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"Both of us were suddenly inspired to buy some driftwood pieces to take home when we went back to Michigan," recalls Berg. "As we stopped and visited some of the shops, we were sadly disappointed to find the prices too high and beyond our budget. It bothered me to see my wife's dreams for the lamps shattered, so I suddenly got the idea to try to make her one. I had examined them carefully and had seen how they were created and put together, so I was sure I could make one.

"We stopped our car at one of the stands along the ocean beach and bought some driftwood gathered along the beach. Arriving at our Miami home, I entered the garage workshop and cut out the form of a lamp from the wood and proceeded to make a lamp. My wife stood right beside me and watched with amazement as her dream for a driftwood lamp took form.

"Finally the lamp was completed with a shade, placed upon a small table and admired from a distance by my wife and me. To say the least, we were very proud of our first driftwood lamp, one that was destined to start us off in the business of making them."

Visitors to the Berg home were attracted by the driftwood lamp, too, and they asked Berg if he would make them one. Berg said he could, and before long word got around that his driftwood lamps were something different for the modern home. Before he knew it, he was forced to devote his full time to making driftwood lamps to keep up with his orders.

THE DRIFTWOOD from which Berg makes the lamps is part of the trees that have been torn from the ground by floods, hurricanes or man, and washed or blown in the rivers or oceans to drift aimlessly over the oceans and seas. As the wood drifts, the salt water, hot tropical sun, rain, wind and buffeting by the waves combine to wear and tear away the soft parts, twisting, turning and warping the piece into a fantastically shaped thing of beauty. Some of the shapes resemble reptiles, birds, fish, animals and other objects.

"I've seen a piece of driftwood that resembled an old Spanish galleon of the sixteenth century," says Berg. "The resemblance was so great that it was almost unbelievable that this beautiful, delicate piece of work could be fashioned by chance by the elements. There are never two pieces alike, as each is an original creation, carved by nature—sometimes in its wildest fury and sometimes in a peaceful mood."

Berg gathers along the Miami shores the driftwood he uses in making the lamps and it may have drifted in from far away places. There may be Circassian walnut from Russia, harewood from England, Carpathian elm from France, bubiyan from Africa, rosewood from Brazil, prima vera from Panama, tulipwood from Mexico, yuba from Australia, plantia from the Philippines, rarma from Japan, cypress from one of the gulf states, redwood from California.

"I first started making the driftwood lamps in my garage workshop, but I soon outgrew those, working quarters," says Berg. "With the orders increasing daily, I found I hardly had room to turn around in my shop, so I was forced to find larger working quarters.

"After looking around a bit, I was lucky to find just the building I needed on a heavily traveled avenue—bringing many tourists from the northern states to my lamp shop. The shop was fifteen by fifty feet and offered an attractive display room in the front facing the avenue.

"My wife and I decided that my lamp shop must have a name, so I named it The Sea Driftwood as my lamps were fashioned from this product and it seemed appropriate. I equipped my shop with an eighteen-inch band saw, table sander, hand saws, drill press, two small ¼-inch electric drills, screw drivers, 100 lamp sockets, lamp harps, threaded ¼-inch pipe finial caps, 1,000 feet of electric cord, plugs, assorted screws, shellac, wax and paint."

AS BERG devoted full time to creating lamps from driftwood, he found that he gradually increased his speed and efficiency.

"I surprised myself when I found I was turning out 100 lamps a week," says Berg. "The lamps were made in various heights and sizes with assorted colored bases either a black base or a natural driftwood base.

"The lamps range in sizes from twenty-six inches to thirty-six inches. Then, too, I turn out a sixty-inch floor lamp with a black or natural driftwood base, which is a popular model."

A piece of driftwood with an unusual design or shape, such as a twisted form, is the type that makes an appealing lamp. If you are interested in emulating him, Berg suggests that after searching along the sea shore, river or lake, you'll discover a number of pieces from which you can make your selection. Half the fun of making a driftwood lamp lies in the search for and the discovery of suitable pieces of wood.

Once you have your piece of driftwood, you are ready to cut it to the desired height you want the lamp to be. You may have to cut some off the top and bottom of the raw piece (so that you have your best form in the lamp) but this can be done easily with a hand saw or band saw.

Berg suggests to the prospective lamp maker that he wash the driftwood in warm soapy water to remove all the sand and mud gathered in the course of its drifting.

Next (after the wood has dried from its washing) it should be sandpapered with several grades of sandpaper—ranging from the coarse to the very fine. Sandpapering the wood brings out the beauty of the wood grain and makes it more appealing.

"The driftwood gathered here in Florida has an added beauty because of the coral reefs and coral islands which do the job of twisting the wood into fantastic shapes," says Berg. "Most of the wood I gather must, be chopped from the coral, and the smaller pieces that I gather are usually broken off of larger pieces by the wind and the water."

Berg makes some of the driftwood lamps without bases, cutting them out in such a way as to form a natural base of driftwood. Some of the driftwood is cut into lamp forms so as to provide natural feet for the lamp to stand upon. Other lamp-forms are cut from the driftwood so that the base part of the lamp is heavier than the top—preventing them from being tipped or knocked over.

Some of the lamps are mounted on black walnut wood about four inches by four inches, as some customers prefer them mounted in such a way. Others are made with a base that is shaped and follows the form or pattern of the driftwood lamp-stem.

After the driftwood has been sanded, it is ready to be threaded and drilled so a cord may be inserted in the base. Sometimes it may be necessary to drill several times (at different angles) to get the cord through to the base. This is done with an electric powered ¼-inch drill. After the cord is threaded through these drilled holes, the outer holes are filled with plastic wood.

A piece of hollow, ¼-inch lamp pipe with a threaded end about four to six inches long (it's up to the individual) is run down into the drilled hole from the top. To the threaded end a lamp socket is fastened which holds the lamp bulb.

Some electric lamp bulb sockets may be purchased which makes it unnecessary to drill a hole through the entire stem of the lamp. The lamp cord is fixed to it in the bulb socket in such a way that it comes out at the top of the lamp—making it unnecessary for it to be pulled through the base of the lamp—thus eliminating a lot of excess drilling.

After the lamp has been threaded with electric wiring and bulb socket. it is shellacked, waxed, and hand rubbed until every ridge of grain has a soft walnut-hued glow.

"I ship my lamps to every state east of the Mississippi and to California, Minnesota, Texas, Arkansas, and Kansas," says Berg. "They range in price from $16 for a twenty-six inch lamp with a black base, to $18 and $21.50 respectively for thirty and thirty-six inch lamps with black or natural driftwood bases. The floor lamps measuring sixty inches high with black base or natural driftwood bases sell for $67.50 each. All these prices are wholesale.

SHORTLY AFTER Berg opened his driftwood shop, he procured a list of manufacturers' agents who were representing lamp makers. Such lists can often be obtained from your local Chamber of Commerce. Also agents for lamp makers advertise in trade magazines dealing with lamps. Such magazines are on file in most public libraries.

"I thought if I could find some representatives to take a few of my lamps around and get orders for me on a percentage basis, it would be a good deal for me," says Berg. "After going over the names of a number of them, I picked out one from Philadelphia to do my selling. I was greatly thrilled when I received from one store an order for twelve lamps which netted me $227. This store happened to be one of the finest stores in Philadelphia, so to be represented in their furniture lines made me very happy.

"I now have representatives carrying my lines in Cleveland, Ohio, Lansing, Michigan, and in Chicago where my lamps are on display at the Merchandise Mart."

At first the lamps were produced and sold without shades, but in response to buyer demands Berg began making them available with ready-made shades purchased from a manufacturer. The shades are available in a handmade burlap material and a basket weave material, both of assorted colors. They range in price from $3.25 to $6.50—according to the size of the shade.

Tourists visiting the state of Florida like to take home a souvenir of that state and often Berg's lamps are chosen as a remembrance. Driftwood is typical of Florida and the coasts upon which it is washed.

"MAKING THE lamps and filling the orders soon became too much, for me to handle alone, so I had to employ another fellow," says Berg. "He was familiar with power tools and had a love for driftwood, too, so he proved a big help to me. At first he worked only at drilling and fitting pieces, but he gradually developed a feel for selecting and cutting from the raw stock, which has helped me out a lot."

After the first month's operation of the lamp shop, orders started coming in from department stores such as Strawbridge & Clothier, Philadelphia; Hess Brothers, Allentown, Pennsylvania; Michigan Furniture, Lansing, Michigan, and other smaller stores.

"I have a driftwood lamp twenty inches tall, complete with shade which I sell to clubs, societies and other groups to sell and make extra money for their clubs," says Berg. "I sell these lamps for $8.95 and they resell them for twice that amount. With each order I give the club six small pieces of driftwood (sanded) for decorative uses.

"Turning out and creating many dozens of driftwood lamps a week requires lots of driftwood. Therefore, I have to search the keys by boat in order to find enough driftwood to create the lamps.

"One of the pieces in my shop looks like a seahorse out of some land of fantasy. But whatever the size, shape or form of the driftwood lamp, it's bound to fascinate and amaze the customers that come into my shop. Tourists are constantly dropping in to look around and examine the lamps. Many who have taken lamps back to the northern states have written me that they were an item of envy among their neighbors. Others have sent me orders for them at Christmas time and other occasions when a driftwood lamp makes an appropriate gift."

Berg is happiest when he is in the workshop looking over driftwood shapes and selecting those which he thinks will produce the most interesting form for a lamp. It takes him about four hours of labor to make a thirty-inch lamp, after the wood has been selected and cut.

"I always enjoy getting letters about my lamps, when I sell them to customers in other states," says Berg, "One woman from St. Louis wrote me that her lamp was the conversation piece of her home when she had a party or when friends dropped in to visit. Another lady wrote me that her lamp constantly played a joke upon her dog. The driftwood lamp that I sold her took on the resemblance or form of a cat arching its back in fright. I guess the dog figured the lamp was a life-like image, for he constantly growled and barked at it whenever the woman let him into the room where the lamp was."

BERG HAS sold as high as seventy-five lamps a week and now spends from eight to ten hours a day in his shop making them.

"My largest order from one person was from a motel owner who ordered thirty-six lamps," says Berg. "He wanted a lamp for each unit of the motel, to sort of decorate the place and give it an unusual look. They cause a lot of comment and admiration from the guests who visit his motel.

"One day as I was sorting and cutting driftwood up into unusual shapes, I came across one piece that resembled a ghost with a sheet over its head. I painted the ghost white with only a shadowing of black which gave it a realistic appearance.

"The driftwood, piece which resembled a seahorse I painted dark green and highlighted with light green. When I finished decorating it, it looked very much alive. These two lamps sold very quickly, as the public prefers novel and interesting shapes."

Last July Berg exhibited his unusual, driftwood lamps in the lamp show held at the Hotel New Yorker. They drew a lot of attention from the visiting public and many orders were taken for them.

Berg has gone still further in developing the driftwood art, for he also makes coffee tables from the driftwood. Using the driftwood as a base, he cuts it in such a way that it has "arms" which reach upward and hold the glass top.

The coffee tables are made in two (glass top) sizes, thirty-two by thirty-two inches, and forty-two by thirty inches. They sell for $97.50 and $119.50 respectively. Some people prefer to buy the tables without glass and purchase this in their own town, as it prevents breakage in shipping.