Light Container Project

For this assignment, we were tasked with creating a “light container” out of any materials we wished. After doing studies in class with polyhedrons such as dodecahedrons, tetrahedrons, etc., I felt inspired to incorporate one of these figures – the icosahedron – into my lamp concept.

 

During my initial sketches, I decided to make my lamp out of sheet metal (which I would later spray a color of my choice). I went through some deliberation as to whether to use decorative sheet metal, whether to make the lamp sitting or hanging, size adjustments, etc. Ultimately deciding to use plain sheet metal and make the lamp sitting. I opted to use an incandescent light bulb with visible filaments so that the lamp would create a beautiful, warm glow in its final version.

I began by making a model icosahedron out of paper (just like in the original polyhedron project), altering the faces as I planned to do in my final lamp (so that the incandescent bulb would be visible). I used this model as a base to mold my sheet metal around in the final version.

 

 

This is the final version of my lamp, lit up and then turned off. I cut each individual triangle out of sheet metal (with attached tabs) and then attached them together at the correct angles of the original icosahedron using rivets. I sprayed the final metal icosahedron gold to match the warm-toned glow of the actual bulb.

This is one of my favorite projects I’ve done from this year, and I think I used a good combination of methods to finally create my final lamp. It turned out just how I imagined it and I loved the shadows that the triangles cast when illuminated.