Pentagon Light Fixture

Hello everyone!

If you're looking for a geometrical design to make a light fixture from cheap materials, then this is the ideal instructable for you!

The most materials and tools that are used for this light fixture are found in every household.

Materials

• Cardboard tubes (2 different diameters)
• White glue
• Porous paper
• Water
• Wire
• Color spray

Tools

• Ruler
• Pencil
• Clear plastic sheet
• Exacto knife
• Adhesive tape
• Mixing bowl
• Cutting plier
• Long nose plier
• Round nose plier

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For this project I used 2 sizes of cardboard tubes in order to form 5-petal flowers when I join them together (the smaller in the center and the larger around it).

Take a clear plastic sheet, roll it tight on the cardboard tube, join the overlapping edges together and use the edges as a guide to mark your cutting lines on the tube. Mark the first line as close as you can to the one edge of the tube to form a straight edge. Then mark with the ruler the height of your rings (I chose mine to be 1cm). Take the plastic sheet again and mark the circles like we did before.

For this design you'll need 12 flowers. This means you will need 12 small rings and 60 large rings. Cut them with an exacto knife or whatever works better for you.

I like the edges to be as smooth as possible, so I trim them with the exacto knife.

Use a flat surface and put the rings together to form the flower pattern. Then glue them together and be patient. Let the glue to completely cure.

Now that your flowers are ready you can start giving shape to the actual fixture.

Take two flowers and join two petals as shown in the picture. Try to form a symmetric rhombus between the petals. Use adhesive tape or paper tape to hold them in place. Choose one flower to be the center and glue the other five around it. You're gonna end up with a bigger 5-petal flower.

Now lift up two of the flowers and join their edges together, the same way as before.

You will end up with a pentagon "bowl". Glue the outer edges of the petals you joined with tape and wait for the glue to cure.

When your two halves are ready, join the edges with the adhesive tape, glue the outer edges with hobby glue and wait the glue to cure.

After the glue was cured I removed the adhesive tape from all the edges. I will paper mache the whole fixture, so I don't want any plastic pieces on it. You can use paper tape instead and leave the tape on the fixture.

This would be a pendant fixture, so I had to choose where to add a wire support and how to do this in order to be able to add a lamp in it and hang it from the lamp socket. So I chose to cut 3 of the petals (the minimum possible).

I started to bend the wire and tested it in every step to see if it fits perfectly on my fixture. I also created a small hook to secure the wires together after I put it on the lamp socket.

The socket's wire will go between the parallel wires of the support.

I tried to paint the fixture with black acrylic spray after the previous step, but the edges where too sharp and as I said, I like the edges as smooth as possible. So I decided to paper mache the whole fixture and cover the small triangle holes between the small and the large rings.

To paper mache a surface you'll need a porous thin paper, a mixing bowl, hobby glue and water.

Cut short strips of paper, because you'll need to wrap them around the rings, through the rings... (Oops!) I used a thin wrapping paper that came with a new pair of shoes.

In a mixing bowl add water and glue (about 1:1 ratio) and stir them together. I used my hand to stir them because I usually use small amounts of water and glue to prevent my mixture from drying in case I want a break.

The better way to work with the paper (in this case) is to add some glue mixture on the armature (fixture) and then apply a dry strip onto the wet surface, smearing more glue mixture over the top of the strip with your finger to smooth it down.

!!! When you finish this process, let the fixture dry completely before you move to the next step. Moisture can lead to a rotten fixture and I'm sure you don't want this.!!!

To help this happen, put it in a place with good air circulation, rotate it every few hours, if you can, and let it at least overnight.

Now that your fixture is dry you can paint it! I painted it with a black acrylic spray paint and let it dry. I also painted the wire support and the small hook with the same spray paint.

Safety: You might use a pair of disposable gloves and a respirator when painting the fixture with spray paint and work on a well ventilated space (I always do it outside).

In order to keep things clean, use newspaper to cover the surface on which you're planning to paint the fixture.

Now, all you have to do is find the right place for this fixture and enjoy the shade effects of it!

I put it in my bedroom because I usually don't do thing that need good lighting (e.g. reading, crafting).

I hope you enjoyed this instructable! Feel free to share any ideas on how to decorate this, different shapes to use, more practical support or whatever comes to your mind.

*:)