DIY Light Shade Made with Wire & Plastic Squares

Place one acrylic plastic sheet on a cutting mat or other cutting surface. Use a metal ruler and craft knife to cut the plastic sheet into 1-by-1-inch squares. Begin by scoring the sheet with the craft knife until it almost cuts through the sheet. Slide the sheet to the edge of a table so that the part you want to cut off hangs over the table edge. Place the ruler against the edge of the scored line. Press down firmly with the ruler to break through the scored line. Repeat the cutting process to create 275 1-inch squares. Sand the edges of the cut pieces, if necessary, using medium-grit sandpaper.

Punch a one-eighth-inch hole on all four sides of 250 acrylic plastic squares with a hole puncher. Place the holes in the center of the squares' edges, one-eighth inch inward from the edges. Punch holes on only three sides of 25 of the plastic squares; they will become the lampshade's bottom edge.

Insert one 4-millimeter diameter wire, open jump ring through one holes of one acrylic plastic square. Slide a second acrylic plastic square onto the open jump ring. Close the jump ring using a pair of needle-nose pliers. Squeeze the pliers against each side of the open ring to close the ring.

Attach a second 4-millimeter wire, open jump ring to the bottom hole of the two attached acrylic plastic squares. The bottom hole is the hole directly opposite the hole to which you attached the first jump ring. Slide a third acrylic plastic square onto the second open jump ring, and close the ring with the pliers.

Attach open jump rings and acrylic plastic squares together in the same manner until you have a chain of 10 attached squares. Then attach one three-holed square by using another wire, jump ring and by positioning the side without a hole opposite the jump ring. That creates a chain of 11 squares.

Create 24 more chains of 11 acrylic plastic squares using the same method you used to create the first chain of 11 squares. For the last square on each chain, use one of the three-holed squares.

Place a wire, open jump ring through the open hole in the top of each chain. The top of the chain is the end opposite the end without a hole. Close the open ring with the pliers, leaving it unattached to anything other than the first acrylic square.

Feed a 7-millimeter diameter wire, open jump ring through the closed jump ring on the top of one of the chains. Then slide the jump ring over the top edge of an 8-inch diameter cylindrical lampshade frame. Close the jump ring using the pliers.

Place the remaining 24 chains on the lampshade frame in the same manner as the first, using additional 7-millimeter wire, open jump rings. Space them evenly around the circumference of the shade.

Attach the 25 chains together using more 4-millimeter wire, open jump rings. Place one ring through each pair of holes that meet on the acrylic plastic squares hanging next to each another. Close the jump rings with pliers.