Cassette Tapes Meet Glue Gun

A few months back I was considering throwing out a bunch of old cassette tapes when I had a vision of making them into a lamp. It seemed like a cool idea.

The idea rolled around in my head for awhile and finally one day I looked on line to see what else people might be making with cassette tapes. Well, of course, someone beat me to it and had already made pretty much exactly what I had in mind. (LINK) Seeing some had already been made put me off the idea for awhile. But yesterday I decided to give it ago anyway.

I dug out the box of old cassettes in the basement, as well as an electrical socket, cord, and switch from an old table lamp. Unlike the examples I found on the web, my tapes were not uniform. They were a mix of black, white, and clear plastic. Most of them had labels and writing on them. I thought that old labels and text might add a layer of interest to the design, so I grabbed sixty cassettes and went to work with the glue gun.

When I turned on the light inside it looked pretty good, but when it was switched off sitting there in a lighted room, I just didn't like the look of it. All the different labels and colours made it look too cluttered. I thought maybe giving it a light coat of spray paint might unify the outside, but still let the light thorough when switched on. I had white and black spray paint on hand and decided to go with black (although later wondered if I should have gone with white - oh well). I wasn't sure it would work, but I knew I didn't like it the way it was, so I took a chance. Luckily it worked! I added a base and a removable top made of some plastic cassette boxes.

So now this thing is made (that's it in the photos), but it's too big to use anywhere at our house (about 12" x 12" x 14"). I think it needs to be in a larger, more modern, or eclectic room.

It might be cool to make one in a tall cylinder shape too, but I don't think I have enough old tapes left to make another one.