www.fiberopticmuseum.com | Photo Essay | Fantasia Love Lite 1002

Below: Love Lite - Model 1002 - A super budget model that is one of the smallest Fantasia lamps. This design features a colourful stripe base that is sandwiched between two metal parts. No colour changing and no rotation. Red, blue, yellow and white versions of Love Lite aka Star Lite have been seen. However still very cool!

Notes from Fantasia designer George Stadnik on this small design:

"The Love Lite was a low cost lamp - It has a 10 watt incandescent bulb in it - a small spray and a translucent strip in the  middle. Very simple lamp - top and bottom caps are the same part with slightly different punches and dimples. I think this lamp was designed by the cost accounting department....  (a joke).  I believe it retailed for $19.95. 

This inspired a range of lamps that had transparent or translucent areas in the body. I recall one design based on the firelfly armature that had a hemispheric dome on it (chrome) a mesh strip in the center (gold finish) and the other half of the hemisphere below that. (also chrome). inside the lamp was a cylindrical color wheel with a checker board pattern the when rotated, would create a pixel like design that was a counterpoint to the color wheel for the spray. Merrill and I put together the prototypes of this design and I believe they were manufactured.

This was way before digital media so the magic of the colors changing in the grid caused quite a stir among the lamp buyers. The other lamp that took off from the illuminate body style was a love bug with a perforated center cylinder that spelled out all sorts of phrases of the day. We worked a lot with the  center cylinders of this model. changing wraps, perforating them etc. One series of designed used UV inks that glowed like neon under black light (as do the fibers - they glow blue)

The combination of the glowing fibers with tips changing color and the neon treatments on the base were quite popular at Spencers as they were generally displayed in a darkish black light lit space in the stores. We were pretty prolific in concepting new products - generally came up  with something new on a daily basis. Some were just variations of existing armatures, and some, less frequently were totally new fixtures and ways to display the fiber" - George Stadnik