Living Decor: Lamps

Flux wakes more than devices. Living decor glows, moves and breathes by itself: a ball of thread winds in a spindle, a current's flame burns without a blaze, a floatbell pulses in the water, a glint flutters in a cage, drops run down a curtain's threads, a pendulum swings for ever. All of it is made on the Flux Workbench for a pinch of flux.

A piece's color is a current. Click it with a distillate vial: the vial loses one part, the piece flares and takes any of the 42 currents. A broken piece keeps its color — that is how rows of different currents are gathered.

Thread Lamp — the main lamp of a house: a little ball of glowing thread winds itself in a spindle — five loops turn each about its own axis around a warm heart. Light 14.

Stands on the floor or hangs from the ceiling, like a lantern.

Current Brazier — a bright fire without a blaze: a flame of its current in stepped tongues in a bronze bowl, embers rising. It sets nothing alight. Light 13.

Goes on the floor; not under water. It crackles softly.

Floatbell — a living light in the air and under water: a bell of light pulses, its tendrils trail behind, and it drifts slowly in its block. Light 10.

Needs no support — place it anywhere, it stays in water: a lamp for ponds and aquariums. Breaks at a touch.

Glint Cage — a home for a glint: click a bottled glint on the cage and it flutters inside, now and then perching. Light 12, the color of the glint's current.

An empty bottle takes the glint back; a broken cage lets it go. Stands or hangs like a lantern. A vial drop does not recolor the cage: the color is the glint's.

Bead Curtain — for doorways and windows: threads with beads where drops of the current's light run down. Light 5.

Place blocks one under another — the curtain grows down as one sheet, a drop runs through every block. You walk through it — the threads part. A vial drop colors the whole column.

Tempo Pendulum — for tall halls: it swings for ever, its swing plane slowly turning — a full circle in six minutes; the bob is a ball of light with a fading trail. Light 9.

Hangs from the ceiling, one and a half blocks down.