Step 2 in Paper lamps

Step 2: Experiment, experiment, experiment

I cut out many circles of paper by hand and experimented to see what I could make them do. The larger paper had a floppy quality and I found that by mixing a bit of elmers glue with water, I could make the paper temporarily flimsy, influence the shape, and let it dry to form a rippled texture. Due to the weight of the paper, the dried vellum had flowing, smooth curves instead of lighter weight paper that will just wrinkle.

For the water/glue mix, try your own ratios. I found mostly water and a bit of glue mixed together to a milky solution was perfect (probably a 6 or 8:1 ratio water:glue) and then I just reached my hand in and spread it over the paper, gently coating the surface in a thin layer of liquid.

As I was experimenting, I ran out of room on my desk and started stacking up the small circles of paper and realized I really liked the stack. This became the main concept for the lamp.

While learning the characteristics of this paper, I started warping the larger circles of paper by pushing my fingers towards each other from the top and bottom sides of the paper as though I was going to nest them. Just by nature of the fact that my fingers aren't evenly spaced around a circle (thank you, thumbs!) this created a more organic curve to the dried paper.

I let these circles all dry naturally. Then, I composed the circles in a stack to best accentuate the flow of the paper and the light and shadows I wanted to create.

Step 3: Cut your circles

I did these by hand using a compass and a lot of patience, but you can use a laser cutter to speed the process up a bit if you have access to one. Again, I can't stress enough how much you learn about a material by handling it so it's nice to slow down and work with the paper but I realize that's not in the cards for everyone.