Light Table-Ikea style
Are you sick of your lightbox/table taking up all your valuable table space? Well, you don't have to suffer this hellish injustice any longer. Here's a hot tip for any local comic artists/ Ikea shoppers.
Now that my 4-year old has reached the height requirements for untamed playland independence, I can drop him off with wage-earning strangers and roam, childless, in the lighting section at Ikea.
I found this NIAN wall-shelf with built in-lighting.. Ikea has the shelf in sizes 11X17 inch and 11X22 inch. It's suplied with a small flourescent tube unit and it lights from the top and bottom. You can't buy it on the website, and I don't know about other Ikeas around the world but the store here, over by the Mall, has it on sale for 24.99, marked down from $70.00, RIGHT NOW. Tht's quite a discount. Check it out.
For comics, I've switched to blue-lining, but I still have to do the occasional light-transfer. It's a just a wee-bit small (I bought the 11X17) for full comic pages, but for small, quick transfer jobs, it's just fine. For me, this wall light is perfect. It's out of the way, and when i'm not using it transfer, I can use it display Star Wars toys!
Labels: Worklife
posted by Ryan Kelly at
7:28 AM
7 Comments:
Whoa, weird to see those here. My wife and I just bought two of those to put next to our bed. My warning: the IKEA mounting hardware isn't very strong... our (very large) cat ripped the shelf/light out of the wall just by jumping on it.
On the bright side, the whole thing survivied the fall just fine, even the glass plates and the light bulb.
--Keith
Maybe that's why we're seeing that big sale, It's not cat-proof and falls off the wall.
It should be noted that this thing is a bit heavy and you'll want to get the right screws and maybe screw it into a stud in the wall. Get a stud-finder.
Toggle bolts works pretty well, too, to make them cat-compatible.
Is it kind of cramped, using it as a lightbox up against the wall? Or do you use it rarely enough that it doesn't really matter?
--Keith
Can you buy me one, Ryan?
I'll gladly pay you Tuesday...
I both love and miss IKEA. I don't have one near where I live now because West Virginia is a shithole, but I plan to go to one after I move back to Maryland.
There was one right by my college campus, and my fiancee and I would go there and buy cool stuff 'cause we're trendy like that. Yes, we so are.
Ryan,
Can't find an email for you.
Have a possible gig at the museum.
David Evans devans@smm.org
Hello Ryan, found your blog as I searched more about the Nian, since it seems strangely absent from the Ikea website (weird, I know). I bought the 11x17 version, discounted from the discounted price, for $14.99 this weekend at the Chicago Ikea, with hopes to mount my microwave on top of it in my kitchen. Lo and behold, my microwave wouldn't fit and I found myself googling the shelf for other uses. I love the light box idea; I'm not an illustrator but I find myself worrying about what's going to happen when my trusted light box dies. Now I'm happy I can keep my purchase and mad I didn't think of it myself!
Great work, by the way. Best of luck with everything.
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