Imaginary Lamp Empire is a business run by filmmaker and visual artist Mark Taylor, who lives and works in Mokelumne Hill, CA, a gold rush town located in the Sierra Foothills. All lamps are unique originals made by hand. Lamp shades are sewn-paper collages; lamp bodies are sculptures pieced together using recycled lamp parts. All lamps include new sockets, plugs, switches and wiring.
Check out the latest selection at imaginarylampempire.com
Imaginary Lamp Empire began when Taylor casually expressed an interest in learning how to sew. A few weeks later, a neighbor showed up bearing her mother’s 1960’s-era Singer sewing machine. After a few lessons, Taylor began stitching together the detritus found in his print shop, which consisted mostly of discarded screen prints and other printed materials. These became art pieces, and shortly thereafter lamp shades. Repurposing a couple of lamps he had lying around the house, Taylor created his first “product.” The basic formula was in place, and Imaginary Lamp Empire became slightly less imaginary.