Newspaper Pendant Lamp

At this moment we are all confined in your homes and I'm sure that you are looking for an easy and fun project that will illuminate your week. I have a project that will not only illuminate your week but illuminate one of your rooms with style!

This is an easy DIY project that you can do with everyday supplies so you don't need to get out of your house to make this Newspaper Pendant Lamp!

• Yoga Ball
• Newspaper
• Wallpaper paste
• Plastic Bags
• Paint
• Tape

Tools:

• Pen knife
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Compass tool
• Colander
• Bowl
• Markers
• Pens
• Pencils
• Rubber bands
• String

To make this Newspaper Pendant Lamp you will first of all, need to take a yoga ball or any round surface that you can deflate (balloon, soccer ball... ) but the best is the yoga ball because you can reuse it and it is larger.

With an air-pump blow up the yoga ball so that it is perfectly round and firm. Do not blow it up too much, or it might get deformed or explode.

This step is optional.

Once your ball is nice and firm you can cover it in plastic bags, to protect it.

To protect the ball, flatten out 4 large plastic bags and lay them out on the ball. With the help of tape, secure the plastic bags to the ball.

Once the ball is covered find the nozzle and cut out a circle with a diameter of about 10 cm around the nozzle. Cutting out a hole will permit you to withdraw ball once the newspaper will be dry. You can make a smaller hole but if you do so you might damage the newspaper when withdrawing the ball.

Once your ball is ready to be covered, place it on a large bowl so that it will not roll around when you are covering it and so that it doesn't touch the floor. under the bowl lay out some paper bags or a piece of cardboard to protect your floor. I recommend doing this project on a hard floor that can be washed easily (I did it in my kitchen on tiles). If you use multiple paper bags tape them together to prevent them from moving!

Before you start covering the ball you will need a lot of strips of newspaper! You will need to find at least a dozen newspapers. Once you have enough newspapers, cut out strips of paper, they should be about 3 cm wide (1 inch) and about 60 cm long (2 feet). You can make your strips thinner if you want a super smooth ball but it will take you a lot more time. you can also make you strips longer but they will have a higher chance of ripping apart.

Once all of your strips are ready, in a mixing bowl create the glue of your choice. I used wallpaper powder, I personally think it is the best way to make your ball last a long time.

Glue mixture: Pour 2 parts white glue and one part water into a mixing bowl. These quantities can be changed to suit the size of your project. Or, if you have a stronger bonding glue, 1 part white glue and 1 part water will do the trick.

Flour mixture: Combine 1 part flour with 1 part water. You can substitute white glue for the water to make it stronger.

Wallpaper powder: Pour 2 parts wallpaper powder and one part water into a mixing bowl.

If you use wallpaper powder you will need to make multiple batches of glue, throughout the construction of the ball I used about 5 liters (1.3 gallons) of wallpaper paste.

Once the glue is ready, grab your paper strips and one by one apply glue on them, and place them on the ball.

I found that the best way to set them on the ball was to have your hands covered in glue and pass the strips through your fingers so that the glue is distributed equally on the strip.

When you are placing the strips on the ball, place them randomly in every direction. You will need to cover the ball with the strips, except for the 10 cm circle around the nozzle.

This step is very long, but if you want to have a solid ball you will need to apply at least 2 mm of newspaper strips everywhere. To give you an idea of the time you will spend if you want the ball to be solid, I spent 6 hours applying the strips on the ball!

Once the ball is completely covered, let it dry, It will take a couple days to dry especially if you were generous while applying the glue! I recommend transferring the ball on a colander to let it dry, so that air can circulate everywhere. This will prevent you from having a wet spot on your ball.

My ball took about 3 days to dry.

While your ball is drying you can start thinking about what shapes you are going to cut out. What I recommend is to draw out your shapes and then cut them out.

This is the step where you get creative and can find some cool designs.

If you want to copy my design you will need to cut out a pentagon with a side length indicated in the chart based on your ball's diameter. You will also need to cut out a hexagon with a side that is half the distance of the pentagon's side. You don't have to cut out the rhombus, because it will naturally fit between the other shapes. If you want to cut out the rhombus it has the same side as the hexagon.

There are two pictures one with gray shapes and the other without. They are to give you an idea of where you will need to cut. The gray shapes are the lines that you will need to cut out.

If your ball diameter isn't indicated in the chart all you need to do is multiply your ball's diameter in cm by 17 and divide that number by 60, you will then get the length of your pentagon's side. Divide that number by 2 and you will get the hexagon's and the rhombus's side.

Pentagon side = ( ball's diameter x 17 ) ÷ 60

Hexagon and Rhombus side = Pentagon side ÷ 2

This is very complicated to explain, If you don't understand don't hesitate to ask me a question in the comments!

Once your ball is completely dry you can deflate the yoga ball that is inside, to do so all you have to do is pull out the plug and the air will come out.

For some yoga balls when you pull the plug they will deflate completely without you having to push the air out. If this is not your case you will have to push the air out, be careful not to damage the ball when deflating it.

Make sure that all the air is out of the yoga ball before trying to remove it through the top. Once it is deflated gently pull it out.

Once the yoga ball is out remove the plastic bags that cover the walls of the ball. You will need to be extra careful while removing the plastic bags because they are glued to the walls.

Once you have removed the plastic bags let the inside dry, because there is a good chance that the walls are still a little wet.

Now that the ball is completely dry you can draw the design that you want to cut out.

If you are interested in doing my design you will need to place 12 points on the ball at an equal distance from each other.

To do this you will need to measure the ball's diameter. Take a string, wrap it around the ball, lay it out and measure its length. You will get the ball's circumference, divide that number by π (3.14) and you will get the ball's diameter.

Circumference = π × diameter <=> Diameter = Circumference ÷ π

Then multiply the balls diameter by 0.526, the answer will give you the distance you need to set your compass to in centimeters. You should get a number in between 25 cm and 40 cm if you are using a yoga ball.

As you can see you will need a very big compass. I am pretty sure that nobody has a compass that can draw a circle with a diameter greater than 40 cm, so you are going to have to make a temporary giant compass.

You will need a compass with preferably a pencil clamp, 2 long and very sharp pencils, and a couple rubber bands.

Take the compass and extend it to the maximum and with the help of the rubber bands secure one of the pencils to the end of the compass with the sharp point. You can squeeze a piece of paper in between the pencil and the compass, to incline the pencil. Then do the same on the other side, or put the other pencil in the pencil clamp.

Now with your giant compass choose a point on your ball and with the compass place another point. The distance in between the first and the second point should be the length, in between the two arms of the compass.

Now take one of the points and draw a circle with the compass, do the same with the other point. The intersection of the two points is where you will need to draw the next point. Try to place a point in the center on the hole.

Do this step until you have 12 intersections on your ball. If you have a hard time placing your points check that you have the right distance on your compass and that you have a perfect sphere, If you don't have a perfect sphere it is impossible to place the points with my method.

I recommend to marking the points with a marker so that you can clearly see the points!

If you are doing my design, once you have placed the 12 points you will need to find the center of every triangle made by the 12 points. You will have to place 20 points like this. I recommend you to mark this point with a different colored marker.

Place on the first set of points the center of the pentagon and on the other set on points the center of the hexagon. Turn the shapes until they both share a corner and one of each of their edges are touching. Trace the shape and repeat the step until the whole ball is covered. I recommend doing it with a pencil so that you can erase and because these are not the lines you will follow when cutting out the shapes.

Next you will need to shift the edges by 1.5 cm on each side for every line on the ball. Do this step with a pen so that you can see clearly where you will need to cut.

Once all of the shapes you want to cut out are done, place the ball on a bowl and start cutting them out. I recommend using a pen knife to cut out the shapes.

This is another long step that requires a lot of patience and precision. Be careful not to hurt yourself while manipulating the pen knife.

Here is my first test of my lamp before I finished cutting everything!

This is what the ball looks like after 6 hours of cutting!

I was super impatient to see what it would look like before painting it so I removed our current light and attached my pendant lamp to the ceiling light.

I made the pictures darker so that you could see clearly what it looks like but in reality it is a lot brighter in that room.

Now that your newspaper pendant lamp is cut out you can paint it.

I recommend using a light and bright color inside, so that it reflect the light as much as possible. Lay multiple layers of paint if you do not want to see any trace of the newspaper.

I painted the interior first, and let it dry overnight. Then I painted the exterior. I did this because if you wet the ball too much it can collapse or deform itself.

Once your paint is dry, you can insert a wire at the top of your lamp so that you can attach it to your ceiling. Since I already had a loop in my ceiling I didn't have to make something to complicated to attach it.

I'm not sure if I was clear enough in explaining the steps, but I think the photos will help. Also if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. Suggestions and corrections are appreciated. I hope you enjoyed making this Newspaper Pendant Lamp.