The only way to create something with this sort of complexity is rapid prototyping—and laser sintering, to be exact. The process works by sweeping a laser across a pan of powdered nylon; when the lasers hit the nylon, it fuses ("sinters"). The process repeats in layers, until the final product emerges. Thus, you can create interlocking shapes all at once—for example, a chain whose links are completely closed.

Dror created the lamp for Materialise.MGX, which specialises in producing furniture using laser sintering. The lamp shade itself is designed so that the cubes are densest in the center—thus diffusing the light simply by overlapping.

[FastCompany]

At first sight, the Fiat Lux Lamp is just a lamp: One plain orb with a smaller sphere attached to its side. It's just a lamp until you turn it on, by grabbing the smaller sphere and making if float under the sphere, where it will stay until you decide to turn it off. No wires. Just thin air between the lamp orb and the sphere, and the forces of magnetism. [Constance Guisset via Unplggd]

Less than five bucks for an 8-LED lamp that won't even be a blip on your electricity bill? Why not grab one, especially if it somehow pisses off your teleco? [Uxsight via OhGizmo! via Wired]

I love the worn metal, but at $2,400 I would need a much better reason than liking the look to justify filling my house with inadequate lighting. Plus, it looks like it's staring at me... [Product Page via LikeCool]

The appropriately titled "Sketch Lamp" is the brainchild of Ninna Kapadia and Hung-Ming Chen and, for the moment, it is still in the concept stage. Hopefully, that will change soon because light boxes are annoying, cumbersome beasts. [Ninna Kapadaia via DVICE]

The Diamond Light is made of mirrors and a 20 watt LED. [Takada Design via Mocoloco]

This lamp, made for a sculpture class, features over 1,000 toothpick umbrellas molded in a really cool architectural fashion. It's inarguably the coolest use of Mai Tai accessories we've ever posted, so congrats for winning that one. [Thanks, Jacob!]

A lot of designers these days are looking at ways we can harness wasted energy in the home to supplement our energy needs, but the tp roll might be going a little too far. The idea is to harness the spinning motion of the toilet paper roll to generate electricity that powers the unit's secondary function as a portable lamp. Needless to say, the practicality of such a device is questionable. I mean, keeping this thing powered up would require more chili and cheese than I am willing to eat. [Miguel Melgarejo via The Design Blog]

Still, should you wish to take the €220 plunge, one of these handmade cassette tape lamps can be yours. There's no guarantee of the musical selections you'll be offered, so don't come crying to us if you score some Brazilian Jonas Brothers release instead of the still-spectacular TNMT soundtrack. [ooomydesign via inhabitat via bbGadgets via DVICE]

Why would anyone want a fried egg push button nightlight? I'll be dammed if I know—but if you already have the cereal lamp, this egg would really balance out your crazy plastic breakfast. [Gadget4All via Pocket-Lint]

The starter set comes with two TwistTogether blocks, two shelves and a mini shelf, and will set you back about $110. (Retro robot toy not included, sadly.) From there it really depends on how much junk you have on your desk, and how much cash you're willing to drop to arrange it all in such a cool way. [Unplggd]

The lamp's name is Frankie, and it's shaped like a skull with some sort of horrifying modification over where the mouth should be. The eyes are interchangeable LED or halogen bulbs, allowing you to choose just how intense the stare from this thing is gonna be. The whole thing weighs 11 pounds, and is probably expensive due to the fact that you need to contact the artist for pricing. No thank you. [Fernando Akasaka via CoolHunting]

The ring-shaped lamp contains four curved florescent tubes and shoots 80% of its light upwards to reflect off the ceiling. This should provide a soft, evenly distributed light for you to view your classified documents and maps by. The flame-red lacquer isn't exactly what I imagined from the movie, but hey, it was black and white so for all I know this is perfectly accurate. [Yanko Design]

While I like Avery Holleman's design for the "Timelight," I can't help but notice that there is no snooze button (or switch in this case) amongst the controls. No snooze? That's the most important feature! After all, if the Timelight actually existed, I'm sure I could not afford to hurl it across the room. [Coroflot and The Design Blog]

The only problem is that it is only a concept at this point. Then again, anyone could make one of these in a matter of minutes. It's just a good, simple idea. [Designboom via Likecool via Coolest Gadgets]

The $226 Blood Bucket Lamp (our name) celebrates the holidays with flowing crimson that's in the perpetual state of just almost spilling all over your floor. Sure, you could pretend that it's supposed to be paint—there's a bucket and everything. But when you wake every night in a cold sweat, your face glowing red from the nightlight...well, we told you so. (After all, there's good reason we don't watch those gross iPod nano commercials after ten.) [Blood Bucket Lamp via Rinkya and Crunchgear]

John Strainic, global product general manager, won't say. He just says that the manufacturing process is the result of "very advanced patents". As you can see in the video, the fluorescent spiral is housed inside the typical incandescent light bulb glass—which will be frosted in the final version—along with the necessary electronics to make it work.

It seems to me like the typical looks-cool-but-I-don't-know-if-it's-useful-or-what invention that may take the market by storm or sit on shelves gathering dust forever. It will be available at Target and selected Ace Hardware stores next January, and around "Earth Day 2009" (which in case you didn't know—like me—is April 22) everywhere else. [GE Lighting]