I was mesmerized by the Park house in the 2019 movie Parasite, and the living room tripod lamp particularly caught my eye. I really liked the moody, atmospheric light that it gave off. With some research, I found that the lamp was built by the Korean artist/carpenter Bahk Jong Sun, and I located enough images of the lamp online to allow me to design something close.
Here's a still from the movie that shows the lamp:
While the original was wood and brass, my version is all wood, a combination of cherry, Alaska yellow cedar, and Gaboon ebony - all materials I had on-hand. All finished with Odie's Oil. The project took about a month and a half to complete.
The legs and turret are cherry, with ebony splines to connect the legs to the hub. The two-piece turret has a small concealed lazy-susan bearing race that allows the top half to rotate.
The light box has 4 louvers that can be swiveled independently to shape the light. The turret allows the light box to be rotated. I don't know what type of light source was used in the original, but I used a series of LED strips with a dimmable transformer, all hidden behind a milky acrylic panel diffuser.
This was an interesting project because there was very little joinery and very few requirements for precision. This was both freeing and maddening. None of the legs match and none of the louvers match. But the nice thing was that it didn't matter. They're close enough. The lamp has pride of place in the living room, and I can see it from the adjoining room. I smile whenever I see it (at least inwardly).
