A New Kerosene Lamp - I Made It Myself!

As many of you know I love and collect vintage canning jars.  I also happen to love pretty kerosene lamps.  So imagine my delight when I stumbled across a kit that you can buy to make a kerosene lamp, out of all things, a canning jar.

It was super easy to put this lamp together.  I washed out the jar and made sure it was thoroughly dry.  To take up some of the space I filled it with two bags of glass marbles I purchased at the dollar store.  It also made it so the pretty vintage wording on the jar stood out more.

I filled it with oil and put the adapter piece on.  Then I screwed on the burner and let the wick soak for a bit.  I turned the little handle until I was able to remove the wick and then I inserted it upside down so the soaked part was at the top and the dry half was now in the oil.  This allowed the entire wick to be saturated with oil for proper burning. 

I ordered a set of 5 kits from Amazon.com with the idea I would make one for myself and one for a friend of mine who loves kerosene lamps.  The set of five was less money than two individual kits so I have three more to use later.  I think these would make great gifts.

I ordered the glass chimney separately and also from Amazon.  They have a nice selection of all kinds but I chose an expensive basic one.  After all, I am more interested in emphasizing the design of the jar.

It only took about five minutes to put this lamp together.  I just love it.