Chroma - DIY Mood Lamp(6 Steps)

A luminary on the table Hues signifies moods Cylinders stacked upon can be changed for customization.

Light helps us to shape our reality and perceive it. The psychological impact of color changes the way we think and feel. Hormones play an important part in developing a person's mood and that can be altered by the type of light in the environment. By properly understanding how light impacts our moods and behavior, we can create an environment enabling us to be more creative, energetic, and productive.

Most people don’t put much thought into how lighting impacts their mood and mental health. For instance, we tend to feel drowsy and less motivated on rainy, cloudy days and more energetic and upbeat on sunny days.

The purpose of designing this lamp with majorly Five colors which are green, blue, golden, orange & white is to make your ambient in such a way so that this can create an environment enabling us to be more creative, energetic & productive.

Creating mood with lights

It is already known that colors have positive or negative effects on peoples’ moods. However, there has been research and the results show that the positive average results are higher than the negative ones. Light-green had the most positive effects on mood followed by blue, light blue, red, yellow, green, with pink and white being equal.

The final concept has been put forward keeping in mind material and process optimization, easy-do ability, stackability, simplicity and yet a new lighting experience.

In order to create a bamboo epoxy lamp you need this following materials & tools

1. Bamboo ring pieces (height: 2-3 cm Dia-5-6 cm)

2. Acrylic/Glass rod.

3. Epoxy Resin & Pigments.

4. Ohp sheet(transparent).

5. Thin double sided tape.

6. Wide cello tape & paper cutter.

7. wooden block of 10x10x2 cm.

8. Circular AC light( height-1cm D-6cm).

9. 2 meters of wire.

10. Electrical Socket.

11. soldering iron.

12. sanding paper & Polishing wax.

In order to create a bamboo epoxy lamp, you need bamboo rings, ohp sheet & a thin double sided tape to develop the mold and you also need epoxy / Resin and pigments to develop the lamp pieces.

You need to take the bamboo rings and apply DST on its edge, now take a 5 cm wide & 20 cm long OHP sheet stripe and wrap it over the edge of bamboo ring, where DST is applied. Cover the bottom of the mold with broad tape in order to create a base.

Now place a 5 cm long & 2.5 cm wide acrylic/glass circular road in the center of bamboo ring on the base, in order to keep it stable and also to allow the light, to pass evenly along the resin blocks. Wrap the mold with more tape to cover the entire area, so that the leakage of resin can be prevented. Now the mould is ready to pour the resin. Once the resin is poured, let it dry for approximately 24 hrs to achieve the desired circular form.

Now, once the mold is prepared we will then prepare the resin solution, which will be poured in the mold.
In order to prepare resin solution you need to mix resin & hardener in the ratio of 3:1 and pour it into the mold, this is how you will achieve a transparent block. In order to create colored blocks, you need to repeat the same process again, and add a few drops of color pigment into it in depending on the desired shade of color. For this particular lamp, I have developed 5 different color of blocks.

Next you need to create a wooden base so that the Resin blocks can be arranged / stacked over it and a light can be fixed into it.

Take a piece of wooden block, dimension 10 x 10 x 3 cm and reshape it in circular form on lath machine. Now by using 6.5 cm of drill bit, create a 2 cm deep cavity in the wooden circular block.

To fit the light as depicted in the image below, over here I have used 6 x 1 cm circular AC light to fit into the cavity.

Since the length of the wire of the light is small you have to attach extra 1.5 or 2 meter long wire to plug it into the socket. You need to solder wires & then cover it with an electrical tape, so that the length of the wire can be increased, to pull the wire near the electric socket. Now drill a 5 mm hole towards the side of wooden base, so that wire can be pulled out and connected to the electrical socket.

Ones the Resin blocks get set, you need to pull them out from the mold and finish it by using wet sanding process with different grades of sanding paper. In this way, you will achieve smooth and fine finish over the surface & edge of resin blocks.

Now your base and epoxy molds are ready. You need to arrange / stack the resin blocks over the wooden block as per the choice of your color.

This is how the mood lamp is ready.

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