works of clay in his studio.

These funky repurposed bracelets, called Tuff Cuffs ($32-$45), are made by Soda Plant artist Aaron Stein from license plates. Stop by Revival Studio in the Soda Plant to see all of his unique automobilia art, ranging from assemblage pieces to furniture!

Photo credit: revivalstudio.com

We hope to see everyone this weekend at the Holiday Hop!

Extended showroom hours:

Friday 10am-8pm

Saturday 10am-5pm

Sunday 12pm-4pm

We’ve Been Blogged!

Some of our repurposed tables were featured on the blog, Looking At Glass, a blog providing daily reflections on the role of glass in design and architecture. Check it out!

Not Just Lighting!

Someone recently told us he was surprised to discover we sold furniture. Well we do! Metal, industrial, vintage, and repurposed furniture. Desks, cabinets, coffee tables, chairs, wine carts, beer carts, and yes (in case you were wondering), a  hospital cabinet with bedpan drawer. These pieces have been around the block a time or two (before we restored them) and they deserve a reputation. After all, they have stories to tell. They don’t just lay around the house, they are art objects, conversation pieces. So let us introduce you.

 

The Examination Chair

Say ahhh… This doctor’s examination chair, circa 1949, is a good place to seat your daughter’s new boyfriend when he comes to dinner. We’ve been using it for job interviews. Sure it’s scary, but just think of all the children who stayed healthy to avoid it.

Product: 900-950-0037

Size: 53″ tall by 28″ wide by 30″ deep

Materials: Steel, Bakelite & vinyl

Finish: Brushed and lacquered

Price:  $540.00

 

Vintage Dentist Cabinet

Vintage Dentist Cabinet with Swing-Out Tool Trays. Once it held cheek retractors, dentil drills, and foaming toothpaste. Now wouldn’t it make a great bathroom vanity or display cabinet?

Product #: 900-950-0057

Size: 60″ tall by 24″ wide by 20″ deep

Materials: Steel & glass

Finish: Cleaned steel

Price: $2,100.00

 

Harvest Table with Vintage Base

We took a vintage drafting desk, reconfigured it to dining height, and added a galvanized steel top. Clean lines, a beautiful expanse of surface, and plenty of leg room–it’s great for people with big plans or lots of friends.

Product: 900-950-0061

Size: 60″ long by 41″ wide by 29″ tall

Materials: Steel and maple wood

Finish: Antiqued steel

Price: $ 1,350.00

 

Vintage Casket Gurney Table

Guess what this used to be?  Yeah, a casket cart. But reborn as a coffee table, it makes a surprisingly elegant statement. Perfect for small talk and cocktails!

Product: 900-950-0072

Size: 48″ long by 24″ wide by 21″ high

Materials: Cast and bar steel, glass & rubber

Finish: Vintage

Price: $ 2,300.00 

 

Vintage Screw Jack Side Table

A massive vintage screw jack forms the base of this side table – remove the gear and glass top and use it to lift your house! Or just adjust the table to your perfect height.

Product: 935-950-0014

Size: 23″ in diameter and 26 1/2″ in height (adjustable plus or minus 4″)

Materials: Cast iron, steel and glass

Finish: Vintage

Price: $525.00

 

Light Box Chess Table

This light table, made by the “Nu-Arc” Company, has been transformed into a chess/checkers table with a sandblasted glass top. Heck, why not use it as an illuminated bar table?

Product: 935-950-0069

Size: 30 1/2″ wide by 25 1/2″ deep by 38 1/2″ tall

Materials: Steel & glass

Finish: Industrial black wrinkle

Lamping: (1) medium base socket, 60W max, or energy efficient equivalent

Price: $ 1,250.00

 

Vintage Aluminum Suitcase Table

Armchair traveller? You need a suitcase side table!  Adjustable height and plenty of room to store future dreams and memories of adventure. Wonder where it has been?

Product: 935-950-0069

Size: 26″ wide by 16 1/2″ deep by 25 1/2″ tall

Materials: Aluminum and steel

Finish: Polished Aluminum and vintage steel

Price: $380.00

Step back in time, at Art Deco inspired Leunig’s Upstairs Lounge.

The next time you walk down Church Street after dark, look up at Leunig’s 2nd floor windows. Warm amber light emanates from jewel-like fixtures and splashes orange and red against the coffered ceiling. You’ll pull your coat closer–you’ll want to go in. For more than 30 years, with its gourmet fare, inviting atmosphere, and European panache, Leunig’s has provided Burlingtonians with a small corner of France.  Now patrons can travel through time as well.  Leunig’s new Upstairs Lounge is Art Deco à la Flynn–both the artwork and lighting were inspired by the theater’s historical decor. And what better inspiration for a restaurant that is itself housed in one of Burlington’s best examples of deco architecture? Of course, Art Deco is quintessentially Parisian. With its clean lines, angles, and symmetry, the space has the ambiance of Paris in the 1930’s paired with the casual coziness of Vermont.  It’s the perfect stopover after a night at the theater, or an intimate chat with friends.

The lounge, which includes a full bar and snack menu, keeps the same hours as the restaurant and can also be booked for events. The project is a collaboration between architect Brad Rabinowitz, Cornerstone Construction, decorative artist Mark Evans, and co-owners Robert Fuller and Bob Conlon. Ceiling fixtures, sconces, and pendants were designed and fabricated by Conant Metal and Light (ahem, that’s us!). High Beams Lighting also created beautiful table lamps from fiddleheads and horsetail.

Take a tour!

A mirror stairwell makes for a theatrical entrance from the restaurant below.

The bar is fully equiped. And it’s not just a night spot. Stop by for Sunday brunch and try one of their delicious Bloody Marys.

Decorative painter, Mark Evens was inspired by the Flynn Theater for his wall panels. 

High Beams Lighting of Sutton, Vermont created the coordinating table lamps with real fiddleheads and horsetail. Beautiful.

Stop on by!

Photo credit goes to Betsy Breeyear Finstad at Moonshine Designs and Photography.

Local Architect Sandra Vitzthum Featured in New Old House Magazine. Guess Who Did the Lighting?

Flip through the glossy pages of the latest New Old House magazine and you will find the aptly named article “Bright Spot” featuring the work of Montpelier architect Sandra Vitzthum. This bright and breezy kitchen and family room exude summer, like a cool refuge where you can almost feel a zephyr. But then, with its expanses of white, high ceilings, plenty of natural light, and delicate detailing, the space conveys a sense of openness also reminiscent of winter. Whatever the time of year, there is a quality of stillness and breathing room that makes you want to relax. 

Sandra achieved this look by removing the walls separating the old dining space, den, and family rooms, thereby opening views throughout the house and to the outside. She also had the low, 7’6″ ceilings removed to expose beams and enable the installation of skylights.

 

I must admit, I love how our Insulator Pendants look so light and delicate in this space. They add subtle texture and sparkle without detracting from the simplicity and architectural merit of the room. Something else might have looked busy.

Notice the ball jar pendant in the pantry. Clever.

For the full story and more pictures, go to the New Old House website.

Source.

Meet Our Staff: Jonathan, Inventor

Or should we say, Jonathan, inventor, mad scientist, painter, gardener, musician, craftsman, and otherwise jack of all trades? After 20 years at Conant Metal and Light, Jonathan is invaluable for his encyclopedic knowledge of lamp parts and past projects, and for his genius of a mechanical mind. On any given day, you can find him quietly working in the back of our shop under the constant breeze of a fan. Ask him to solve a tricky mechnical problem and he’ll say “sure, that’s easy.” But then, that’s only the tip of Jonathan’s iceberg. To get a fuller picture, let’s take a tour of his house, aka “The Museum.”

The house, largely concealed from the road by a thicket of plants, is a relic of the twenties. And stepping inside, it almost feels like a step back to that era. Electrified antique gas lanterns spread pools of soft light around tables in an otherwise shadowy living room. Under each one is a sort of exibit. Of what? You squint your eyes to see a series of models: miniature ships that Jonathan built or restored, toy trains, weapons, functional and sculptural, experiments in electricity. Jonanthan has a passion for understanding the way things work, their physics, their systems. As a kid, we ask questions like, “Dad, how do microwaves work? and “Is time travel possible?” Apparently, Jonathan never stopped asking. 

“Well, my father was an engineer and my mother an artist.” That’s how he explains the blending of his love for facts and mechanics with his creativity. Or it could be his varied employment history–he’s done everything from make jewelry to working in a steel yard, playing class A baseball, to working in a saw mill. Jonathan’s fascinating and strangely beautiful creations could be described as “steam punk.”  They blend a love of history and antiques, science and science fiction. His style has greatly influenced our aesthetic at Conant Metal and Light. Here are a very few of the projects you will see on a tour of his museum:

 

 

The Balista, below, is Jonathan’s redesign of a Roman Balista (similar to a cross bow). “As a kid, I watched a lot of movies like “Ben Hur” and “King of Kings.” It’s about 5 inches long and shoots 75 feet, will stick straight into the wall.

The red target in the background is made of gooda wax. “The cheese wasn’t bad either,” he says. “A little dry though.”

 

 

 

 

Jonathan’s much celebrated Ray Guns are actually not his invention. They arrived on a spaceship that crashed in Victory Bog in the Northeast Kingdom. He is in the process of writing a science fiction book about their story.

For more on these guns, click on the photo link.

 

 

 

This miniature coal operation is a fixture on the dining room table. When and where does he eat? Apparently he consumes knowledge.

 

Lightning bugs that Jonathan calls his “Frankenstein monsters.” He likes to electricute them with 20,000 volts and make them “light up.”

 

 

Many children are interested in automobiles, right? Jonathan completed this one at age 12. It is two inches high.

 

In the music room can be found what Jonathan refers to as “The Shrine,” a monument to his love of music and science fiction.

He plays the guitar.

In this same room can be found a functional replica of a Remington Buffalo gun that he made himself out of salvaged cherry wood.

 

The bedroom, like every other room, is a jungle of plants. He shows you one that belonged to his Great Grandfather, and a tomato plant that produced two seasons. You get the feeling that each plant is an individual with a story. Or maybe it is a science experiement? 

 

His entire attic is full of model trains. And in his basement…a toy baseball game that he constructed over a period of 20 years. A series of minitature stadium lights illuminate the field, business cards advertise along the walls.

Come take a tour of our workshop at 270 Pine Street. You just may see him there.

Recover. Reinvent.

That’s what we do. After each blizzard, flood, and hurricane, Vermonters pick up the pieces and start over. We have experienced some extreme weather this year. But, then, people don’t move to Vermont for the mild climate; they move here and stay here for what makes this state unique–an ethic of independence, creativity, hard work, and community. Oh yeah, and the jaw-dropping natural beauty.

We recently salvaged and reinvented a piece of furniture and it’s story seems like the perfect metaphor for Vermonters. With the flooding in June, Lake Champlain’s waters rose to unprecedented levels. When the waters receded, Tyler, a memeber of our staff, came upon an old barge hatch that had washed ashore. He walked the hulking piece of metal (weighing around 125 pounds and almost as large as he is) up the hill, down the sidewalk, and into our doors on Pine Street. Around the same time, we discovered a wheeled factory cart that, judging by its scarified surface, had probably been used to haul steel or bricks. Both pieces had most likely been dumped into the lake for filler a hundred or so years ago and forgotten.

Scraps of history, souvenirs of the flood…but what to do with them?

Make something new, of course.

Tyler at work.

After some metal working, refinishing, and putting together of pieces…voila! Our vintage coffee table, circa 1900, has a whole lot of history. 

And after all it’s been through, you can bet it’s up to the task of supporting your espresso cups and champagne flutes.

As it is with people, time, hard work, and rough weather can make for some beautiful character.

And patina. 

 

 

Does “Repurposed” mean funky? …. not always.

When Church & Main, a new restaurant on Burlington’s Church Street, asked Conant Metal & Light to help build their brand with a sculptural version of their logo, we, of course, thought repurposed materials! Their goal was to create a refined and contemporary eating establishment, sparsely appointed with meaningful accents.

This job called for eye candy – clearly ball jars, insulators or cast off industrial machinery just wouldn’t do. In this case we stuck with repurposed materials and set to work disguising their origin. The leaves were individually cut from small pieces of scrap copper left from a roofing job…

The stem is a used piece of 1″ copper tubing rescued from a job site dumpster and the ampersand was cut from bronze scrap pulled from the CM&L scrap barrel…

Clearly, repurposed metalwork can take many forms!

Thanks Church & Main, we wish you the best in your new endeavor!

Check us out on Practically Green!

You can check out Steve Conant’s latest interview with the blog site Practically Green…and while you’re at it, take a quiz to see how green you are!

Here’s a blurb from the article:

“It’s so like a Vermonter to come up with this: take a quintessential symbol of the farmhouse kitchen, turn it on its head, and let it shine.  Conant Metal & Light of Burlington, Vermont, salvages thick-glassed, antique canning jars, the ones Granny used for putting food by and turns them into energy-efficient lights.”