Jun 8, 2020

DIY – Balloon lamp

I got a lot of questions about where I had bought the balloon lamp in Ebba's room in previous posts. I've actually made it myself from an old yoghurt jar and a rice lamp from IKEA. I like this thing with crafts and recycling. If there are more like-minded souls out there who also would like to make their own balloon lamp, here comes "step by step" of how I made it. There are lots of different variations you can make. Just google "Diy balloon lamp" and let the inspiration flow!

This is what you need:

Rice lamp
Glue gun
Scissor
Coarser string
Universal glue
Yogurt jar

For possible decorations (ladder and bags)

Glue gun
Barbecue sticks
String
Pieces of cloth

Cut off the top edge of the jar.

Glue the bottom with universal glue.

Attach the string to the middle of the bottom of the jar and start wrapping / dressing the bottom.The idea is that the whole jar should be covered with string so it looks like a basket in the end.

Continue on the sides.

Now the basket is finished! Let dry for a bit.

Now we'll make the balloon. Fold up the rice lamp and cut 8 equal strings. Mine were about 120 cm long / each.The length of the strings depends a bit on how many knots you want and how far down you want the basket to hang under the balloon later on.

Attach the strings in pairs opposite each other at the top of the balloon with the glue gun.I glued the inside of the balloon and folded the strings over the edge to hide the ends.

Now it's time to start tying knots! The easiest way is to hang the lamp to see how the string falls and so that the knots end up at the same height.

Divide the "string pair" and tie them together with the neighbor at desired length. I made the first knot about 13 cm down. NOTE! Do not tighten the knots to hard at the beginning. They may need to be adjusted in length later to get all the knots at the same height around the balloon. In the end, when everything feels good, you can tighten all knots.

Tie the string together with its neighbor again. I attached this a little further down then the first "knot row", about 23 cm down. Continue with "knot row" number 3.

If you want, you can make an other turn with knots. But I thought it looked good like this. Now it's time to attach the basket to the balloon.

Now it is also good to have the balloon hanging at the beginning and near an outlet as we need to use the glue gun again. Measure how long strings you would like, mark and cut off.

Attach the ends to the inside of the basket / jar using a glue gun.

Now the foundation for the balloon is ready. Time to decorate it! I want to make a ladder and sand bags that hang on the sides.

To make the ladder, I used the same type of string and some barbecue sticks that I cut off and glued on with the glue gun.

Glue the ladder to the inside of the basket using a glue gun. I also made sand bags to hang on the sides made of fabric scraps that I folded and tied with string. These were also glued with a glue gun. (Glue gun is life!)