Icosphere Lamp Shade

I designed and built a paper icosphere pendant lamp shade.

I designed and built a paper icosphere pendant lamp shade for a second-year Sheridan course called How Things Work. This assignment required us to make a prototype of a functional lighting system. We needed to resolve how to shade, diffuse, and/or focus the light source. Our light was to be constructed from materials of our choice that best describes our visual intentions and style.

My pendant lamp shade is in the shape of an icosphere (a form of geodesic polyhedron). For sustainability reasons, I chose to make the lamp shade out of craft paper, and the internal structure out of of solid wood. The lamp shade keeps its spherical shape by the rigidity in the folds of the triangle tabs. The lamp shade measures approximately 19-inches in diameter. Potentially, I see this lamp shade as ambient light for a resaurant or hotel, perhaps several clustered together. Crafting this lamp shade was difficult, but fun.

The images below show most of the process.