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Frequently Asked Questions |
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- Kelp is extremely resistant to heat and fire. Even when it’s
dry. That’s why it makes excellent lamps, shades and votives. And
lousy firewood.
- Dry kelp has little if any odor, a subtle smell of the
beach. Wet kelp smells like, well, wet kelp!
- The second most-asked question when someone sees one of
my products. My friend, the one who got me started making this stuff,
calls it ‘vegetarian hide‘. I like that. It’s organic,
too!! (though I do not recommend your eating it, some people do make
lovely bread n butter pickles from the kelp, and the fronds are nutritious
when gathered properly, and are popular in Asian and macrobiotic cooking).
- I use artificial sinew (a nylon flat thread) to bind the ‘hides’.
I prefer the waxed sinew.
- Your kelp product is very durable and will last a long, long time if
properly treated.
Keep it indoors and dry. Bathrooms are fine, as long
as they are ventilated.
Should your kelp product get wet or moist, to avoid a change in the form,
you should gently put crumpled newspaper inside it, to retain the original
shape. Then allow it to airdry. I do not recommend drying it in the sun,
as that could cause undesirable shrinkage or malformation. For lampshades
with frames, nothing need be done except the air drying.
Dry kelp is tough, but it is also brittle. Treat it like eggs when packing
it, do not put it on the bottom!
- for full size bulbs, I recommend compact fluorescents
(CFLs), for 2 reasons:
1) The lower heat extends the life of your sea kelp shade
2) CFL's are much better for the environment, and will last about 10x as long
as an incandescent bulb. You can purchase them quite reasonably online, for
only a few dollars a bulb. For more information on CFLs, see
http://oikos.com/library/energy_outlet/cfl_info.html
- For general room lighting, and to show up your kelp shades the best, I recommend
a yellow light 26w CFL. For reading lights, my personal preference is a
white light 26w CFL. 26w CFLs are equivalent to approx 100 watt incandescent bulbs.
Of course, you can use CFLs with less wattage, or, if you have chosen a lamp with a
3-way socket, there are 3-way CFLs as well.
contact me. |
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