Ingo Maurer’s midcentury marvel The Lampape, a crinkled rice paper lamp, is another piece we’ve clocked all over Instagram lately and in the homes of tastemakers like Giancarlo Valle.

The adventure is trying to erase UV-erasable EPROMS. And that’s how I ended up with a small cardboard fire and a scorched tanning lamp, and why I bought a $5 LED, and why I left EPROMs out in ...