I've basically been crushing on this Microfilm lamp on Etsy for months now, but couldn't bring myself to buy something I could mentally reverse-engineer in about 10 seconds. A while back, I came across a very informative interview with the artist on Craftzine.com and decided now it was time to make one. I contacted a seller on Ebay who just happened to have some 1990-era microfilm of the Chicago Tribune, where my very best friend, Heather Billings, (@hbillings) now works. After a few failed attempts to get the woven-dowel look to work, I settled for a basketweave modification of the inspiration lamp. Here are some pictures of the process if you'd like to copy it yourself!
Note: I originally started out with a two-tiered Ikea Textur lamp, but the weight of the film was too much, and the sides started buckling. Even after adding clear plastic reinforcement, I found I had to downgrade to the single-tiered table lamp to keep it from bowing in the middle. If I had gotten doweling with a smaller diameter, it would have worked! Anyways, I thought it would be fun to include the directions, which I also 'hacked' from Ikea's website. Remember to buy dimmer-friendly candelabra base lightbulbs!