Lamp, printed

The best object I own is one I drew at midnight and switched on before work.

It started as a complaint about a lamp shade I couldn’t buy anywhere. The exact shape in my head didn’t exist. So I opened the CAD software instead of another shopping tab.

The design is a single continuous surface that twists as it rises, so the light leaks out in a spiral rather than a flat ring. Getting the wall thickness right took a dozen test prints: too thin and it warped under the bulb’s heat, too thick and the glow died. Draw, slice, print, look, adjust. That loop is what 3D printing is actually about.

By morning there was a real object on the desk throwing real light on the wall. That gap, from a shape in your head to a thing you can switch on, closed in a single night. That is the whole reason I make things.