PapeRanpu

It was somewhere in 2011 or 2012, a year or two after we moved into our new apartment, that I made my first pendant lamp. Up until then we had bare lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling, as it often happens. At first there are more essential things to arrange in the apartment and by the time all those are done, you get used to the lightbulbs and lose the enthusiasm to shop for yet another item. Besides, we had no idea what kind of lamps we wanted and I always prefer making to buying things, so we procrastinated…

Watching Letters from Iwo Jima one evening, with our ceiling light bulb off, I had an epiphany when I saw a Japanese wood and paper lampshade in one scene. Searching the internet for instructions on how to make one, I found an Instructables tutorial that seemed manageable. It does not require any special tools and materials and seems quite straightforward. The lamp on the cover photo for the instructions looks a bit shabby, but I thought I could do better so I gave it a go. I bought rice paper in a hobby store, some skewer sticks in the grocery store, and off to the races!

At the time I had no hot glue gun and chose not to buy one as I wanted the lamps to be made of ecological materials. Instead, I glued everything using standard wood glue. I’m still not sure how natural wood glue is, but plastic hot glue is definitely not. This meant that I had to make elements of the panel frame sit tight at the right angle long enough for glue to dry. Doing this by hand was out of the question so I made several cardboard jiggs like this one:

It took an excruciatingly long time to make them, but I managed to construct two pendant lamps; one bigger for the living room and one smaller for the dining room. I was quite pleased with myself as the lamps looked elegant and gave a soft and warm light. This is what they look like now, after they have been aged for approximately 10 years:

The lamps have shown to be very easy to maintain. The bulb can be exchanged simply through the square opening on the bottom. Any dust and bugs that accumulate inside can be “shaken out” when the lampshade is taken down and flipped upside down as the top is completely open. 

The lamps have on the other hand shown to be vulnerable to various projectiles that my two little hellions are prone launching and to grownups waving their hands and other objects above their heads. The rice paper is, well… paper thin and I had to patch and mend the lampshades several times. Smaller injuries I’d fix with just a little bit of glue and maybe a small rice paper patch. In case of larger holes, I’d remove a whole rectangle section of the paper from the frame and replace it with a new one.

The lamps would always rouse interest in our guests and earn me some compliments. People would ask if I could make one for them and how much it would cost and I would always wave my hand dismissively, knowing how much time and effort I spent on these two. And the years passed…