apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Performance artists Radiohole came up with these DIY lights for use on stage and also in their own home:

When you're a performance artist, creating the right ambience in your show is everything. It all starts with lighting. So two years ago, my partner and I decided to build a lamp that would capture the aquatic theme of a show that our company, Radiohole, was putting on. We wanted to make a lightbulb look like it was submerged in water, so we used mineral oil, a liquid that's clear and nonconductive...

We've run the 25w bulb for upto 24 hours continuously - no problem. The only issue with higher wattages would be heat but my educated guess is that the mineral oil will keep it cool enough. I'll run a test at higher wattage and post my findings.
The unit will work with any lamp with an E-26 socket (medium base edison).

Put together your own Bubblelight by following the 2 page instructional article over at PopSci.com.

But if this one seems a bit too high-falutin' polished, and you find yourself with some extra empty bottles of booze, you can try to make this alternative Bubble Lamp which uses rubbing alcohol and melted paraffin wax, a DIY Charles Bukowski-style project, if we haven't seen one.