To study effectively, every student needs a comfortable, sturdy chair, a desk with a large surface to accommodate books and papers, and last but not least, good light. Spend just a few dollars and an hour or so of your time and make a lamp for your student that will surely make him smile. And we're sure you've read studies proving that smiling students study better.

Chances are you'll find a jar to make this lamp out of right in your pantry. The jar shown here contained salsa. Either make and serve up a big batch of nachos before starting this project or transfer your jar's contents to another suitable container.

Since this lamp commemorates the back-to-school season, we filled the base with small pencils. These short, already sharpened eraserless pencils are called "golf pencils," and are available at discount office supply stores in boxes of 144. We used between half and two thirds of a box to fill this jar.

But a jar is just a jar, ready to hold whatever you'd like to put inside. (See box) Fill it with anything small and colorful. If you're using something really tiny, like buttons or coins, place a smaller jar or even a can, inside the jar that will become the lamp base before filling it with the small items. This way, you'll need a smaller quantity of the items to fill the space.

Of course, you'll be careful when wiring the lamp. The Make-a-Lamp Kit for Bottles used here comes with all of the things you'll need and easy to follow instructions for converting your filled jar into a lamp.

One reason to use this wiring kit to make a lamp is that the socket it contains has a hold for the cord to come through outside the lamp. Since most lamps are made with the cord running through the base, most sockets lack this hole.

After you've wired this lamp, save the instructions that come with the wiring kit so that you'll know what materials to purchase next time. The basic instructions for wiring apply to any type of lamp you might make.

The notebook reinforcements used to trim the purchased clip on shade add another studious touch, and serve to relate the shade to the lamp.

This cheerful lamp will add a fun, functional touch to your student's work area And here's an added bonus: he'll never run out of pencils!

What You'll Need

1 clean empty jar with lid
1 Make-A-Lamp Kit for Bottles (available at hardware stores)
1 box golf pencils
1 package of alphabet beads
Tacky glue
Spray paint
Hammer and awl or big nail
Purchased lampshade
1 sheet self adhesive notebook paper reinforcements
Rick rack or trim

1. Remove lid from jar. With lid right side up, use hammer and awl to punch hole in center of jar lid. Then use awl to enlarge hole to just slightly larger than lamp nipple. Don't worry if hole is not perfect: the brass disc on top of the jar lid will cover the hole.

2. Turn lid upside down, hammer rough edges of hole flat.

3. Spray paint lid at least two coats.

4. Wire lamp following directions on kit package. The only difference is that the adapter will go underneath the jar lid instead of in the bottle's neck.

5. Fill jar with items, screw on lid.

6. Glue beads on jar lid.

7. Spray paint sheet of notebook paper reinforcements. Let dry, stick on shade.

8. Glue trim around top and bottom edges of shade.

9. Put shade on lamp.

BOX

Other things to fill a lamp jar with: colorful buttons or beads, wine corks, pennies, hard candy, artificial fruit, bottle caps, crayons, small toy cars, spools of thread, alphabet blocks.

A note of caution: small children might to "get" candy or other objects in the lamps, which could dangerous. Be careful when placing these lamps where they will be seen by children.