Here's the latest lamp: an articulating plywood clip-on task lamp. So I've been interested in the concept of collaborative lamp design/building. That is, I would design a lamp around easy to find, common and cheap lamp parts, then supply the base-only with instruction on how to finish it, where to get the parts, so on. Not quite Sol Lewitt wall drawings, but his instructions on making his wall pieces is a (slight) inspiration (you can see some of these wall drawings at Dia:Beacon and Mass MoCA). This is something I've tried with the earlier floor lamp (two posts ago) that uses an IKEA cord/shade combination. I have had a bunch of these made and they came out great. Hope to sell these soon.
This new task, or desk, lamp is made out of 1/2" unfinished (you varnish, paint, wax, whatever) Birch plywood. I put a hole in the middle of the arm to keep the cord out of the way. The base slots together and the arm attaches to the base with wing nuts and a bolt. You then go to your local hardware store and get one of those cool industrial clip-on lamps. you can get metal shades, or keep the bulb exposed. I've modified mine with a nice white cloth cord and I deleted the shade, using a bare 40w rubber coated bulb.