Overall

This is my first item on intractable and I am quite excited. If you like this, please vote for me. Thanks!

My girlfriend is 1000km away from me, so I came up with this good idea of “lamp with portrait and poem” as a surprise for her birthday.This lamp has a fabulous visual effect because it presents a picture or something. I’m not able to describe it precisely but you can see the photo below. Isn’t it cool? I was just playing with the light :D

Step 1: Materials and Tools

Lamp bulb

Board (I used the fiberboard but any type is ok)

Iron wire and screw

CNC (it’s absolutely not necessary but if you were lucky enough to have the access to a CNC, then you needn’t any other tools except a computer)

Drills of different size (diameter)

Computer software Rhino with Grasshopper

Knife

Sandpaper

Step 2: Generate the Rendering Picture Using Software

Using the software Rhino with a plug called Grasshopper to create the “blueprint” which will be used later. (This software can create a picture composed of circles of different diameter, according to the original picture’s grey level)I used this function to deal with my portrait.The picture is just a sketch.

Details about the software:

1.Download and install the Rhino and its plug-in called Grasshopper.

2.Run the Rhino and the grasshopper.(by type "grasshopper" in Rhino and enter)

3.Insert those "slider" and "RccGrid" and so on.

Just do as my picture shows and insert your own picture.

4.Then the rhino main program will show the result.

Any question is okay. Thanks

Step 3: Preparation

Print the blueprint with an appropriate scale.

Fix this blueprint to the board.

You can also use the CNC but I will present my instructable in a manual way.

Step 4: Drill a Portrait

Use drills to drill out the board at the position given by blueprint.

Notice that the blueprint has many different diameter circles.

You’d better choose the corresponding size of drill in order to have the best effect.

Step 5: Drill a Poem

I suddenly decided to have little change——write a sentence of poem on the left side of the lamp instead of my portrait.

The poem was from Shakespeare. I neglected the “SHALL I COMPARE THEE TO A SUMMER'S DAY” and maintained the “THOU ARE MORE LOVELY AND MORE TEMPERATE” which meant “you are more lovely and temperate than a summer day.”

In fact, my girlfriend was quite pleased with this.

Step 6: Assemble I

Use the sandpaper to polish the surface of boards.

I used some narrow stick and screw to decorate the lamp’s board as the photo shows.

At the same time, the triangle board which was to be placed at the top and bottom of the lamp could be fixed using the iron wire and screws mentioned above.