Hey everyone, this is my first instructable, and i would like to share with you, how to make this Moresque inspired Lamp.

As the most of the instructables stuff, this project is :

- Easy to make, no special skills needed.
- Looks good
- Costs virtually nothing ! ( will looks great with cardboard )

and the i tried to make something original

searching on the internet i found this website : http://www.storeystreet.com/smlglobe.html

selling this nice looking lamp, so i wanted to make something similar ! ..

For those who are lucky enough to have a laser cutter, there is an advantage, for me, i cannot afford one, so i will use the traditional way !

The lamp can be made with any material, cardboard, aluminum, plastic, plywood .. you choose your material and color, the principle is the same.

For me i will use plywood with a 3 mm thickness for this project.

This is my first instructable i will try to do my best explaining things, if something is unclear bear with me, and feel free to ask :-)

Step 1: The Design

So what way my inspiration ? ...... Traveling to southern spain and morocco, you will be amazed by the old mosaic, i was always fascinated by these , drawing them all the times, a quick search on the internet i found the patterns ( just search in google for : "arabic patterns" or something like this )

this website was too informativ too :

http://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/~csk/projects/starpatterns/

( pic's from google !)

I won't go in details into the design of the lamp since it is not an instructables of how to design the lamp, but I used 3ds max to model the sphere and texture it .. to see how it is going to turn out, when it is done, i tried to copy the model on paper, and some adjustments, here and there it worked out

Step 2: What Do You Need ?

Made by thick paper :

- you will need some sheets of paper
- scissors
- glue

Made by plywood

- some plywood sheets ( no thick than 3 mm )
- alots of Brads ( no less than 288 !! )
- material to saw your patterns

AND of cours the patterns ! ( you will finde them in *.AI and *.PDF format )

Patterns_combined.pdf
Download

Step 3: Cutting the Patterns !

well . .you can cut them the traditional way, just print the patterns and glue it the wood and use a drill and a saw. or if you own a cnc machine or a laser cutter - i am not that lucky :) - it will make the job much more easier.

If you are using carton or paper well, print them and use your scissors :)

Once CUT ... we preceed

Step 4: Connecting Things Together

before connecting the pieces together i put then i a sink of water fr 10 min, just so they bend easely. but if you are using very thin plywood ( 1 mm - 1,5 mm ) you dont need that !

then to connect them

IMPORTANT :

make sure to connect the stars to the triangles first in such manner that the shorteste "arm" of the star ( the black dot in the picture ) shoud connect to the middle arm of the triangle .. just look at the picture :)

And the use the brads to secure them in place togheter or use the glue if you are using paper.

then finish by cutting the sticking part of the brads.

Step 5: Keep Connecting !

for making the "skeleton" of the lamp, you need :

8 square patterns in a row ( will be bend at the end to make a circle,

the patterns are connected together with the part we made from the earlier step ( you will need 8 of these in total - 4 at the top of the "skeleton " and 4 and the buttom of the skeleton )

just look at the images

and finish the step , by connecting the end of the "skeleton" to make a circle.