Friday 20 May 2011

DIY lampshade



Remember this post, when we first found our house? I said in it that there appeared to be a George Nelson bubble lamp in the dusty loft. Well, there was not one, but two of them. Sadly, they were not the originals, just some cheapo copy with nasty gilt nipples on the bottom (instead of the chrome ring). They were torn and the wire had corroded inside, leaving a green stain on the plastic. I was loath to throw them away because I like their shape, so after a bit of dithering I decided to strip the plastic off and to find some new way of using them. I'm always advocating the acts of re-purposing and recycling, so to throw them away would have been wasteful.



Now I've stripped them and cleaned them up I'm wondering what to do. I will certainly spray paint them to cover the corroded parts - white is the colour of choice right now, but I also toyed with the idea of using a colour (Yellow? Blue? Industrial black?) and then simply hanging them like cages over some nice bulbs. But then I'm also wondering if maybe I could get a bit more creative with them - covering them in some way - paper or fabric, plain or patterned? I rather like shades like this one (below) from Gong, so I'm wondering, with the right fabric, whether I could make something similar with my frames? Maybe I could even design a fabric and get it printed onto silk by Spoonflower and use that? Now that would be properly bespoke.



Or maybe they can just be the base for something fantastical (by Hutch Studio) or fun.


What do you think? What would you do?

5 comments:

  1. I would certainly crochet around them (maybe trying some hairpin lace), but that might be a bit grannyish. I think over the years I shall end up with everything covered in yarn!

    I think they'd look good plain painted red or duckshell blue, but I do love the jellyfish style ones (if a bit OTT).

    They look pretty cool already though!

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  2. If I had any kind of skill with yarn (I had a go at crochet, made one hot water bottle cover and nothing since), I might contemplate it, but sadly I'm not good with that kind of thing. Fabric and paper are more my kind of material when it comes to making things by hand!

    I can always change the colour of them on a whim, can't I? I think I'll spray them white and see where I go from there. Might make a jellyfish for the hall light. Or not...

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  3. A little more information how did you do the shell of the lamp, what type of source was it. Then did you over lap it? Then I notice you did a round circle and slit the pieces up, but again what is that fabric or some type of paper?

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  4. Either crochet the jellyfish in platic (plarn) or use japanese paper to make a cover

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