George Hart of Math Monday for MAKE writes:
We looked at playing card constructions before in this column, but this one by Nick Sayers is impressively intricate. The 270 playing cards each have four slits, and lock together like the classic IQ Lamp. Each card is forced into a curved form because it locks with a neighboring card at two points which are closer together than a card’s width. Light from an internal lamp escapes dramatically from under these curves.
I wonder if scuffing the back of the cards to remove the lamination, then rubbing them with oil would allow more light through and let the colours be even more luminous? We used to do this when making shadow puppets and the effect is really vibrant – plus here, it would make the lampshade less of a light-blocker…