Surveyor's tripod and clamp lamp

There's been a big trend on the lighting scene to incorporate old and vintage items into creative lighting options, from mason jars and hats to giant balls made out of string and paste to create a lampshade to all sorts of found objects to make a unique free-standing lamp. 

My favourite this past year is the surveyors stand, or tripod if you will, used as a base. This style looks great in large open spaces and funky lofts. I have neither, but wanted to try this out for myself after finding a great tripod at a quaint antique store. 

What I needed, however, was a pole that would act as the mid structure of the lamp in which I could thread my wires and would hold the lighting fixture and lampshade and still look cool. So, the restore provided me with lots of ideas and after I found this sawed-off clamp with great bright red clamp components, I knew I had to make it work!

So after much tinkering and thought and trips to the local hardware store to check out lighting fixture component options, here's the end result: