Origami Lamps
About a year ago I had a dream about a labyrinth made out of white sheets where light of different shapes would shine through them and as I walked through. I was on a mission to find the light sources when my alarm went off and it was game over. I spent all day fantasizing about the labyrinth and I pictured rooms with lamps with different geometrical shades projecting patterns onto the sheets. Throughout these daydreams I must've been folding some receipt or scrap paper because suddenly I had the idea to recreate this dream, and make the light sources: Origami lamps. Since then this dream has taken off, sometimes very slow paced because of school/work and other projects, but through it all I’ve been exploring different possibilities. The biggest roadblock happened when I realized I was setting myself up for serious fire hazards. Burning hot light bulbs + giant paper shades = not a good combo. I tried looking for alternative things, energy saving light bulbs, christmas lights, nightlights, but none of them did it. I almost gave up on the whole thing, upset that it wasn’t going to work, until my friend Caio, who works at LED Roadway Lighting gave me the idea to use LED light bulbs. At first, I was completely opposed to it, I Googled them and the first thing I got was LED light bulbs for $50 each! I went to a whole bunch of stores where I thought they would have them, and finally found some for less than 10 dollars at Walmart. Bought three, ran home to try them and probably spent about an hour staring at the shapes of the light on my walls. Success! Not only do these lights allow me to make fire-safe lamps, they are also super efficient on energy consumption and have a way longer operational life. LED lights are awesome! Here’s a list of all the reasons why: - LED lights have longer operational life 100,000 hours, compared to conventional 5000 hours - 80% of the electrical energy is converted to light energy - LEDs remain cool, because of what I said just above. - These lights measure from 3 to 8 mm long - LED light bulbs are not vulnerable to vibration or breakage - LEDs turn on to full brightness a hundred times faster than conventional lights - These lights do not contain mercury or pollutants. - They are waterproof - They come in a variety of colours!
Here's some pictures of my work so far, I'll keep posting as I make more.
(: