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Are you ready to start this experience?

You’re about to make your own DIY 01Lamp. You’ll learn how to create tridimensional shapes out of a flat cardboard sheet, while making the functional by adding further components.

For this tutorial you need to download the blue print.

Time of completion: 30 minutes

Do you need the LED kit?

This tutorial is based on 01Lamp LED kit. If you can’t find a suitable light source, you can buy the LED kit from Fattelo!.

Buy the kit

01. Get ready

Ready to go! Get all the necessary tools and material to make your 01Lamp DIY:

Materials

  • Cutter
  • Long ruler (ideally 50 cm)
  • 01Lamp kit (LED strip and power supply) OR a low-voltage, lightweight power source of your choice
  • Cardboard sheet at least 29,7 cm x 84 cm

Print the 4 files previously downloaded and join them to form the whole 2D shape of 01Lamp.

02. Trace the shape on the cardboard sheet

Place the shape of 01Lamp onto the cardboard sheet.
Try to take advantage of the folds left on the cardboard by its previous packaging life.

You can use a ruler to precisely align the shape to the existing folds.

Cardboard tend to bend where is already folded; Less folds on the cardboard will make the final design stronger, neater and more similar to the original 01Lamp.

03. Cut the outer lines

Cut the solid lines through, in order to separate the body of 01Lamp from the original cardboard.

Use the ruler and remember that the more you cut, the more the shape moves, and it gets more difficult to cut precisely..

Using different line types (solid and dashed) helps us in communicating two different operations (cut completely or cut just carve the surface).

04. Get ready to fold

Mark with a pencil the folding lines onto the cardboard.
Cut only the top layer of the cardboard by pushing gently the cutter on the corrugated surface.

A corrugated is made out of 3 layers: two external “skins” and a mid wavy structural one . This combination give strength to the sheet.

By cutting only the inner layer, it’s easier to get neat and sharp edges.

 

05. Place the LED strip

Pass the LED strip through the small rectangular hole, in order to stick it on the external side of the lamp.

Remove the paper layer from the LED strip a stick-it to the cardboard.

The flexible, sticky LED strip, gave us the ability to create a safe lightweight lamp which is also easy to assemble.

06. Lock the cable to the lamp

Unscrew the bolt on the female jack and insert the jack in the round hole.

Then screw the bolt on the other side, until the cable is secured to the lamp.

The bolt is an aesthetic detail, which enhance the DIY aspect of the lamp.

07. Fold the carboard

Bend the faces of 01Lamp. Use the ruler to get more precise edges.

Insert the flaps into the related inlets and push till you hear “clack!”

The cardboard is usually composed by 1 or 2 “waves” and 2 external paper layers. Take advantage of the wave direction to ease the folding operation.

 

08. Give shape to 01Lamp

Complete the fold & lock process on the entire 01Lamp. Then fold the 3 sections on themselves. We’re almost there!

Once folded, the 3 sections becomes triangular prisms. This shape gives strenght to the cardboard, which finally makes the final shape of the lamp.

 

09. Give light to 01Lamp!

Plug the power supply and insert the male jack in the female jack.

Great! You’ve just built your first 01Lamp!

 

10. Share the know-how

You just finished the tutorial, learning some of the basic principles to build with cardboard.

You can experiment new shapes and improvements for 01Lamp, and eventually release your custom design under Creative Commons licence.

Creative Commons licences protect the  freely available content (open content). 01Lamp is released under CC-BY-SA 3.0 licence and anyone can improve its design!

Had fun? Share this experience!

With this tutorial, we’d like to share the culture of making, fixing and give new life to waste materials.

Share it with your friends and help us sharing the knowledge!

Wanna improve 01Lamp

Send us your work and let us see what you are able to do.

We are gonna share your contribution with the Fattelo! Maker Community.

Contact us