Samurai Sode Lamp Shade

One of my current lamp shade has expired, cracks inside, spots outside. It's time to upgrade. Then I saw this beautiful lamp shade at www.core77.com showing lamp shade designed by Alejandra Cabello Martin for Plumen 001 Bulb. So this is not my original idea, but I love it much. I tried to shape it on brochure papers. My son responded at his first glance "Samurai." Yes, it has the shape of Samurai Sode, the shoulder armors which reflect the centipede's shells.

I am not good at leather. Looking for a better material, better than papers, I found this polypropylene file's folder. Bendable, harder than paper, but still easy to shape with scissors.

What you need are :

• Two polypropylene file's folder.
• Scissors.
• Paper hole punch.
• Pop rivets and the gun.
• Hammer.
• Adhesive tape.
• Ring washer (optional).
• Wire (optional).
• Pliers (optional).

What we need are simply four ovals of the polypropylene folder's covers.

1. Print the oval layout on a piece of A4 paper. I need only one, but you can print 4 so that you can use one for each sheet.
2. Cut off the plastic holder inside the folders.
3. Cut off the center binder, so now we have four sheets of polypropylene cover.
4. Stick the layout on the polypropylene cover with adhesive tape at several points on the edge.
5. Cut the oval shape.
6. We only need one oval. Then we cut the other 3 into halves along their long axis (the axis line on the layout).

Why we need the layout? First, we are working with oval. It is hard to measure without having the center point and axes, and we just don't want to put marks on our materials.

Now we have one oval and six half-ovals. I have printed some holes on the layout, pick any that suit your hole punch, as long as you pick the appropriate holes for both sides because office file hole punch won't get too far from the edge.

In my case, I punched in the middle of the center circles (see picture #2) for the oval, and top of the side circle for the half-ovals (see picture #3). I popped off the punch's cover and put it upside down so that I can see clearly where to punch.

Stack your left ovals and right ovals alternately aligned by their holes, then put the full oval on top. Put the pop rivet in (optionally put a ring washer before and after the ovals) and pull it with the rivet gun until the mandrel snaps off. It will be likely loosen at the back side of the rivet, then use a hammer to fasten.

Repeat for the other side of the ovals.

Making a frame for the shade is optional. You can simply put it on top of the lamp. Design your wire-frame as you wish. Here I put it a little bit higher than the bulb so that the shade doesn't touch the hot bulb for long operational time. At the bottom part I shaped it to be clip-on to the flange of the socket.

Optionally stick the wire-frame to the full oval of lamp shade with a glue gun. This will produce shadows when the lamp is turned on, so decide the shape carefully. Minimal contact between lampshade and wire-frame is good or stick them near to the sides at non-glowing part.

This is it. My bedside lamp shade before and after. One more time, thanks to Alejandra Cabello Martin for his simple yet cool invention.