Now that my university is closed for winter holidays, I finally have more free time to do all the crafty things I’ve been wanting to. One of these is a lamp made from plastic cups I’ve seen at taf, the art foundation, in Athens.
When I first saw it at taf, I was amazed; I looked closely and I couldn’t believe my eyes! The object itself is so peculiar, modern and alien-like it could be in any design exhibition. With my best friend’s birthday coming up, I decided to make it myself and give it to her as a gift. It turns out it was the easiest craft I’ve even done, the epitome of DIY objects!
I only needed a couple of things:
200-250 large plastic cups (recyclable, at least ) 600-700 staples a stapler a lamp socket, lamp cord and plug – mine came from a broken IKEA lamp!
That’s all you will need.
Start stapling the cups together as shown.
Staple again and again and again…
Until your lamp goes from this…
…to this!
Staple carefully the last cups to form the top of the sphere (if it’s a sphere, because it’s likely that it won’t be that round if some cups aren’t perfectly aligned). Leave the bottom part open so that the light bulb goes in the sphere and attach it any way you like to the lamp socket! My IKEA socket had a kind of base and some very convenient holes on it (as you can see at the first picture), so I just stapled green ribbons at the last row of cups and tied them on the base.
The alien lamp is ready!