Introduction: Tetris Lamp

About: I love creating. I love ART in all its forms. I am a daughter of the 50s, born in 1992. I had the pleasure to be a Featured Author on this fabulous site, and you can read my interview here: https://www.instr…
I created this lamp in honor of one of my favorite video games, Tetris.
I must admit that I am not a big video game player, but this game is so famous that almost everybody knows it, including me! :D

This lampshade is very easy to make and you can simply throw it away and change it whenever you get tired of it!

For all the lamps I create and post here, I always recommend using LED light bulbs or at least low-energy light bulbs, especially the cold light ones.

Step 1: What You Need

  • Bakery paper
  • sheet of paper
  • colors - I used watercolors
  • pencil
  • ruler
  • hot glue
  • PVA glue or glue stick
  • adhesive tape
  • piece of cardboard
  • scissors/cutter
  • wood dowels or paper straws
  • light bulb and bulb holder

Step 2:

Take a sheet of paper and draw a grid of 2,1cm squares (0.82 inches).

Now that you have this grid, it will be easier to draw your Tetris pieces.
I used this picture as a guide for mine. You can either keep that as an example, find another one or draw them as you prefer!
My sheet of paper was shorter than that picture so I drew the remaining pieces somewhere else on the grid. The position of them is not really important because you will cut all of them soon.

Color all your pieces. I used watercolors because I thought they would give a more "delicate" effect to the lampshade, but you can use whatever you want, it's always up to you.
What you have to remember is that all the same shape pieces must have the same color.

Cut all of them.

Step 3:

Cut a piece of bakery paper. This must be about 35cm long (13.77 inches). I kept its original height which is about 33cm (12.99 inches). If yours is bigger or you simply want it shorter, you can cut it.

Once you have your bakery paper, place your Tetris pieces on it and glue them, as you can see in the picture.
The most important thing here, is that you must glue them upside down, with the blank side facing. This is because once you've folded the paper, the colored side will appear on the outside of the lampshade.

Once the glue is dry, fold your bakery paper in 4 equal parts to create a square shaped structure.

Step 4:

Starting from the longest edge at the top, fold the paper (about 1cm - 0.39 inches) and glue it, so that the edge won't be as sharp.

Attach a piece of adhesive tape to one of the short edges: make sure that it's on the inside of the bakery paper and you leave some of the tape free for the other edge (see the picture).
Attach that free part to the opposite edge of the paper to close the structure.
This is so much harder to explain than to do, I am sure that you will understand better if you look at the pictures :)

Put your lampshade apart for a few minutes.

Step 5:

Cut a 8,5cm (3.34 inches) square out of cardboard. 

Trace the outline of your bulb holder in the middle of the cardboard square and cut it out.
I traced the diagonals of the square as a help to find the center.

Step 6:

Take 4 wood dowels or anything with the same shape. 
You need them as feet for your lamp.

Trace a sign at about 2cm (0.78 inches) from the tips of the dowels.
This is the point where you will glue them to the cardboard. This way they will have the same height.

Take your cardboard square and cut its angles, as if you were cutting out semicircles.

Step 7:

Glue your dowels to the angles of the cardboard square with hot glue.
Remember to put the glue on the sign you traced previously.

The structure who will support your lampshade is ready so you can insert your bulb holder and light bulb...then add your lampshade on the top and voilà!

You can either cover your lamp's feet with the lampshade or showing them...it's up to you!