Mushroom Lamp Constraints and Specifications

The first requirement is that the lamp must be undistinguishably a mushroom. This project and aesthetic stems from the mushroom lap I saw at the café at the beginning of the semester. I really liked the look of the wood mushroom and the simplicity of the design. In the image below, you can see the single brass button in the center of the small mushroom lamp. It is very simple and an iconic shape that is synonymous with psychedelics, the earth, and cooking. Being a very versatile plant, it is in many facets of life. However, mushrooms are an incredibly diverse kingdom with hundreds of thousands of species, and some believe there to be millions undiscovered. The most iconic being the Amanita Muscaria known as the Fly Agaric. I will make the mushroom as close to this shape as I can to maintain the lamp instantly recognizable as a mushroom.

Amanita Muscaria

               The Mushroom Lamp shall have a rotating top. The basis of my idea is from wanting the mushroom at the coffee shop to be able to be dimmed by turning the top of the lamp. The initial idea also revolves around the lamp designed by designer and woodworker Erik Gustafson. He designed a lamp the turns two beams to dim and brighten light. After seeing his design this past winter, I wanted to find some way to implement that mechanism into a lamp of my own. Seeing the mushroom lamp a few months later immediately sparked the Idea. The one requirement for this project is also that it be interactive, this will help me meet this requirement.

The Lamp shall be made of light wood. I want the design to relate to nature, so using wood gives it that connection to the natural world while fitting in with the mid-century modern and cottage core aesthetics.

Oak Wood – https://materialsoftheworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/oak-end-grain-texture-render-04.jpg

               The lamp shall be battery powered to be stand alone and easily transferable. My final goal is to be able to place the mushroom in a planter without having a long cable coming from the pot. Cottage core aesthetic uses a lot of foliage, so integrating it with planters will help match the aesthetic. It will also help root the plant in the nature element of the design.

The lamp shall be waterproof. If the plant is housed in a planter, I want to be able to water the plant without removing the lamp. To achieve this, I will house the electronics inside the lamp, aside from the battery pack because of size constraints. I will then do my best to seal the battery pack in plastic without limiting the ability to remove the batteries.

The largest constraint I have is time. I am very limited in time due to working multiple jobs and working on my senior design project. I hope to make multiple prototypes before making the final design as well, so I must plan my time wisely. I also have very limited electronic experience. I have done work with electrical interfacing with mechanical components, which will help me immensely. However, building the circuits themselves is challenging for me. I also do not have much woodworking experience and have no idea how the material will react. Throughout my undergraduate engineering experience, I have been told countless times that wood is not an engineering material and should not be used in a professional setting. I want to challenge myself by combining circuits and woodworking on this project. I will also have to order the LED strips and other components, so waiting on materials to be shipped is a big constraint. With limited time, waiting for materials to arrive would waste valuable time, so I will order the electronic components as soon as possible.

How Many Species of Mushrooms Are There? (Wild Foods Co. Fungi Guide)

Amanita muscaria: Fly Agaric history, mythology and pharmacology in: Journal of Psychedelic Studies Volume 6 Issue 1 (2022)