Playing with geometry, it got me thinking about lampshade forms. Correct me if I am wrong but there are the sort of “hang-down” and the “stand-up” types common?

Using 15cm Kami, I began doodling, the blue square form came first – a simple corrugation on the middle half of a sheet, folded in eighths only in the middle section it curves perfectly and creates a rather regal “ruff” – imagine nice/interesting/handmade paper and diffuse light in the middle of that.

I had seen commercial paper shades, most hideously expensive for the complexity of the fold, but I guess production scale, fire resistance, marketing, hype let their creators charge whatever they want.

The “pendant” style is one i have found before and loosely based on more organic pleat folding of Paul Jackson, and would be a good hanging fitting.

How does one fire-retard paper? Is paper colour-fast under light? What fixative is stable long-term (as both required a small “seam” to close them)? Larger scale versions of these would almost certainly need some form of wire skeleton, and while we are at it some secure/stable way to mount a light fitting? … interesting but.