A Rs100 (hardly 2$) Bottle Lamp

Hey :)

During one of my many trips a day in search of food to the kitchen store room, i found this really good looking wine bottle. Sad news is, it was empty and the good news, i have an empty bottle! :)

I had seen these really expensive lamps with fancy wire mesh shades and had always wanted one. Well i decided to make a super cheap version of one. i haven't used any fancy tools nor welded anything, mostly because i don't have any fancy tools :P

NOTE - The whole project was made by trial and error method, so the pictures might confuse you, follow the steps i say for fastest fix.

Step 1: Things I Used -

1. Wire mesh
2. Steel wire
3. Steel wire cutter
4. Bottle
5. Plier
6. Black paint and brush
7. Twine
8. Bulb - electric wire - bulb socket
9. Super glue
10. Drill and a glass bit

Optional -

• Copper wire

Step 2: Plan and Prep the Wire Mesh -

• I decided on the diameter and height of the lamp shade i want and made some quick calculations.
• Decided on 15cm diameter and 19cm height for the lamp shade.
• Planned on rolling wire mesh twice so that the holes on the mesh seem more dense.
• Based on my calculation i was supposed to cut out a rectangular piece of size 94cm*22cm but accidentally cut a smaller length. But ignored it :P
• Hope you guys are smarter while doing this :)
• Next step - i painted the mesh black and let it dry overnight.

Folding -

• The edges of the mesh are sharp and to avoid this i folded the extra edges i left on the top and bottom.
• The easy way i found to do this is
  1. First use a plier and pull out a horizontal wire strip like in the picture 6.
  2. Then again using the plier fold the vertical wires down.
• So now you have a smooth top and bottom.

Note -

• The wire mesh is sharp, i suggest you use safety gloves to avoid a sore palms like mine.
• Keep the whole length horizontal wire you pull out while folding for later use.

Step 3: Making the Cylinder Shape -

• The method i suggest you use to roll the mesh is, place the mesh on the edge of a hard surface(table,ladder,etc) and as you pull it of the edge apply even pressure on the mesh while in passes the edge of the hard surface.
• If done neatly, you'll have a nice cylindrical roll.
• Use the taken out wire from the folding step to tie up the two layers of mesh together.

Optional -

• I decided to use copper wire to create a visual difference on the black mesh, but its hardly seen as there is no proper background to it.
• This also helped to hold up the two layers.
• Just the basic in-out-in repeat method to attach the copper wire.

Step 4: The Bottle -

• I went to the local glassware shop and asked them to drill a hole on the bottle for me.
• Use a sandpaper and sand the hold a little to smoothen out the hole.
• Once i got the hole done i got it home and took it to the bathroom.
• Put it in a bucket with little water and scrapped off the labels.
• I used a little bit of soap and warm water. The labels came of quite easily.

Note -

• The safe distance i consider from the bottom of the bottle to drill a hole is 2cm (apprx 1 inch).
• Smoothening the hole is important or you'll soon see cuts on the wire passing through.

Step 5: Getting the Base Ready -

NOTE - In the picture i have first rolled the twine around the bottle and then fixed the socket - next time i would fix the socket first then roll the twine around.

1. Pass the wire in through the hole and then get it out from the top.
2. Attach to the socket and fix the socket to the bottle mouth using super glue.
3. Neatly roll the twine round the bottle on the top and bottom. Use superglue at certain points to make the twine stay in place.
4. I rolled some twine from the bottle onto the socket to hold better ( not in picture).
5. Just below the socket create a "stopper".
6. Stoppermeans roll the twine like 8-9 times just at one part to create thickness.
7. The stopper is to prevent the lamp shade from going any lower from that level.

Note - Fix bulb and refer the already made mesh cylinder to decide the position of the stopper.

Step 6: Supports for the Shade - Part 1

1. First, create the inner circle. The circle needs to have a diameter larger than the socket but not larger than the stopper.
2. I cut the steel wire to required length and made hooks using a plier on both ends and hooked both ends together to get the inner circle.
3. Now place the inner circle in the center of the cylindrical mesh and measure the distance from the edge of the inner circle to the mesh.
4. Cut 4 pieces of steel wire of larger length and make a hook on one of the sides.
5. Use this hook to hook on to a mesh at the bottom part of the cylinder.
6. Hold against the inner circle in place and mark where to make the hook and attach to the inner circle. keep it pretty tight.
7. Repeat the same steps on all 4 sides to get the bottom structure of the lamp shade ready.

Note - The hooks holding onto the mesh have no space to move, this will prevent the wires from slipping, so there is no need to weld or glue them to place.

Tighten the hooks to its place using a plier.

Step 7: Supports for the Shade - Part 2

• Now we need to make the lamp shade stand upright, thus the supports connecting the top part of the lamp shade to the inner circle.

1. Measure distance from the inner circle to top of cylinder.
2. Cut 4 pieces of steel wire longer than the distance measured.
3. Same process - hook both ends - one end hooked to the mesh and other to the inner circle.
4. Make supports for all 4 sides.
5. Place on the bottle, it should stand perfectly.

Step 8: Finishing Up -

• Place the lamp shade on the bottle.
• It should rest on the stopper.
• Attach the bulb and tadaa...ITS DONE :)

Step 9: Mistakes -

• Okay now, the mistakes i made may sound incredibly stupid, well i felt stupid, anyways i'll share them :)
• Initially in the folding part of the mesh, i was following the method of cutting parts and then folding them, until i realized i can just pull one whole wire out and fold without cuts.
• Initially i made the inner circle with the bottle neck radius. Sounds fine, but the problem was it wouldn't pass the socket above (socket had larger radius). The part of the bottle which had larger radius than the socket was too low to place the lamp shade. TWINE and STOPPER was the solution i came up with :)
• Haha another stupidity was that, i actually thought that, only with the bottom support (PART 1) the lamp shade would stand straight. Well as i said i feel stupid now :D
• Another blunder was the initial solution i came up with to make it stand straight was to repeat the lower supports(part 1) at a little higher part of the mesh ...and this 2nd inner circle will rest on the socket. Well obviously this didn't work as when i fixed the bulb, the bulb was much above the lamp shade.
• After doing all these stupidity i decided to start over and came up with the twine idea and upper supports.
• Always fix your bulb and then accordingly decide the position at which the lamp shade rests.

Well there it is, took longer than i expected but that's fine, at least next time i won't come up with the same stupid plan :)

Try it out, its pretty simple and nice to have around :) Hope you guys liked it, if you did, don't forget to vote for me :)

Thanks again :)