Ruffled Pendant Lamp

There's this corner of my living room that's pretty dark.  It's just the way the lighting is.  It's a funny shaped room with crazy high cathedral ceilings.  So I was hunting around online for interesting lights. 

And I found the ruffled pendant lamp.  Ok...I like where it was going!  But I did NOT like the gigantic price tag attached to the plastic versions.  Then I came across someone who made a version of it with cupcake liners.  "I can do that"  thought I!!

Then I saw someone had done one with coffee filters!  (And was selling it for $300 on Etsy.  Holy smokes!  Still not in my budget especially for a coffee filter paper lamp.)  So I went out and rounded up the supplies I needed.  I spent about $40.00 on the paper lantern and light fixture attachment (around $30 at Pier 1)then I went to the grocery store for coffee filters.  Who knew they were so much money at a grocery store!?!!   *Facepalm* duh Marissa!  Why did I not think to check the $1 Store first...hellllloooo bought almost the entire $1 Store supply of coffee filters and got enough to cover the whole thing for under $10!  All in all, at this point I'm pretty happy with the $40 lamp and I hadn't even started building it yet thankyouverymuch!!  (What can I say, I love a good bargain!)

About 4000 coffee filters and a lot of glue gun action later....here's my version of the fluffy cloud pendant lamp!  (ok ok, it's not hung yet.  But I'm short.  And I don't have a ladder.  So either hunny is going to have to hang it up, or dad's going to have to come over with his ladder)

Step 1. Gather supplies...

• Glue gun
• LOTS of glue sticks
• EVEN MORE coffee filters
• Premade paper lantern
• Light fixture for the paper lantern (they're usually sold together, or are at least displayed close to one another at the store)
• A good movie (...or 12)

Step 2 - Step bazillion.  Glue on the coffee filters.  I found it easier to separate a stack of coffee filters BEFORE I started folding and gluing...it streamlined the process a bit instead of having to fold, glue, stop, fight with coffee filter pile to separate from giant stack, repeat.   I've seen a few different ways that people have done this.  Some of them have the ripples from the filter in much straighter lines but I wanted more of a haphazard look.  I like the look of the ones I had seen kind of bunched up like a flower.  To accomplish this look, take the coffee filter and fold it in half.  Put a bit of your thumb in the middle along the fold and then twist it up around your thumb.  Squish the bottom to flatten it a bit.  Put a drop of glue on the flattened bit, and stick it on!

*DISCLAIMER: I know this is a mediocre description...but it's hard to figure out how to put it in words.  The moral of the story is it doesn't really matter what technique you use for ruffling the coffee filters, because they'll be all squished together and you won't even see the bottom of them.  So however is comfortable for you, go to town!  (Hey, did you ever make those little parachute/rocket thingies out of gum wrappers?  The kind you held onto and smacked the bottom of your hand to push air in and send it flying?  If you know what I'm talking about, it's KIND of like one of those, except your thumb goes in sideways, so the "hole" is on the side instead of the bottom...did that make it worse? Ok sorry...)

Repeat...ad infinitum...ad nauseam...ad 8 Criminal Minds episodes and about 4 movies.  (Thank goodness for rainy days!)
Look at all those coffee filters (inside view of the lamp).  It was a bit annoying at first because the paper lantern kept rolling around on the floor (I sat on the floor surrounded by a sea of coffee filters and glue gun sticks...it was a beautiful sight to behold I'm sure!).  But once I kind of got a system down, it went a bit better.  I basically just followed along the seams in the paper lantern.  (You can sort of see what I mean in the picture that shows inside the lantern).I just glued the coffee filters in between the wires so they were in nice straight lines.  Then, I fluffed the filters out a bit once I had finished a section, and sort of tangled them up around themselves to avoid having any holes or spaces between the filters.

Here's the finished product!  Way easy, just time consuming! Because God forbid I choose a resonable sized paper lantern for my first attempt.  No no...go big or go home is my motto when crafting!  So this thing quite literally stands halfway up my thigh. (I know, I'm only 5'3"...ok fine...only if I have my heels on...but that's still a big honkin lamp!)  When it's finally hung I'll send some pictures.  I'm putting it over the chair you can kind of see in the picture.  It's a comfy reading chair, but needs more light.  Hopefully this will work!

Have you done any light makeovers?  I'd love to see them!!