Find illumination in a good book. The craft studio Typewriter Boneyard turns old books into desk lamps, often using old fashioned light bulb designs.

Link -via My Modern Met | Previously: The Book Lamp

These action figures are dismounting an AT-AT, having ridden it into battle. Conan’s there, too. The Barbarian, not the comedian, although Conan O’Brien would be a good addition to this lamp by Etsy seller Zygmunt Jarzembowski.

Link -via @itscolossal

Instructables member Nylanan is currently building a full-size replica of R2D2. As a result, he’s been seeing visions of the droid in everyday objects, such as this lamp. He cut vinyl panels to size and stuck them on the lamp. Link -via Geek Crafts

If you really want to light up the sky, nothing will do it quite like a nuke. London-based designer Luca Veneri has the same approach for illuminating a single room. Link -via Technabob | Designer’s Website | Photo: Yanko Design

Of course, you’ve wanted your own dancing Pixar lamp ever since you first saw it, right? Jonathan Foote created a chorus line of lamps, seen here performing at Maker Faire. Get the details on how he did it at his blog, waxing prolix. Link -via Laughing Squid

Artist Tanya Clarke takes old plumbing fixtures and turns them into light installations! The “drips” are hand-sculpted glass containing energy-efficient LEDs. Link | Product Site -via Dark Roasted Blend

Bitplay is a Japanese design firm that tries to make ordinary household objects into fun games. Pictured above is “Bang!”, a lamp turns on and off by pressing the trigger on its gun-shaped remote control. When you pull the trigger, the lampshade tilts.

Link via CrunchGear

London-based designer Ryan McIlhinney made this lamp out of action figures held together with a polyurethane lacquer:

Trawling for materials quickly became an obsession, with Mc Elhinney’s limited budget, natural eye and vivid imagination ensuring he spotted the perfect finds to bring to life his early designs. Full of expression and movement, dollar-a-bag sacks of second-hand plastic toys became the designer’s chosen medium. Telling a story with each manipulation, Mc Elhinney meticulously gloss-painted and fused together each figure in a six week process, creating the first in his series of ‘Toy’ frames and lamp bases.

I can see Buzz Lightyear, the Thing, and Spider-Man. Can you identify any others?

Link via Great White Snark

Jason Dietz makes what he calls UFO Abduction Lamps. They look like flying saucers projecting eerie lights onto the ground below. Here’s how they’re made:

They stand 5-feet 5-inches tall and are made out of recycled glass tubes, light diffusers, and acrylic rings. They hold approximately 10 gallons of water each. They use a series of different lights that include CFLs, LEDs, and halogens. They each have a 110-volt 20-gallon air pump that produces the bubbles from the bottom. The theme is a cow being abducted out of a grassy pasture — look carefully to see the cow in the giant plasma tube.

Link via Technabob

Link via BoingBoing Gadgets

Visit another time and another place with these charming, retro Americana postcard lamp shades. The vintage-style shades sit atop a natural cedar stump base (sold separately) for a campy, kitschy accent that will bring to mind road trips, vacation homes and an era gone-by. Choose from New York, California, Florida or Texas postcards.

The shades measure 7.5(H) x 10(W) x 6.5(D) inches and are priced at $60 a piece.

Link