For the upcycle project, I immediately thought of using wood as one of my main materials because I have a lot of scrap wood in my garage, plus the ITLL has plenty of scrap wood in the shop downstairs. I also knew I wanted to use the laser cutters to become more familiar with them and the software. Finally, I combined those with my love for warm mood lighting, and I landed on a lamp! I personally did not want to make art for art’s sake, (which I do quite a bit, like photography and painting) but I really wanted this to be useful yet aesthetic and delightful to look at, so a lamp would be a great choice. I found some initial inspiration on Pinterest, such as these images below.
(Figure reference at the bottom of article)
(Figure reference at the bottom of article)
Then I thought why don’t I add something “organic” or “natural” to this lamp, and found these:
(Figure reference at the bottom of article)
(Figure reference at the bottom of article)
I then went to the office depot here in the ITLL to see what stuff they had to help me make this lap besides wood, and to my surprise they have everything! I found the cord, the light bulb, and I found some hemp yarn which gave me the idea to give the lamp a nice soft glow by adding hemp yarn around the structure like these images below:
(Figure reference at the bottom of article)
(Figure reference at the bottom of article)
I had another idea about making a lamp, different from the path I was before. I work at Full Cycle the bike shop on Pearl St. and we have a lot of scrap bike parts, such as forks, frames, gears, chains, etc. I had the idea of making a lamp for my garage using some bike parts, such as these:
(Figure reference at the bottom of article)
(Figure reference at the bottom of article)
I haven’t decided which route I will take, I might just make a family of lamps…
Thanks for reading!
Image References
Figure 1. https://www.etsy.com/listing/265950118/small-led-log-light-table-lamp-desk
Figure 2. https://boshdesigns.com/wood/wood-forms/%E3%81%BB%E3%81%A3%E3%81%93%E3%82%8A%E3%81%99%E3%82%8B%E7%81%AF%E3%82%8A%E3%80%81%E3%82%BF%E3%83%A2%E6%9D%90%E3%81%AE%E3%82%BF%E3%83%AF%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A9%E3%82%A4/
Figure 3. https://home-dsgn.com/
Figure 4. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/53761789289816576/
Figure 5. https://www.idlights.com/cute-wood-table-lamp-made-pallet/
Figure 6. http://www.lampsr.com/
Figure 7. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/53761789289886538/
Figure 8. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/294704369356866977/
4 Comments. Leave new
Hello Ben! You have a great set of potential inspirations compiled here. Like George, I also think you should try to incorporate wood into your final design. I love the backlit branches in the featured image! Do you intend to emulate a natural form within your light or lamp? Additionally, I find it interesting that almost all of the lights shown have a warm hue to them. Do you intend to use a warm hue within your light/lamp?
Hey Justin,
Thanks for your feedback! I did decide to continue with the wood but I chose to continue with a more defined cube shape as opposed to the organic branches. I really like the organic branches with the back light, but for the UpCycle project I will not be pursuing that aesthetic, although I still might build it just because I like it so much. I’ll be sure to post a picture here if I do.
And yes, I think my principal aesthetic is “warm lighting.” I find it very peaceful and will definitely be using warm lighting in my lamp.
Ben
Benjemin, personally I like the wood better, it defintely has a more natural/organic aesthetic. I really think that it is a good idea to do this for your project with wood because that way you will learn things in either the machine shop or with the laser printers. These things are incredible things to know how to do in life, especially if you are going to be an engineer or artist. Make sure you put in plenty of time to put this together as things will not always go as expected. When machining or working with new programs and machines, you must always remember to include extra time to really learn about. If you do the wooden lamp, what material are you going to use. I would be really interested to see if you use blocks of wood, or more natural looking pieces of wood that are still in their branch shape, or raw form. I think that you should also come up with a couple more idea considering how you will use the hemp yarn. This can be a really cool addition to your aesthetic if you work it right.
Hey George,
Thank you for sharing your opinion with me. I have been working on the laser cutters and with CorelDraw all semester. I did choose to go forward with wood and hemp. Do you see another aesthetic besides natural/organic and warm lighting that I missed to maybe include in my presentation?
Ben