Custom epoxy lamp

In search of stylish square lamps for our home, we ended up creating our own. We’ve combined a common spherical lamp shade with a cast epoxy cube.

Parts

• Piece of plank (profile 10x3 cm)
• Clear epoxy resin
• Spherical frosted lamp shade (diameter 8 cm), with threaded opening
• Corresponding threaded light socket with ring (G9)
• LED bulb (G9, 2W)
• Steel washer (M20, diameter 21 mm x 37 mm)
• Power cord with switch
• Compact double cable connector
• Two pieces of thin electric cable (4 cm)
• Wood glue

You may try to find a LED bulb that is somewhat heat resistant. They don’t produce much heat, but the enclosure is small and their electronics tend to be particularly sensitive.

Tools

• Silicone cube mold (10x10x10 cm)
• Wood saw
• Power drill with drill bit (6mm), wood drill (38 mm), and bell drill (or an equivalent wood drill) (18 mm)
• Wood file or rasp
• Wood chisel
• Hammer
• Sand paper
• Small wooden slat

Base

Saw a piece of 10x10 cm from the plank:

Drill a hole with the wood drill, about 1cm deep. Next, drill a slightly smaller hole with the bell drill, all the way through. Round the top edges of the block with the file:

The steel washer will hold the lamp shade to the lamp base. Glue it inside the opening:

Drill a hole for the power cord through one side of the base. Chisel out some space for the cable connector:

Sand down the surface of the base. Optionally coat the base with some varnish. Optionally glue rubber feet or some felt on the bottom.

Epoxy

Create some sort of scaffolding for the mold, because it’s way too floppy by itself. We’ve cut out some cardboard supports, which worked well:

Temporarily attach the socket to the wooden slat with two nails:

Screw the spherical lamp shade onto the socket. Place the slat on the silicone mold, so the lamp shade is suspended inside of the mold. Center the lamp shade horizontally inside the mold:

Weigh down the slat with some relatively heavy objects. Otherwise the lamp shade will start floating up when the liquid epoxy resin is poured into the mold:

Check some online videos if you haven’t worked with epoxy resin before. You can determine the amount of resin that you need by pouring water instead of resin first and then weighing or measuring the amount of water.

Mix the components of the epoxy resin, avoiding air bubbles. Gently pour the epoxy between the lamp shade and the silicone mold. You can initially remove the slat with the lamp shade when you start pouring. Pour onto a spatula to avoid air bubbles. You do have to put the slat in place near the end, so you can check the level of the resin. The entire process may be messier than this picture suggests:

Let the resin set for 2 or 3 days. You can then unscrew the slat and peel off the silicone mold:

Assembly

The parts are now ready for assembly:

Push the two thin electical wires into the socket. Click the LED bulb into the socket. Screw the socket into the lamp shade. Hold the lamp base against the lamp shade and fix it with the threaded ring on the socket. Our socket came with a plastic tool to screw the ring on:

Thread the power cord through the base. Connect the power cable to the electrical wires with the cable connector:

Done!

Results

The lamp produces plenty of light in the dark. Depending on how carefully you’ve poured the resin, you may still see air bubbles, but they look cool too:

We actually started with a version without the power cord, to install on top of a series of existing metal lighting bases on the floor:

Disclaimer

Should you try this yourself: your mileage may vary. Build and use the lamp at your own risk.

Copyright © 1996-2026 Eric Lafortune.