Making a Big Apple or Heart Light
Tools & Materials
Table Lamp - Remove the shade that comes with it
Project Description
How can we design and make a table lamp shaped like a heart or an apple?
I’ve had a batch of clear red acrylic stored on my shelf in my basement in preparation for a Valentine’s day project. My goal is to design a table lamp that utilizes the circular finger joint frames that I developed and combines it with a series of curved vertical panels to create the shape of a heart.
While designing the project, I noticed that the 3D model resembled a big apple, which I thought was perfect for my house because it would be a reminder of my hometown, New York City. It also looks like a giant red heart, which is perfect for Valentine’s day. The project also explores indirect lighting through the red transparent acrylic by rotating each panel to block direct views of the light bulb and filtering the light through the layers of acrylic.
Process
The big apple or heart light was designed in a software called Rhinoceros where I started by designing the initial version consisting of two circular frames with 36 finger joints divided evenly along the perimeter of the frames. Then, I designed simple shapes for the exterior vertical panels that resembled the generic shape of a heart that we’re all used to seeing.
From there, I extruded the shapes and assembled them in a 3D view to see how the final product would look. As I revolved around the 3D model, I didn’t like the way that the vertical panels looked and also the way that direct light would pass through the voids between the panels. I decided to reduce the amount of vertical panels and turn each finger joint on the circular frames at angle. This would turn each vertical panel so that they block direct light from the light source, but also maintain the general shape of the heart that I originally designed.
When I showed the 3D model to my fiancé, she and I had a brief debate about whether it looked like a heart or if it actually looked more like a big apple. From the side, the light definitely has the shape of a heart, but from the top, it starts to look like an apple. I love both options, so it didn’t matter to me.
With the design of all the pieces assembled on two different sheets, I cut one sheet that contained a total of five panels multiple times to get the total number of pieces that I needed for the project. Then, I cut the circular frames on a separate sheet. I also want to note that I decided to cut coasters and smaller objects with the remainder of the sheets to reduce the amount of materials that would be recycled.
When the pieces were cut, I turned the circular frames on their sides with the bottom being the frame with a small circle cutout at the center and the top having a larger cutout. I installed each vertical frame one at a time into each frame and glued them in place with acrylic glue.
