Pony: That one was just Maya's Software render. I've been useing MentalRay only sparingly because I don't know enough about it yet, and without knowing anything the lamp looked a little better in maya's software render then mental ray (im sure I will be using it in the end though ).

Ra1der: Yeah, the cable was made using a profile nurbs curve extruded on a path, seemed to work well. The cable wasn't tesselated enough, which is why i think it looked kind of "boxy", but I'll save that for when i have the whole lamp made, cause I want the cable to twist around all the way down to the base.