What is a spoon lamp? This is a spoon lamp. Only because I don't know what else to call it. It is made from the remains of decapitated spoons and a plastic water bottle with a light inside. Really simple to make, really cheap to find supplies, really entertaining to make and watch.
This version lights up with a high-power RGB LED programmed to cycle through colors. Originally I was going to have it fade between colors, but I like this better.
Credit for the idea does not go to me. I first saw this on tumblr, I don't know where it originated, but it is awesome. Just google "spoon lamp" and you will find much more intricately crafted versions of this.
This version lights up with a high-power RGB LED programmed to cycle through colors. Originally I was going to have it fade between colors, but I like this better.
Credit for the idea does not go to me. I first saw this on tumblr, I don't know where it originated, but it is awesome. Just google "spoon lamp" and you will find much more intricately crafted versions of this.
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Signing UpStep 1: Materials and Costs
This is an incredibly easy craft to make. Best of all, its cheap and easy to find the parts too!
Lamp:
Time:
Lamp:
- About 100 ~ 150 plastic spoons. (more or less depending on what size shape you are making)
-
Plastic bottle.
- Choose a bottle closest to what shape you want
- I wanted to use a large Martinelli's apple juice bottle but couldn't find one.
- Hot glue + hot glue gun
- Scissors (or knife) to cut the heads off the spoons.
- Ribbon cable or wire of some kind
[Pick any 1 of the following]
-
Arduino (if you have the money)
-
Microcontroller (if you have the know-how)
-
Switch (if you just want it to be an on-off light)
[And another 1 of these]
-
Light bulb (really low power so as not to melt the glue)
-
Small fluorescent bulb
-
RGB LED (+ 3 100 ohm resistors)
-
Super bright LED of any color (+1 resistor)
Costs:
about $1-3 for the spoons if you don't already have them
about $1 for the bottle
about $3 for the bulb or LED
controller cost varies (arduino being the most expensive, and a switch or microcontroller costing less than a dollar)
about $1 for the bottle
about $3 for the bulb or LED
controller cost varies (arduino being the most expensive, and a switch or microcontroller costing less than a dollar)
Time:
About 45 mins to 2 hours to glue the spoons depending on how hot your glue gun is and how large your shape is. The hotter your glue, the longer it takes to dry, meaning you move slower. And then another 15 mins to upload a sketch and wire up the light.
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What I would recommend is to go find the smallest bulb you can find (they should be less that $0.75 at target or a hardware store). It will look like a Christmas ornament or something. Probably aim for 15-40W bulb. You will be plugging an incandescent into a wall outlet cord with a light bulb socket if you go this way, so you will need to find / salvage one of these... Sorry for the rambling answer.
Build_it_Bob
Your design also solves the not-so-aesthetic-cutmark issue.
What bottle / object did you end up using?
i plan to use a balloon instead of a juice bottle and use regular glue for the first layer, before continueing with the glue gun. can't wait to try!
It's just to temporarily attach the first layer of spoonheads to the balloon.
Then the glue gun comes in. It's powerful to create a stable bond between the first and second spoon layer. And all the following layers.
It doesn't matter that regular glue won't hold the first layer because the balloon will be popped anyway. (I would only want to keep the balloon intact if for some weird reason I needed a subtle way to dim the light. Which I don't. I want it to light up some damn space.)
Epoxy is horrible stuff. Don't use it unless you want to seriously and permanently interfere with your own or other's plans of healthy procreation.
Not quite sure why you would use regular glue first?
Also, an interesting idea I came up with to get a hollow clear strong balloon shape is to start with a balloon, saran wrap it, use a cyanoacrylate (or any super glue will work) to make it rigid, then pop the inner balloon. Of course, if you like the inner balloon coloring and dimming your light, thats just fine.
Grinding wheel sounds like a good choice, maybe a dremel with this kind of head http://vvcap.net/db/vSLhn166sW5VEfrH2hhj.htp will be able to save the cutting step.
Or the right kind of band saw to save the grinding step.
Did you consider to call it the Artichoke Lamp?