Adjustable desk lamps

Why should you be looking specially for adjustable desk lamps?

Bargain Swing Arm Lamp (Dick Blick)

Essentially, it's so that your environment always suits you and your work, rather than you trying to fit in to the environment.

If you are craning, leaning, straining or hunching to adjust your position or (worse) your eyesight to the available light, it means that your work will suffer -- and so will you, from eye-strain, back pain, headaches and blurred vision.

Apart from the immediate discomfort and longer-term health risks of bad lighting, it is very frustrating to have to labour in poor or not-quite-right light. When you want to produce good work, you need clear, even lighting for proper results. Otherwise, as soon as you carry your work into better light than that you were working in, you will feel disappointed.

Just as bad as dull light is a good light source but in the wrong position, so your own hand or head are casting a distracting shadow over your page!

A proper, flexible light-source is well worth its price. They are often available inexpensively (less than $25, like the Dick Blick lamp shown above) or second-hand. Whatever style or variety you choose, at whatever price, check through the following points so as to get the most out of your work-time, and to maximise the performance ... and the life ... of one of your most valuable assets -- your eyesight:

• Good adjustable desk lamps will cast clear, even, directed light -- look for a neatly flared surround with a white or reflective interior. (Unshaded, all-directional light will dazzle you in the corner of your eye.)
• Your adjustable desk lamp must fit neatly into your workspace -- preferably, by clamping securely onto the corner or edge of your desk.
• The lamp must be positionable so it casts light from over the shoulder of your non-working hand. So, if you're right-handed, it should fit so it casts light from over your left shoulder, and vice-versa.
• All adjustable desk lamps should ideally be adjustable from side to side as well as up and down. An anglepoise lamp is ideal for this.
• Check that the lamp can be fitted with a daylight or full-spectrum bulb (available separately from many art shops).
• If the lamp isn't new, check its fuses and wiring, and any tests it's had, to make sure that it's electrically safe!

My own adjustable desk lamp is an ancient white anglepoise lamp currently containing an inexpensive daylight bulb. It is a good and faithful illuminator of my work. The springs are nearly exhausted but rubber bands work almost as well!

However, I recently worked as a 'calligrapher on call' to write and decorate pages in a large presentation book which could not be taken out of my client's building. Before we started, I asked about work space, lighting etc and was told they would make a special well-lit space where I could write in the book in comfort and undisturbed.

When I arrived, my client, with great pride, showed me to the work-station they had cleared for me from among their limited desk spaces. It did indeed boast wonderful daylight from a large spotless window ... on the right-hand-side! (I am right-handed and completely forgot to mention the preference for left-hand-side lighting.) So, as well as taping scrap-paper over the glass on sunny days so as not to be dazzled by the direct sunlight on the page, I had to supplement the daylight with electrical light from the left because of the shadows my own hand was casting over the fine detail.

Nevertheless, I was very grateful that my client had made an effort to provide a space with such good natural light -- it's so much easier on the eyes than ordinary light-bulbs or fluorescent light, and makes for better work, both in terms of colour and fine detail.

So, I do urge all calligraphers as well as other artists, craftspeople and hobbyists: use natural daylight whenever or wherever you can, or else daylight bulbs or full-spectrum lighting in an adjustable desk lamp. It doesn't have to cost you much money. It would be terrible if bad working habits were to cost you your good eyesight.

Your work -- and your eyes -- will thank you for better-quality lighting straightaway!