Area Code 305

I had big plans this weekend for a little art project and here we are on a Friday night and I'm finished already. It started earlier when Tracy, Flynn and I headed up to Bunnings to get a few supplies. This was a monumental occasion as it was Flynn's first visit to Bunno's. He was a little disappointed there were no sausages to be had but we'll leave that for another time.

Anyway back to the project. Many moons ago I saw this cool light idea at a market in Brooklyn. It was based on a suspended vintage telephone and looked really funky. I wanted one and thought it would be fairly easy to make. Around that time I was on an expedition up to Cold Spring and found an old phone in one of the vintage stores. I snapped it up with visions of plagiarizing someone's light idea. 

This light has sat in a box for almost two years until this week when I had a bright idea for something original. Not a suspended telephone light but a suspended plant holder. Before I get into that I thought I'd share some history on the phones origin.

Area code 305 covers Miami-Dade county and also some of the Keys in Florida, US. It was actually one of the original area codes created inthe US in 1947 and in its early day covered the entire state of Florida. It's known as a metonym for Miami and Cuban-American rapper Pitbull also refers to himself as Mr 305! What's this got to do with the price of eggs? Well the phone number is 305 238 0176. What I coulnt find was how in the hell it ended up in a junk store in New York State.

Anyway my idea was to suspend the handset and insert a couple of air plants into the handset to hang down. The challenge was how to suspend the handset. I ended up using some Dow with a couple of small metal L brackets screwed in. I'd say it was by design but it was more of an accident but the handset can be easily moved off so you can go and water the plants.

On that topic I selected a couple of Tillandsias. Otherwise known as air plants. I got a Harrisii and a Cotton Candy. These plants get all the nutrients they need through the air and only need an occasional spray of water on the leaves. Pretty funky. Let's see how they survive in the house.

I'm pretty stoked with how it turned out and it's taking pride of place next to the Mr Jones chair.

The before photo

The finished product

Looking pretty cool next to the Mr Jones chair.