Easy, Cheap, Awesome Looking TLC Pendant Paper Lamp A.k.a Tender, Love & Care Pendant Paper Lamp

I love pendant lamps, this is the lamp I usually make for special occasions like Diwali (in India), but I thought it is really more than that and came up with this cool idea of using it as a night pendant lamp or just pendant lamp.

It is simple and easy, but a little bit time consuming if you apply old school methods (unless you have a cutting tool like Silhouette or at least a compass cutter like tool).

It can also be made by kids under supervision. I named this lamp as TLC (Tender, Love & Care) Pendant lamp, because I have used some lovely words to decorate this lamp which are used to communicate such lovely expressions.

Lets get started.

Step 1: Stuff That You Will Need

You will need following material to make this lamp

1. A large Card sheet or drawing sheet (I used ivory or off-white color)
2. A measurement scale or ruler
3. Elmer's glue or similar or Fevicol (in india), with pointed nozzle..
4. A compass cutter
5. A craft scissor
6. Pencil
7. A stapler
8. A geometry compass (OPTIONAL IF YOU HAVE A COMPASS CUTTER)
9. A paper cutter
10. A power cord with bulb holder
11. A 5 watt CFL or 1 watt LED
12. Tracing sheet (I used A4 size but it doesn't matter)
13. Some knowledge about Microsoft Word and how to print document (OPTIONAL If you take my attached template for print out at Office Depot or similar place).
14. Patience, if will help you finish the stuff faster :-)

Step 2: Preparing the Fundamental Part of Lamp, That Is Cuttings of Circles

In order to make the lamp, we have to cut 20 circles from the card sheet. I used my compass cutter with radius 5.5cm.

NOTE: you can also draw circles on card sheet using compass and use scissor to cut, if you don't have compass cutter.

See the pictures above.

IMPORTANT: YOU DON'T WANT TO USE ANY OTHER METHOD OF DRAWING OR CUTTING THE CIRCLES WHERE YOU CAN NOT FIND THE CENTER OF THE CIRCLE.  WE NEED CENTER OF CIRCLE.

Step 3: Folding the Circular Cuttings

Once the circle cuttings are ready, we need to shape them so that they can be glued together. See pictures above for illustration. 

Here's how you will do it.

1. Fold one side so that the edge touches the center of the circle, press it to make a line and unfold
2. Fold another side such that the fold begins at the end of the first line, touch the edge to the center, press it and unfold 
3. Do this for one last time on the the third side so that a triangle is made by folds.

Do this for all 20 circles.

Step 4: Decorating the Circular Cuttings

This step is all about your imagination, if you need a plain simple lamp, skip this step all together.

Lets prepare for some decoration.

1. We need to cut 2cm radius holes in the center of circular cuttings, using compass cutter its easier. If use draw and cut using paper cutter or scissor, it may be a tedious job. I used compass cutter. See image 1 above . Do this for all 20 circles  
2. Use the attached word document (LovelyWords.doc) and take a print out on the tracing paper (2 pages) see image 2 above. NOTE: if you choose a different size for circles, you will need to modify the document as well so that the cuttings fit the size (a little larger though) of the hole in the center.
   1. NOTE: I chose to use MS-WORD and took printout because my handwriting is not very good, if you are creative, you can just draw circles and write using your hands.
   2. NOTE: You may need to make some adjustment in the document, if your computer does not render the embedded font properly 
3. Using the scissor cut the tracing paper to 20 circle, see image 3 above.

Now we need to cover the hole using trace paper cuttings, we need to make sure that all the words are readable without inverting your head, so i followed a pattern to cover the hole. The patter is as follows

1. Stick 5 circles so that when you read them straight the corner of the triangle should point to the ground. We will use these to make the bottom of lamp. See image 4
2. Stick 5 circles so that when you read them straight the side of the triangle should be parallel to the ground. We will use these to make the top of  lamp See image 5
3. Stick 10 circles as shown in the image 6 above.  We will use these to make the middle of the lamp.   

Step 5: Making the Top of Lamp

We have to stick the folded side of the circle cuttings to form the top, middle & bottom part of the lamp. Lets do this.

1. Pick the 5 circles, you made in last step for the top. 
2. Apply some glue on the side of one circle (see Image 1) and stick it to the opposite side of another circle (see Image 2). Glue all 5 together but dont glue the first and last, so that it looks as shown in Image 3. This is necessary so that we can insert the light inside the lamp. Notice how the shape is coming up 

Lets make the bottom now.

Step 6: Making the Bottom of Lamp

1.Pick the 5 circles, you made in last step for the bottom.
2.Apply some glue on the side of one circle and stick it to the opposite side of another circle. Glue all 5 together and also glue the first and last, so that it looks as shown in Image 3. .Notice how the shape is coming up and also how the words are readable without inverting your head :-)

See image for how the top and bottom are glued and how the arrangement of words looks different.

Lets make the middle part now.

Step 7: Making the Middle of the Lamp

The middle part is just about gluing the remaining 10 circles. This is how you do it:

1. Arrange the circles as shown in the image above.
2. Glue them to form a series (Image 1 and 2)
3. Glue the first and last to form a circle (Image 3) 

You are almost done, now we just need to glue the top, middle and bottom together.. Lets do it.

Step 8: Assembling the Top, Middle & Bottom

This is how you assemble the lamp.

1. Place the middle part and put some glue on the folded portion as shown in the image above. Leave one fold without glue, I did it by mistake and its shown in the image 1
2. Place the top part on the glued middle part and press the two folds together adjusting them so that the folds sit on each other evenly without forming any gaps. See image 2.You will see how it made sense now when we made the top part.
3. Leave this arrangement for few minutes so that the glue bonds with the structure.
4. Invert the arrangement and stick the bottom part as you did it in 1 & 2 for top.
5. Leave the arrangement to dry for few minutes, then insert the electric cord.

Your lamp is ready to hang.

Step 9: Light Up!! & Finished Lamp

See the image above for the awesome looking TLC Pendant Lamp.

Step 10: Safety Information and Some Tips

SAFETY INFORMATION

Ok, So its paper and it can catch fire if the bulb or CFL inside it gets hot. But only if you are not careful about your lighting choice. Here's what you can do.

1. I tested it with 5 watt CFL and I left it for 4-5 hours. There was no problem. You may be worried that the heat may get trapped inside but it won't happen because of the small gaps at the corner of the circles we glued together. Having said that I would recommend you to use not more than 4-5 hours  if CFL is your choice, use 5 watt or 2watt if you get one.
2. I later used 1 watt LED and it worked even better and the effect was way too cool than CFL. 

TIPS:

1. You may skip the decoration part and make a simple looking lamp if you are short of time, it looks cool too.
2. You can try lights of different colors if the card sheet is off white or white, like this one.
3. Instead of glue, you can just staple all circles together, you can later remove the staples and keep the circles or best give this as a DIY gift to someone (especially kids) with instructions to join them together.
4. Try different shapes like triangle or square or even tiny holes for the effect.
5. If you have a electronic cutting tool, then possibilities are endless for the decoration part. I would print and cut all horoscope signs and stick them on tracing sheets.

Thank you for reading this iBle. If you think this is cool, please vote for me.