Cricut Bright 360 Table Lamp Review
With the introduction of its new Cricut Bright 360 lamps, Cricut is entering a whole new product category that may surprise some people. But they’ve done it with their usual attention to detail and sense of style that will give crafters what they want - and even what they didn’t know they wanted - from their craft lighting.
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Cricut. All opinions are my own.
If you are a follower of my instagram, you’ve probably followed my long quest to improve the lighting in my craft studio. First there was the replacement of the ceiling fan with a fixture with more wattage. Then, I replaced the new fixture’s bulbs with LED’s to increase its light output while creating a better color tone. And for years I’ve used a daylight lamp on my studio table as well. But even after all of that, in a room with a large window, I still was always struggling with the light.
A ridiculous portion of my creative time was spent dealing with light, or rather the lack of it. I often had to move my daylight lamp around to various positions on the table to get light where I needed it (trailing cords all over in the process and putting the lamp in the way in the middle of my working space). I spent a lot of time color balancing photos that I took of projects so they’d look right to post. After dark, I often had to adjust my work plans to switch to a task that I could accomplish in lower light. Sometimes after if got dark outside, I had to stop work entirely and wait until the next morning because I knew I couldn’t see well enough in the available light to match colors as well as I wanted.
And then I got the new Cricut Bright 360 table lamp!
My new lamp sits at the junction of my “L” shaped work table. Since the lamp’s arm spins a full circle, I can rotate the arm from this spot to reach all of my various work areas on the table.
I can extend it over my main desk area, where I make my projects. I can turn it so that it lights the area where my Cricut Maker sits, to assist with using that machine or taking pictures. Or, I can spin it towards the window to use as fill light when taking photos on the small photography spot there. The Cricut Bright 360 lamp has a slider that can dim the lamp or turn the light up, so I can get the just the perfect amount of light I need whether it’s bright light for my main desk area or just fill light in my photography spot.
The large LED head means I can light a large portion of my desk when I pull it up high. Here, I have the head raised up so I can light the area needed to work on a double-page 12x12 scrapbook layout. There’s even enough light that I can work after dark if I want now!
One thing the Cricut Bright 360 lamp can’t help with, however, is getting my chair back from a cat who likes to nap in it.
(Want to see more of the J’Adore Paris pillow? Learn how to make it here!)
Pulled down toward the desktop, my Cricut lamp delivers more intensely focused light. This is great for helping to see detail in tasks like weeding or embroidery. I’m really looking forward to having fewer eyestrain headaches, and to wasting less material by making weeding errors!
It’s not just quantity of light that I’m slightly obsessed with….it’s also quality. Different light will make colors appear differently. With the color slider on the Cricut Bright 360, I can alter the color temperature of the light coming from my lamp to adjust for the quality of light at different times of day or from different light bulbs in a room fixture. This helps with things like color matching and with the ability to produce good colors in photos of projects.
Above, I’ve photographed the same paper samples on a progression of three color settings of my Cricut Bright 360 that progress from warm at the top to cool at the bottom. It really changes how the yellow, blue and white tones appear!
I even found a bonus use for my Cricut Bright 360 lamp! Because the lamp head pivots, it can be turned vertically as well as being kept flat to my desk. This turns it into a “ring light” perfect for zoom calls or video recording! The slider switches make it easy to adjust the color temperature and brightness of the light so I (and Ritzie kitty!) can look my best every time, with no need for a second lamp set up.
Light how I want it, where I want it? Now that’s a bright idea….a Cricut Bright 360 idea!
