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Although this situation may sound like Utopia, it leaves much to be desired for an active person like Mrs. Marshall. The period of rest is apt to turn into six months of boredom, sitting in the sunshine, staring at the palm trees.

Mrs. Marshall, however, is much too alert mentally to tolerate boredom. Staring at the palm trees gave her a very profitable idea.

She reasoned that surely there must be some use for the thick, pliant material which covers part of the trunk of the royal palm. This is the petiole, or stem, of the leaf which remains on the tree after the leaf dies and falls. Mrs. Marshall twisted a few pieces into various shapes, until it suddenly struck her that one of the shapes looked like a very modernistic lamp. Why not wire it so it would be a lamp?

IT WAS a long way from Mrs. Marshall's first crude experiment to the graceful lamps which now sell for $14 each in gift shops. Mrs. Marshall soon discovered that she couldn't gather the material, shape, and finish the lamps in one-two-three order. Lamps made in this way quickly mildewed.

"I have to dry the petioles slowly in the hot sunshine, after they have been twisted into their permanent shapes," explains Mrs. Marshall. "It may take several weeks, but all my efforts are wasted if I try to hurry it along."

When the petiole is dry, Mrs. Marshall paints it inside and out with an oil-based paint. One of her favorite combinations is a dull black exterior, with the inside creamy white, streaked faintly with pastel pinks and greens.

"It makes an ideal television lamp that way," she says.

The base of the lamp is made from a six-inch square of wood, 1½ inches thick, painted to match the outside of the lamp. A hole two inches in diameter is drilled into this base. The petiole is set into this and secured to the wood with small tacks, working from the bottom of the hole.

A small hole is cut at the back of the petiole, near the base, large enough for the pull chain of a light socket. Next, a socket with a six-foot cord is threaded through the hole in the base, and the socket is held steady while plaster of Paris is poured into the area between the socket and the petiole. This is allowed to set firmly.

The pull chain of the socket is put through the hole prepared for it at the back of the lamp. It is advisable to shorten the chain to about two inches to keep it unobtrusive at the back.

MRS. MARSHALL'S early lamps were inclined to wobble a bit on the light cord, so she has recently improved the construction. A groove is chiseled into the bottom of the lamp and the cord is fitted into this and fastened down with small brads. A piece of felt glued to the bottom prevents the lamp from scratching polished surfaces.

Not content with one lamp design, however lovely it is, Mrs. Marshall decided to design a lamp that would resemble a hibiscus blossom.

"I envisioned it as a night light for a child's bedroom," she says.

Using heavy shears, Mrs. Marshall cut large petals (five for each lamp), drying three of them with a pronounced backward curl, and two with only a slight bend. These were painted bright red.

A stamen was made of a ¼-inch dowel covered with velvet, and this was set into the plaster of Paris on the side of the bloom which had the two straight petals. The base for this particular model was a scalloped circle.

The final touch for Mrs. Marshall's hibiscus night light was a "collar" made from leaves of the coconut palm.

"I think these natural materials make a product truly typical of the area where it was created," she says.

MRS. MARSHALL'S lamps have proved very popular with Florida residents, as well as with tourists who want souvenirs that really look as if they were made in Florida. "The intelligent tourist is wary of 'Made in Japan' souvenirs in resort areas," Mrs. Marshall asserts. "The trend is toward buying something useful to recall vacation memories all year long."

Marketing her lamps is no problem. Gift shops are willing to take all she cares to make on a commission basis. While Mrs. Marshall keeps her production down to a relaxed hobby level, making only a moderate number of lamps, she believes that anyone who cared to produce the lamps in quantity would find a ready mail-order market as well.

THE MAKING of unusual lamps is not necessarily confined to the Florida area. Almost every state has some native material which could be adapted for a lamp base. For example, the coastal areas provide a variety of beautiful sea shells. Gourds and driftwood representative of several areas would also make lovely lamp bases. An imaginative person could use the lotus pods found in Ohio and perhaps other states. The cactus spoons which are found in the desert could be made into a unique lamp design. (Both the cactus spoons and the lotus pods can be purchased in florists' wholesale houses.) Indian pottery and reed baskets also provide unexplored fields for lamp bases.

The wiring is simple with the do-it-yourself kits now on the market which provide the socket, wire, and necessary instructions.

I certainly don't intend to keep on making the same designs forever," says Mrs. Marshall. "I've obtained some dried wood roses and I expect to work out a new lamp design using them."