Lamp Shade, Part 2

Part 2

Depending on how good my drawing was and how good your cutting was you might need to trim the center. Just slightly, don't change the shape of the center, let the shade relax around the center and come into shape.

Push the center into the shade up to the line. Don't use any glue yet. It's going to look like it's not going to fit, push it up and let the shade conform to the center.








After the shade has relaxed, (it takes a few minutes) and it is fitting, apply a line of glue to the underside of the center and shade. Let this dry.













You can make lamp bases out of just about anything. In the office I used a miniature vase and in Carl's Room I used a wood turning. The new beads that are out now can make some pretty lamp bases.












For the miniature vase in the office I filled in the top of the vase with a piece of wood cut into a circle to fit the hole in the top of the vase. I also cut a hole in the center of the piece of wood to fit a toothpick. I glued the wood circle into the top of the vase. The toothpick holds up the shade. I painted the wood circle and the toothpick gold.









Carl's Room, Carl is the Siamese cat. My daughter, Sam has a Siamese cat named Carl.













I trimmed out the shade with Bunka and added tassels to the wood base.

I am going to turn a base for this floor lamp. I use a drill press to turn on, not a lathe. I seem to be more comfortable with turning a piece vertically than horizontally. If this interests any of you I can show how this is done in another project.







Let the glue on your shade dry overnight or most of the day. After the glue has dried paint the shade with acrylic craft paint inside and out. Since we are using card stock, paint the inside and let dry and paint the outside and let dry, or vise-a-versa. Painting both sides at once tends to weaken the card stock and we don't want to lose our shade now.






When the inside and outside are really dry use sand paper, I used 180 to 220 grit, to sand the surface and get any glue bumps and ridges from edges that aren't butted. Generally smooth the surface. Paint again.











I used white; my shade is going to be white. I would paint my shade the color of the fabric I am going to use. Some shades are painted gold inside before you've covered the shade in your fabric.











I've covered this shade in silks, cottons and shiny polyesters. They all seem to work well. Test your glue out on the fabric. Some fabrics soak up more glue than others and leave a mark on the outside while other fabrics refuse to glue at all. I use Aleene's No-Sew Glue to glue the fabric to the shade. The glue stick is used a little later.


End of Part 2