A finished work can still evolve.
A repeat customer came to pick up a cottage candle holder and said she would have loved to use it as a lamp. I said it definitely could be done, but I was not sure if the bulb that would be visible through a semi-transparent glass would spoil the lamp's appearance. We made a trip to my workroom and placed a 40-watt bulb into the candle holder to see how it would look. We also tried a 4-watt night light bulb. She liked the brighter bulb more.
So, the next day I set out to make the change. I needed to make the cottage 1 inch taller in order for a candelabra bulb not to peek out at the top, so I added a strip of blue glass matching the cottage roof to the bottom. I also installed the wire ring that would hold the clip-in bulb fitting. Finally, I added a wire swirl and some beads since my customer mentioned that something like that would look like an icicle.
Once the transformation was complete, I turned the lamp on. While the ice glass did not hide the bulb completely, it obscured it just enough. Unfortunately, the yellow glass that cottage windows were made of was absolutely transparent, so I could see the wire ring, the socket, and the bulb - not pretty at all. The customer has assured me it would be fine, but I was not satisfied. The only thing I could do at this point was to frost the yellow glass and that made the bulb less visible.
My customer was happy when she came to pick up the lamp and I myself liked the lamp better than the candle holder. The taller version appealed more to me, so I decided to offer it in my store as a lamp from now on.