Judges at fair make light of ugly lamps

When Trina Gibson's cousin in Miami fractured her leg, Gibson got a bright idea for reusing the cast — making a lamp out of it and entering it in the Ugly Lamp Contest at the Kentucky State Fair.




That might seem an odd thought, but Gibson said it came naturally because she's a regular visitor to the annual contest. “I've seen some of those ugly lamps,” Gibson said with a laugh.

The lamp's shade is fashioned from her cousin's X-rays. Protruding from the cast is a rubber foot contributed by another relative in Texas.

When Gibson, of Louisville, came up with the idea, she didn't even know this year's contest would include a special competition for lamps with a leg theme — a tie-in to Actors Theatre of Louisville's upcoming production of “A Christmas Story.” In one subplot of the story, a man wins a lamp shaped like a woman's life-sized leg.

Gibson's lamp won third place overall, as selected by a panel of judges Saturday, and first place in the leg-lamp category. She was awarded two tickets to “A Christmas Story,” which will be presented Nov. 3-28.

More than 100 lamps were entered in the contest, now in its 13thth year, said Patty Schnatter of Lynn's Paradise Café, its sponsor. Many of the lamps will end up in the restaurant, whose décor now includes about 50 ugly lamps, she said.

In addition to leg lamps, the contest had two other categories — “born ugly” for lamps submitted as they are and “made ugly” for lamps created for the contest. The latter was won by a lamp including what seemed to be a stuffed squirrel beneath a green shade with insects pinned to it.

The overall winner, and first in the “born ugly” field, was a multifunction lamp that appeared to be made of light-green marble but was actually metal and plastic. Beneath its mushroom-shaped shade, it featured a clock, phone, pencil holder and music-playing carousel.

“So you could listen to music, talk on the phone and have light all at the same time,” said Jonathan Boome, one of the judges, explaining its appeal. Boome, an interior decorator from Jeffersonville, Ind., said the judges “tried to choose some that we would put in our own apartments.”

When Trina Gibson's cousin in Miami fractured her leg, Gibson got a bright idea for reusing the cast — making a lamp out of it and entering it in the Ugly Lamp Contest at the Kentucky State Fair.







That might seem an odd thought, but Gibson said it came naturally because she's a regular visitor to the annual contest. “I've seen some of those ugly lamps,” Gibson said with a laugh.

The lamp's shade is fashioned from her cousin's X-rays. Protruding from the cast is a rubber foot contributed by another relative in Texas.

When Gibson, of Louisville, came up with the idea, she didn't even know this year's contest would include a special competition for lamps with a leg theme — a tie-in to Actors Theatre of Louisville's upcoming production of “A Christmas Story.” In one subplot of the story, a man wins a lamp shaped like a woman's life-sized leg.

Gibson's lamp won third place overall, as selected by a panel of judges Saturday, and first place in the leg-lamp category. She was awarded two tickets to “A Christmas Story,” which will be presented Nov. 3-28.

More than 100 lamps were entered in the contest, now in its 13thth year, said Patty Schnatter of Lynn's Paradise Café, its sponsor. Many of the lamps will end up in the restaurant, whose décor now includes about 50 ugly lamps, she said.

In addition to leg lamps, the contest had two other categories — “born ugly” for lamps submitted as they are and “made ugly” for lamps created for the contest. The latter was won by a lamp including what seemed to be a stuffed squirrel beneath a green shade with insects pinned to it.

The overall winner, and first in the “born ugly” field, was a multifunction lamp that appeared to be made of light-green marble but was actually metal and plastic. Beneath its mushroom-shaped shade, it featured a clock, phone, pencil holder and music-playing carousel.

“So you could listen to music, talk on the phone and have light all at the same time,” said Jonathan Boome, one of the judges, explaining its appeal. Boome, an interior decorator from Jeffersonville, Ind., said the judges “tried to choose some that we would put in our own apartments.”