UPCYCLE PROJECT UNRULR POST HERE
Overview
The goal of the Upcycle Project was to pick an aesthetic and then “Upcycle” pieces of trash or scrap into a product that matched the aesthetic of choice. I decided I would like to make an 8-bit lamp, and after many hours of mistakes (and a few victories) I ended up with the result above. For more detail on the individual steps of the project, visit my Unrulr post linked here.
Ideation
After choosing 8-bit as my aesthetic, I mulled over what I wanted to create, and eventually decided on a tree. I wanted to make it so that when the lamp was off, the patterns would be hidden, and then when the lamp turned on, the 8-bit pattern would shine through. I wasn’t sure how I wanted to do that, but was interested in using foam or layered paper.
Original lamp ideation
Initial Prototyping
I went out and bought some scrap foam from Art Parts, which I hoped to use as my leaves, as well as a scrap banister that I planned to cut into the trunk of my tree. Using a foam cutter, I cut the foam lengthwise four times in order to get the proper thickness to allow light to shine through at all, and then cut out and glued little Tetris-like pieces to create the leaf pattern. It worked!
The cut “leaf” block with light shining through
The cut “leaf” block
Further Manufacturing
Unfortunately, as I went to scale this up to a full tree, I realized that it would take me a crazy number of hours to cut out just the leaves alone, because I needed over 80 of them. So, I switched to paper and created and laser-cut a pattern that I could glue to acrylic to allow light to shine through variably.
Tree shell with paper pattern and cut foam blocks
Final Product
The placement and cutting of the paper patterns proved to be difficult, but it was doable. Additionally, I struggled getting the foam to look good when lined up, because it was very difficult to cut standard thickness foam by hand in the foam cutter. If I were to do it over again, I would have created a jig I could mount to the foam cutter to produce standard-thickness foam over and over again. However, I am happy with the final product, even if it is far from perfect.
Final lamp with the light shining through
