Original Presents. Lighting Fitting Made of Loofah

Women’s Day is not as far as it may seem.What to present the nearest and dearest ones with?

The best present is known to be the one which is handmade. For example, this original lighting fitting made of vegetable sponge.

The Luffa or Loofah/Lufah are tropical and subtropical vines comprising the genus Luffa. The fruit is grown to be harvested before maturity and eaten as a vegetable, popular in Asia and Africa. The fruit of Loofah aegyptiaca may also be allowed to mature and used as a bath or kitchen sponge after being processed to remove everything but the network of xylem (based on the info from Wikipedia).

To make the lighting fitting you will need:

Materials. Vegetable sponge, a Christmas-tree garland of 100 bulbs, thin cardboard, a red cotton thread, thin gold threads or gold Lurex, and a sticky tape.

Instruments: scissors and a needle.

What to do:

1) Remove the inner septa from the vegetable sponge. It is the most difficult task when making such a lighting fitting. I got a very tough sample of loofah. Thus, before taking the scissors, I put it down into hot water and left it there for several hours. Note that at the upper end you should leave the septa of 1-1,5 inches (2-3 cm).

2) Roll a pipe from the thin cardboard of the diameter and length corresponding to the vegetable sponge. Fix it with a sticky tape. It will be the frame for the Christmas-tree garland.

3) Wind the garland around the cardboard pipe. Fix the ends of the garland on the cardboard with the sticky tape. I used the garland with different regimes: winking, quick, slow.

4) Carefully put the cardboard-and-garland construction into the loofah.

5) Embroider the surface of the loofah in a red thread making a zigzag pattern. The porous structure of the vegetable sponge easily lets the needle through. It is better to use a thin needle with a large eye.

6) Wind the lighting fitting with a gold thread. I used a whole reel and 5 minutes of my time.

That is all. An original handmade present – a lighting fitting of loofah – is ready!

What else can be made of such an interesting material as vegetable sponge? Your ideas?

Natalie

For this article in Russian, please, visit the Russian version of “Parent’s Ideas”

Next time you will learn how to make a cake during 5 minutes

Illustrations used in the article

Photos by the author, Luffa aegyptica