Column Lamp #1

This was my first attempt at a column lamp in heavy-duty, high textured (140lb, 300gsm) watercolour paper. The original design was 8 stripes of trapesia but I thought this might not give the lamp enough rigidity so I added a higher level of structure so that groups of trapezia are framed by a larger trapezium. I quite like the idea of perhaps continuing this, fractal-like, on a larger and smaller scale.

The pattern was designed on an iPad then exported to a jpeg. It was then printed in two sections on A4 paper, overlapped and joined, lightly sprayed with adhesive and pressed onto the paper. A scalpel with a 10A blade was then used to cut through both layers of paper. Because of the geometric designs, a high degree of accuracy was needed, particularly at the corners, and it was tiring on the hand particularly because I tend to tighten up my hand when making the cut to keep it stable.

One challenge  was the way in which the pattern had to seamlessly wrap around when the two edges of the watercolour paper are joined together with a 15mm overlap. It perhaps took me longer than it should have to figure out how the overlap would work without impacting on the trapesium design. I put the cardboard sleeve from a single malt inside and made the final cuts through the overlaps with the scalpel. It was pretty tough on the wrist as the paper/card is quite thick. With the join at the back, one can scarcely see where the design wraps.

With the morning sun streaming in, the lamp cast some interesting shadows:

This morning a parcel arrived from AliExpress containing two USB-powered LED light with integrated in-line switches. Being 5v powered, these are arguably even safer and I shall be experimenting with these in subsequent lamps. Of course the GX53 solution has the benefit of easier replacement if the light fails or if a different power or colour temperature is needed.

April 2023