After the commissioned Diamond Lamp for ‘Billiedskolen’ and the ‘Wednesday 5 o’clock Class’ making their own lamps, their work caught the attention of ’Fantasy Design in community’ resulting in an invite to talk at the Fantasy Design Conference on design Education – ‘Involving Children and young people in designing the future’. Held in an old monastery in Gent, Belgium. I was asked to talk about the theme ’Design for all’ so I spoke about my desirers to be Robyn Hood.

Link to Billiedskol i Tvillinghallen 

Link to Fantasy Design in Community

‘Billedskolen i Tvillingehallen’ commissioned the making of a Diamond Shade for their meeting room.  I based the lamp on traditional landscape painting,  (rectangle landscape, green at the bottom, moody sky at the top). Besides coloured paper I used old books about planes, so parts of planes now fly through the sky. In referance to the history of Tvillingehallen, the building was once a slaughterhouse, I found an appropriate book and used it to make the sky a little overcast and to dot the landscape with cattle.

The Art School is for children and young adults who come into the school on different days of the week. I set up the Silent Circus in the entrance and slowly made the lamp, spread over a week, so all  the students got to see the lamp in progress. I then had to take it home to finish it, these things are not quick to make, plus the children kept interrupting me.

Besides me making a lamp for the school, I also introduced the JW006 E-craftbook to the Wednesday 5 o’clock class, who all made their-own Diamond Shade lamps over the following couple of Wednesdays. I’ll post the results of that seperatly.

Almost forgot, this lamp can be downloaded as an E-craftbook, you can make your own.

http://www.walton.dk/walton/lamps/diamond-shades/jw-006-diamond-shade-e-craftbook/

JW oo6. Diamond Shade. A lampshade of repetitive diamonds.

The E-craftbook, JW oo6 Diamond Shade, presents the directions about how to build the basic inner structure of the Diamond shade, plus tips and ideas on how to continue building the shade in a random or symmetrical way.

Also includes the all important templates and printable sheets that can be used to make the single diamonds from A4 coloured papers or waste paper and packaging.

Random or symmetrical?

You should decide this before starting. You can either sculpt your shade randomly, adding diamonds however you like, here and there. Or you can build the shade in a symmetrical fashion, where you repeat the same pattern. It is up to you what that pattern is.

The diamonds can be added in all sorts of ways, sometimes it might involve turning the diamond around and over several times to find out where it fits, but it will fit.

White, coloured or recycled?

You can shape the shade as you like and you can also use different colour paper. The yellow, orange and red shade used within the E-craftbook is the start of ‘Cannon Smoke’, an installation I made based on human cannonball acts. Various grey coloured paper will eventually be added for the smoke. (It was made  in a circus tent)

Use plain white paper or waste papers, such as old cereal boxes, milk cartons or magazine covers. It is also possible to use a small amount of thinner paper, but you need to make sure you are adding enough stiffness and strength to your structure. The outer edges can be thinner.
Example screen shots from the 29 page JW oo6 Diamond Shade E-craftbook

Includes: 29 page pdf with: inspiration, technique, simple making step by step guide and tips.

Including two printable pages:

• A4 printable template for making Diamonds from waste and large format paper.

• An A4 printable sheet that can be cut up into 7 diamonds.

Materials:

• Paper, recommend min. 160 grammes.
• Suitable Glue, staples or sticky tape.

Tools and Techniques:

• Cutting Knife  or scissors.
• Cut and paste.

$10 Download and make

‘Design is knowledge, Craftsmanship is a state of mind.’

‘JW oo6 Diamond Shade’ can be made from used milk cartons, cereal boxes, magazine covers or any found waste paper that is more than 160 grammes thick. It is not an intention of mine to find ways to recycle materials, as waste materials should be recycled in larger quantities and used again in industry.

But when you see these materials used, an appreciation of their beauty and value as a usable material is gained. This all helps people to appreciate a little more of what they normally discard as waste.

I want to include people in the process, to inspire people to make things themselves and subsequently appreciate such home-made craftsmanship.

Through making things themselves people will better appreciate, materials and craftsmanship of other objects.

Inspiration

It was after making a lampshade named ‘Neo Tramp Art’ at SoupaNatural, a soup bar in Copenhagen, that Nicolia and Kristian invited me to join their Circus tent, to make an installation during the Roskilde music festival.

Having always dreamed of joining the circus and feeling it about time to take my hobby explorations into a new realm, I joined the circus a ‘Silent Circus’ celebrating making.

The single diamond element came about from working with the square form of the milk carton and folding postcards into squares.

Traditional Tramp Art is created by cutting notches along the edge of wood and layering the thin layers of wood. The notches create small repetitive diamonds along the edge of the wood.

I find the love and dedication put into the traditional Tramp Art pieces charming and endearing. It was through experimenting with cutting square tubes that I worked out the ‘Diamond Cut’. Unlike the ‘JW oo5 Neo Tramp Art lamp shade’, the Diamond shade allows the maker more creative freedom with colour and form, similar to that of traditional Tramp Art. It also requires dedication and love.

Technique

Neo Tramp Art, cut and paste.

I would say the diamond is based on the ideology behind Traditional Tramp Art and made using available materials and tools that are freely available today.

I have worked out a single unit that can be used as a three dimensional repeat pattern. It is basically the good old, cut and paste method.

The lampshades are made by a repetitive diamond that is cut and joined together, similar to the tramp art notch and layer technique.

It also requires the Tramp Art techniques of repetition, dedication and love. Making the shade is a celebration, so the fact they take ages to make is a bonus, why rush a good thing.

Best wishes and kind hellos – Jeremy