Monday 23 January 2012

Craftiness: bird lampshade




Here is what I've been pottering about with for the past few days. I was inspired initially by this AMAZING lampshade below which is from Graham and Green but I didn't find its £400 price tag quite so inspiring so I decided to use a lampshade I got in charity shop to do something along similar lines. I'd still love to get a cage-like structure and make a more modern version like the Graham and Green one though.


I started with an old lampshade (look for ones with interesting wire work inside) and stripped the material and trim off. I've found that the material tends to be glued to the wire at the top and bottom and it's practically impossible to get it all off, but it shouldn't be too visable once it's all painted and decorated.


I then painted the frame with a couple of coats of emulsion paint (spray paint would probably be easiest) and then it was a fairly simple matter of wiring on artificial flowers and birds that I ordered from an online floristry shop. I covered some of the wires with coloured pipe cleaners. This is just my first version of the lampshade and I'm planning to make the flowers and birds from scratch next time. The floor lamp stand will be getting a re-vamp in the near future as well.

This is also the first project I've done in my new craft room at the top of the house. The light in it could be better but I got so sick of having half-finished craft projects lying around the living room (and I'm sure Dan was too though he was good enough not to complain) so everything is now in one place out of the way. I'll post some pictures once I have everything completely organised and pretty.


So what do you think? Does it need more flowers and things on it? Should the bulb be covered somehow? I'm hoping one day be able to sell a version of this so any advice would be appreciated!

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