Our friend Meg Smith turned us on (forgive the pun) to an innovative local business that blends the best of vintage with green design. This holiday season, we’re grateful for all your leads on eco-creative gift ideas.

Hard drive, ca. 1985

Hard-drive pendant light, ca. 2010

From Meg’s dispatch:

It’s so like a Vermonter to come up with this: take a quintessential symbol of the farmhouse kitchen, turn it on its head, and let it shine.  Conant Metal & Light of Burlington, Vermont, salvages thick-glassed, antique canning jars, the ones Granny used for putting food by and turns them into energy-efficient lights.

Steve Conant and his team of lighting artisans get their buzz from rescuing vintage objects from the attic or landfill and divining them with new purpose as lighting fixtures. And in this case, they raised community consciousness at the same time. The company advertised a contest to collect canning jars, paying $1 a jar with the promise to contribute $1000 to the local food bank if 1000 jars were collected. Goal reached in 7 weeks: Vermont Foodbank $1000 richer, scores of individuals 100% happy to have jars recycled, lots of traffic into the store and a feel-good vibe for staff and public alike.

Custom-made with ultra-efficient LED, the Ball jars are transformed into pendant lights, wall sconces and ceiling fixtures. “Repurposed lighting” is the term Conant uses to describe the mindful blend of environmental ethos, design and over-the-top case of nostalgia. The pendant light sells for $180 and comes in clear, tinted and frosted glass, depending on what Granny liked to use for pickling and canning winter preserves.

We caught up with Steve to find out if he has any other ideas in the works, and he does. Here’s his description of what’s in this photo below, from left to right:

1) Paint can: plain old everyday quart or gallon can.

2) Insulator from the top of a telegraph pole. This is lying around in every grandfather’s workshop. They come in all different colors and shapes.

3) LED pendant, little shade. Embossed with “made in the USA” There’s an endless supply of these. You cut the bottom and sand them.

4) Light fixtures. We have boxes of these brass sockets, and we fit them with LED bulbs.

5) Very nice nickel-plated brass flashlight. LED. Basically it’s an accent light. We took the batteries out and out pipe in.

6) Ball jar (already described above): That’s the one that really sings to people. It’s an iconic look and feel, I love the light through the pale blue. We can frost it so you don’t see the bulb, if you want.

What about efficient lightbulbs? What’s Steve’s advice on Compact fluorescents (CFLs) vs. light-emitting diodes (LEDs) at this point? “The consumer is price conscious, and a CFL costs a dollar.  There’s absolutely no question about the payback. Right now the LED bulbs are still fairly expensive and inaccessible for most of us – but the prices on LEDs are coming down very quickly. In five years, a LED bulb will be affordable.” Personally? “I use CFLs today. It’s the right thing to do. Soon, LEDs will be an even better solution.”

What does Steve think of Practically Green? “Boy did I enjoy taking that test. I really got my marching orders.” (We assume he’s already added in 50 points for installing CFL or LED bulbs in his indoor lighting fixtures! Click here for all four of Practically Green’s bright-light ideas.)

And why is a rhinocerous crashing through Steve’s store upstairs?                

“This guy came in, he’d found this rhino head in an antiques shop in Maine. I said, GREAT the customers will go nuts. I put it behind my desk and nobody said a thing. So one of our key employees helped me figure it out, we took three hours and make it look as though it’s busting through the clapboards on the second floor. This rhino put us on the map!

Join Conant on Facebook for updates. If you have an idea for Steve, call him at the shop, (802) 658-4482; or email him at Steve@conantmetalandlight.com. Chances are he’ll be able to solve your lighting problem. This year he and his team completed projects at the Governor’s mansion in Maine, a Las Vegas casino, and reproduction historic fixtures for the Westerly, Rhode Island, Public library. More “obscure projects,” he adds: “We made 700′ of bronze and stainless steel grillwork for the Kuwaiti Conference Center in Kuwait… We built a 48″ transparent glass clock for the University of Vermont. We  built eyelids for the Muppets…What fun!”