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How to Make a Lotus Lamp (or a copycat version of Ikea Knappa Lamp)

How to Make a Lotus Lamp (or a copycat version of Ikea Knappa Lamp)


Now let's go straight to the details, saw this gorgeous lamp in Ikea, seems easy enough to make one thyself. Plus it doesn't cost £17.99.

Hence investigation on the interweb... Lamp very popular on Apartment Therapy, found Ikea provides copies of their assembly instructions for download, and here it is for the said lamp:
 
Under 'K' - Knappa Pendant Lamp

http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/customer_service/assembly_instructions.html#

Whilst, the template for the leaves and skeleton is there, not really much you can do, unless you draw one and experiment to get the right shape. See PDF grab below.

There's this nifty FREE program from eMachineShop - ver1.69 - Windows only

http://www.emachineshop.com/machine-shop/Download/page100.html

I don't use their services, but the program is a very easy to use CAD program. All the template files with extension EMS are to be opened with this program. Next step!

See end-result below for motivation

 
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Step 1Using the template

Using the template
Material you need:

1) Plastic file folder - choose a material that feels like 2 to 3 (max)  sheet of 80gm paper. The folder I've got cost only £1.50, felt like polypropylene. I've found white teflon sheets 30x20cm sold on-line, they have excellent temperature tolerance, if you use them, choose a thickness of 0.25mm ~ 0.5mm, as what I had measured on my plastic folder.

2) Pair of sturdy scissor, like fabric scissors. Use this to cut the plastic with template.

3) Double sided tape - Stick the print out on plastic, simply cut the trace, avoid tissue type these are hard to remove

4) Single core wire, roughly 1mm diameter should do fine. This to secure the leaf together.

The list of files:

knappa_ext.ems - This is the separator that hold the shape of the lamp, the way the leaf overlap and opens out like a lotus flower. There are 2 rings, one is 5cm, the other 7cm.You will only need 4 'rings' for 8 C-shape seperator in each case.

knappa_ext-x8.ems - This is the ring copied 8 times, limited to A4 size print outs, for your convenient.

knappa-leaf-small.ems - is sized for the 5cm ring, this is probably as small as you can make this. Any smaller you'll need hands the size of infants or Santa's elves or Foxconn employee.

knappa-leaf-small-x16 - Again fits A4 printout. You will need 40 of these leaf.

knappa-leaf-medium.ems - is sized for 7cm ring
knappa-leaf-medium-x9.ems - again for print out

*NEW*
knappa_ext-x4.pdf
- A4 PDF, is the ring for both sizing, you need 8 of these so make 2 copies
knappa-leaf-small-x16.pdf - is A4 PDF
knappa-leaf-medium-x9.pdf - is A4 PDF, if you are using letter size paper, remember to use 'shrink to fit' on your printer option

Irrespective, you want a bigger size, on the software, drag and select the entire drawing, from the menu, Line -> Transform -> select scale button to scale it up.

Next step - cutting it out and assembly
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31 comments
Nov 26, 2011. 9:19 AMThecaterpillar says:
How many of the links above do i need?
Nov 25, 2011. 7:27 AMporksoda16 says:
So this project require an e-machine?
Oct 18, 2011. 10:18 PMelimasmx says:
Oh my my... I promised the photo a long time ago... here it is!
It looks weird because the ceiling is sloped (:
Jun 29, 2011. 12:28 PMbennett.schatz says:
I NEED HELP WITH THE FILES FOR A APPLE COMPUTER...I can not open nor change the file extension. Not to mention there is no ems program to use for apple -at least that i could find...any help would be really appreciated!
Jun 29, 2011. 2:35 PMbennett.schatz says:
Yes you did..Ill be hanging tight and cant wait for your artichoke!
May 7, 2011. 9:22 PMelimasmx says:
I just made one and in looks absolutely amazing! All my family loved it and I already have a lot of lamps to do D:
Thank you very much for sharing your archives and the instructions, I wouldn't even think about doing one if it wasn't for your instructable.
I'll post a picture tomorrow (:
Again, thanks!

Elvira
Apr 7, 2011. 8:29 AMnabau says:
Congratulations really!!! excellent job.
thanks for sharing :))
Dec 21, 2010. 8:21 AMverdastel says:
Affordable, yet elegant and functional craft!
Thanks for sharing
Oct 26, 2010. 2:33 PMravijojla says:
Amaising instructable! Thanks a bunch for sharing, way to go! Greetings from Serbia, have started making the lamp, will put up some photos how it turned out :)! Once again thanks! All thumbs up!
Oct 28, 2010. 2:42 PMravijojla says:
Bought the material! I decided to make it out of those plastic sheets that are yoused for spiraling stuff in copy centres etc... They've had this nice choice of colors and different % of transparency...So I ended up bying milky white one with some rough surface that looks almost like a sand glass. Now I come to the question(s) and forgive me if I haven't been too attentive to the comments, was a 'bit' distracted by awsomness of the project ;) :
Are all pieces of the same size? and what did you use to drill the holes? Also, how did you copy the shape onto the plastic filefolders?Did you copy the shape through transparent sheets and if so what did you use for it? Also, I have really sharp pare of scissors but no matter what I do the edges keep being rough... scalpel is an issue because I can't make this nice round line with it... Any advice you can share on this?
Oct 19, 2010. 9:29 PMfinfan7 says:
Your ems files are all downloading as tmp files. What's goin on?
Oct 25, 2010. 3:09 PMayoungqu says:
Hi, beautiful instructable! I am hoping to make these for my wedding, but the files are downloading as .tmp files for me as well, and I tried renaming them to no avail... any suggestions? Thanks!
Oct 25, 2010. 5:57 PMayoungqu says:
No luck...what program should it open with? I am using Windows Vista.
Oct 20, 2010. 9:34 AMfinfan7 says:
Thanks, that did it. Nice work on the ible.
Oct 25, 2010. 7:01 AM2ndopinion says:
What program can I use to open the file extension "ems"? Thanks
Oct 24, 2010. 12:38 PMjovino says:
You got permission to use Ikea's intellectual property within the introduction of this insructable, right? :)
Oct 24, 2010. 3:42 PMjovino says:
Actually, I was referring to their printed guide not to the lamp design itself.

I'm not the scum of the earth IP layer people that you hate, I'm only a fellow community member attempting to reach out to you to give you a heads up that those people *might* ask you to take down those particular images.

So yeah. Chill.
Oct 24, 2010. 9:55 AMemmakrazy says:
I love it and it will make a beautiful addition to the living room lighting! thanks!
Oct 24, 2010. 8:26 AMchakra says:
looks brilliant!! may be i will try a pink & purple plastic sheets to make it look more lotus-ish... pink ones are considered as sacred offering to God by hindus!!
ah... i can imagine my mom smiling ear to ear already!!! ;-)
Oct 23, 2010. 8:29 AMitgasht says:
oh cool ! Thanks for share it.
Oct 19, 2010. 4:10 PMChrysN says:
Nice, I couldn't even find a knappa lamp at the Canadian Ikea website now we can make our own.

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