Custom Pronghorn Lamps: A Floor Lamp and Two Table Lamps for Roy

A Collection Without a Plan

Roy had a collection of pronghorn horns. A big one, built up over years — and no idea what to do with it. Pronghorn horn is short and hooked, nothing like the long branching beams of elk or mule deer antler, and most antler work simply isn’t designed around it.

Why Not a Chandelier?

He came to Dante to ask whether anything could be done. A chandelier was out on two counts: he didn’t have enough pronghorn to build one at the size he wanted, and his home didn’t have the room for one anyway. So the question became what else pronghorn could be.

Designs First

Dante mocked up a floor lamp and a pair of table lamps and sent the designs over. Roy approved them, and Dante went to work.

Welded Frames Built Around the Horn

Dante is a welder as well as an antler artisan, which is what made these possible. He fabricated the metal frames himself — the ring base and stem of the floor lamp, the armatures on the table lamps — and set the horns into them so the short hooked forms stack and splay the way they want to naturally. The floor lamp climbs the stem and flares out across the base. The table lamps gather the horns around a wood post on a live-edge slab.

“Roy had the horns but no obvious way to use them. Pronghorn’s short and hooked — it won’t do what elk antler does, so you stop fighting it and build around what it actually is. Once I could weld the frames myself, the pronghorn got to be the whole point instead of filler. Nobody else has lamps like these.”

Dante Martin, maker

Still in His Home

Roy loved them. They’re still displayed in his home today.

Pronghorn Lamp Project Details

Client	Roy
Pieces	One floor lamp and a pair of table lamps
Material	Roy’s own pronghorn horns
Frames	Metal frames designed and welded by Dante
Table lamp bases	Wood post on a live-edge slab

Have a Collection of Your Own?

Tell us what you’ve got and we’ll talk through what it could become. Start your project, see our custom design process, or browse our lamps.

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