All of us in our new office have been goofing around with our fancy new toy, the electric bag sealer, a product of limitless potential. Consisting of a Teflon-coated metal grid, a silicone swing arm, a transformer, and an adjustable knob, the sealer melts plastic together in crisp straight lines; think of it as a sewing machine for synthetic polymers.

First assignment: make myself a lamp shade that would be colorful, cheap, fast, and use only materials left over from our move. No problem! Here’s how I did it:

Materials:

8 – 10 supermarket-style plastic bags (five white, the rest various colors)
A electric sealer (or an iron and baking paper if you’re really careful)

Time: Five minutes

1. Fold the colored bags in half so that the handles touch. Repeat a few times to form flat rectangles. Seal each lengthwise. They shouldn’t be too floppy.

2. Take two white bags and fold each in half the same way as before. Seal each lengthwise. Join the pieces together to form a long cylinder with the handles pointing the same direction.

3. Lay out three white bags with the handles all on the same side. Take the long colored strips and arrange them aesthetically, keeping one edge (the non-handle edge) even. Seal along this edge to hold the pieces together, then seal the two long sides together to form a big plastic skirt with the white side out.

4. Insert the smaller cylinder into the skirt (keeping all the handles to one side) and make a few short seals around the bottom.

5. Place atop a low-wattage decorative lamp. Enjoy your foofy organic creation.

Warning: Sealers get hot, as do lightblubs. Be careful, and make sure the light you’re using won’t melt your work.

Previous Posts: Plastic Bottle Blowing, Plastic Bag Wallet

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See Also: Airmail Envelope Wallet,DIY Leg Lamp,Enter Instructables “Go Green” Contest,

This entry was posted by Jeffrey Goodman on Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006 at 2:32 pm and is filed under Design, Environment, Vestal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.