https://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/geometric-cardboard-lamp • Posted by lindarose92
This lamp is a dodecahedron composed by many pentagons that have been joined together. Making it isn't as hard as it may seem, but I must warn you: you'll need a lot of patience and time to cut all of these pieces by hand! Don't worry though, the result will reward you, believe me! ;)
This lamp is a dodecahedron composed by many pentagons that have been joined together. Making it isn't as hard as it may seem, but I must warn you: you'll need a lot of patience and time to cut all of these pieces by hand! Don't worry though, the result will reward you, believe me! ;)
Draw 11 regular pentagons on cardboard. They must be identical so be very accurate. I made my pentagons' sides 6cm long (2.36 inches).
Now trace a smaller pentagon inside all of the big ones, at 6mm (0.23 inches) from the borders. Draw other smaller pentagons inside, for a total of 5. All of these pentagons must be one smaller than the other, always at the same distance.
Cut all of your pentagons using a cutter. Remove the central part (the smallest pentagon with no hole in it).
Let's work on one group of pentagons now: take the second biggest pentagon and glue it on the biggest one turning it a little so that its angles are on the sides of the other and vice versa.
Glue the third pentagon on top, always placing it with its angles matching the previous pentagon's sides. Continue this way gluing the rest of the pentagons one above the other following the same pattern. Do the same with all the groups of pentagons.
Lay a pentagon on a surface with the front facing the table. Glue 2 other pentagons to 2 adjacent sides of the first pentagon, lifting them up a little so that you can also glue their 2 sides together.
Glue other 3 pentagons all around the first one, and make sure to always glue their sides together too. You'll obtain something that looks like a bowl.
Now glue a pentagon on top of 2 pentagons of the previous row. This one must be placed as if you were closing the bowl to form a ball.
Close the round gluing the remaining 4 pentagons all around the top of the "bowl".
Turn the "ball" you've just formed upside down: your lampshade is done!
To make the base of the lamp draw about 8 pentagons on cardboard, just as big as the previous ones. Their number depends on the thickness of your bulb holder's base and on your cardboard's thickness. For this reason, make sure to make some tries. Draw a smaller pentagon in all of them, at 1cm (0.39 inches) from the border.
Cut all of your pentagons removing the central part.
Glue them one above the other to compose a very thick pentagon.
Now draw one more pentagon of the same size as the others on cardboard, and draw the outline of your bulb holder in the middle.
Cut that pentagon too and cut out the round outline in the middle to form a hole.
You'll need that hole to insert your bulb holder when your lamp is ready.
Glue the last pentagon on top of the base you created.
Cut out a thin section from the bottom of the base for the cable to pass through.
Insert the bulb holder from the bottom of the base, put a led light bulb and place the lampshade on top of the base. The lamp is done! Light it up and admire the spectacular light effects it creates!