Plastic Bottle Cap Pyramid Lamp

Are you looking for a new way to recycle plastic water bottles? Don't throw the caps away yet! Why not try making making a pyramid lamp out of them? It's easy, simple, and I'm sure you have everything you need.

Materials

• 30 plastic bottle caps
• Gold Marker
• Silver spray paint
• 1 piece of Cardboard
• 3 x 150cm string
• Remote controlled LED light (or a battery tea light)

Tools

• Hot glue gun + glue OR superglue
• drill with 3/32'' bit OR sharp nail OR thumb tack OR...
• scissors OR craft knife
• 1 large needle OR 1 twist tie (optional, but you can find them for free in a grocery store)

Notes: Many materials and tools can be replaced. For example, any kind of light will work, as long as it fits in the lamp. The gold marker and spray paint are used for decorating the lamp, and if you would rather make your own design, those are optional.

Using the drill with a 3/32" bit, drill a hole in the center of all 30 bottle caps.

If you want to create your own design, great! Otherwise, spray paint 12 of the bottle caps silver, and use the gold marker to draw designs on the remaining 18 caps.

Draw spirals on 6 of the caps, checkers another 6, and stars on the last 6.

If you spray painted, remember to let the caps dry before moving on to the next step.

You will repeat steps 3 to 6 THREE times. This will use up all 30 bottle caps. You will need 10 decorated bottle caps and 1 piece of 150cm-long string each time you repeat:

Arrange the 10 bottle caps in a triangle, with 4 in the bottom row, 3 in the next row, 2 in the next, and 1 on top.

Following the diagram above, use the string and carefully weave the string through the holes in the plastic caps. Caution; the caps will flip if you pull too hard on the string, so be careful and keep the caps in the triangle shape.

TIP: Peel off the plastic on the twist tie and keep the wire part. Bend in half, and thread a string through it, and use it as a needle to make it easier to pull the thread through the holes. Or just use a needle.

From Step 3, you should be at the center, with the string and needle pointing upwards. If you are not, that is completely okay. Remember that the goal is to connect all the bottle caps securely. You can just weave them together in any pattern you want. However, following my diagrams will be most efficient.

Now continue weaving using the new diagram above.

Continue weaving. Hopefully my diagrams are clear enough???? Feedback appreciated!!!

Continue...And if you're done, go back to step 3 and repeat on 10 new bottle caps.

If you're done done, then go on.

Phew! Now to the fun part. Use a glue gun to glue the sides of the triangles to each other, to form a pyramid shape.

Warning! Don't accidentally get the strings caught in the glue.

Cut out an equilateral triangle from the cardboard so that it fits to the shape of the bottom of the pyramid.

Use the glue gun to glue the LED light to the middle of the cardboard triangle. Oh, and make sure the light has enough batteries first!

Use a needle or the drill to poke three holes on the cardboard, each about 1 cm from the midpoints of the sides of the cardboard triangle.

Thread the strings from the three bottle cap triangles into the corresponding hole in the cardboard triangle. Glue the bottom of the pyramid to the cardboard triangle, and tie the strings below. Cut off the extra string.

Now turn on the light...