One of a Kind Pieces for One of a Kind people
Last week I mentioned how I was inspired by a new shape from a luxury hotel I visited.
This week you see me make the new shape
.
It’s also an unusual pattern. This is Designers Guild Floreal fabric
The full video of me making this will be launched on 28th here https://youtu.be/IVrA5qEsfvo
I made a video about the lampshade maker’s practice of rescuing lampshades from their embarrassment by turning their seams to the back whenever we are out.
The video shows what I do when I discover lampshades with their seams facing forward in a posh hotel. It also shows how I realised how and why the seams were turned outward. This discovery led to a new challenge for my lampshade making in the future.
This week, I did an explainer video about measuring the height if you order a custom-made lampshade from me and it’s going to the USA.
Top tip for measuring. Measure both the overall shade height desired and the measurement from the base of your harp to where the screw of the finial attaches to the lampshade ring.
We want to avoid your lampshade coming up to short. UK fittings have about a 2″ margin and US fittings have about an 1″
Depending on the size of your harp I would do any lamp shorter than 20cm if you have a 6″ or 5 ” harp.
Most of the lampshades currently in the shop are 15cm in height as I created them to be small enough to fit onto shelves.
I might in future create more lampshades of 20cm in height and wider selection of widths.
This week, I created a YouTube video to show buyers how I create the beautiful diffusers for my lampshades.
Though Edison-style lightbulbs are available, they don’t always suit every interior style scheme, especially if you’re going for a more cosy, less industrial look.
Watch how easy it is to assemble a diffuser for your lamp shades. I’m considering having these as kits in my shop as an alternative way to hang and present my artwork.
This week, I focused on fusing my artist and lighting creator skills. I found a solution to reduce the glare from the table light I made earlier this month.
In the video, you will see how I used another layer of foundational material. I did this to reduce the glare from the lightbulb yet allow some of the light to shine through in a unique way that you don’t typically get from table lamps.
You also see the sliver of clearer light that I start to create to make things interesting. I think the clear light signifies the light at the end of the tunnel for those in that manifestation and professional development space.
Below is a link to the video coming up on YouTube on 17th February.
And here is a sneak peek of what you will see.
Here is a link to the video due to be posted on 24 February showing my thoughts on the type of trim and what I plan to do next time.
This week, my YouTube video addressed a question from one of my subscribers. They asked for a video explaining how the duplex fitting can be used. I show how they’re used to suspend a lampshade from above. Lampshades can be suspended from a ceiling cable or wires on either side of a bed. We often see the suspending of smaller lampshades in industrial-style or fishing rod-style floor lamps.
In the video, I show details of the spider attachment. You get to see how I easily swap over various styles of lampshades. It’s less bothersome to do the same with the usual fittings.
Please ensure your lampshade has the duplex fitting when you buy from my shop. This ensures ease of swapping over. This enables you to use an empire shape. You can suspend it from above or place it on top of a table lamp.
Below is a bonus video showing how the same duplex frame on my Empire lamps can also be used as a table lamp. In essence, you don’t need to turn the lampshade upside down.
This video explains why I started creating and making items to help virtual working professionals stage their on-camera backgrounds to emanate meaning about how they work with people, on projects, and in programmes, so they can confidently always feel proud to switch their cameras on.
This week I was delivering professional development training and facilitated workshops in Manchester in the north of the UK and back down in London.
On the way back home I noticed how all the HQ buildings in the area had beautiful Xmas trees. Next year I will do a post on the line up of Xmas trees at corporate HQ buildings.
It told me something about how just putting up a Christmas tree in the spacious reception areas of these building is important for converting a sense of arrival and welcoming.
Seeing how the facilities teams of these massive organisation seriously consider the decorations made me realise that when we work from home we must also create our version of the well dressed welcoming Christmas tree for people that join our meetings online in virtual meetings.
3 top tips for more festive spirit in your virtual and online office scene
What will you do decor wise this season to bring cheer to the office and team?
While visiting some London City offices recently, I found some authentic Japandi. Working as a facilitator corporate trainer/ instructor I was able to see how the combination of textures used in the external meeting rooms and breakout area fittings created a captivating and calming atmosphere. Colours are neutral and highlighted by the colours from natural elements such as metals and woods and watery looking glass panels.
If you want to create the Japandi look in your home office here’s five things to remember
Comment below to share what your favourite elements are in Japandi office or home interiors. Do you like light Japandi or dark Japandi?
I recently visited the V&A museum and took these two photos that caught my eye.
These images caught my eye because they reminded me of the structural architectural importance of lighting and ceiling hangings.
I am in the middle of making a light that combines these very elements. `It has its own base and completely integrated. It is as if the above images combined to make a table lamp. See images below.
Where do you go for lighting inspiration.
This one will be available in the shop soon.
For other marbled painted lamps I created and sell, click on this.
Visiting my local hospital I found it enjoyable to pause and explore the art.
Charring Cross Hospital uses art well. The images below are what captured my thoughts this week when I visited the hospital for a check up.
Not only was I mesmerised by the colours, the vibrancy of the paintings, I noticed how easy it was for me to feel calmed and be part of a community of gallery viewers enjoying the art at my local hospital. You saw it, it made you contemplate when when you walk through their corridors or approached the lifts.
I never noticed the art before, it was a stressful moment for me but the art helped me to feel calmer. But it is a lesson to us all about the role that art could play in our own workspace.
Art is known to uplift, bring joy, elevate, bring hope or help our racing thoughts pause from its meditative transfixing properties.
So don’t forget to include art purchases if you are renovating your own home office and wanting to style your shelves.
Let me know in the comments, how many pieces of art do you have in your home office? How many on your shelves? How much art is on your wall to create an aesthetic virtual meeting backdrop?
If you want to see the art I created small enough to display on shelves, click on this link to browse the art that I sell on Etsy.
The AI created the feature image based on what it read about the blog. The four images above are what I took myself. Other parts of the blog show examples of AI generated images to create design scenarios.
The featured imaged is AI. The machine computed what my blog was about and created a picture with that massive light with feathers. It made me chuckle 🤣.There is another AI generated image at the end of the blog. However, all of the images in the middle were taken by me.
This week I had some time mid week to wander around my favourite interior trade suppliers in Chelsea Design Centre. Being a West Londoner, hailing from Fulham Lots Road is very familiar to me.
Below shows more images of things that took my fancy. They show trimmings or lighting features that either conjured up excitement or a sense of cosy familiarity for me…
Continue reading “Exploring Interior Trade Suppliers for Lighting Design Inspiration | DCCH”The current lampshade and lighting trend is for big white empires with the gathered version emerging as being a preference.
However, please enjoy the feast of table lighting fashions taken from my recent trip to the various rooms in Wow House at Chelsea last week.
This white lighting trend at some areas of the Chelsea design centre appears to echo what I wrote about in my previous posts, especially the one anbout high street table lighting.
As a lampshade maker, I don’t make big white lampshades.
Instead, I specialise in creating small lighting and shade accessories so that they both fit on a shelf system or bookcase arrangement on bedside tables adding a pop of colour, to support shelf styling and staging themes.
I’m here to support those whose tastes for colour are not yet met by monotonous style trends or lackluster supplier management tactics. Did the mainstream lampshade suppliers suddenly say you can have any colour as long as it’s white (just like Henry Ford said about cars in the early 1900s)? I also understand, the plethora of white lampshades might also be down to the minimalist’s quiet assertion and retaliation against the rise of maximalism.
Despite the dominant theme of white lighting, I was pleased to notice more bold and characterful displays of table and ceiling lighting for the home. These seemed to be more fun and cheeky suggesting a personality of their own. Alas, there wasn’t many of the colourful ones to find.
They are rare find indeed. I noticed that the more colourful ones were displayed in the trade shops in the Chelsea Design centre, while a couple of select dark red, purple hand sewn table lamps with or without gathers were thoughtfully placed in the Wow house display.
This was a development from previous years as those with colour in the Wow house previously were looking a bit anemic, washed out. Might we see more colourful table lamps in the Wow house next year?
Update: 1st July. Just Seen Homes and Gardens on Instagram just posted a thought provocation, asking scrollers to consider the whimsical style featuring colourful lamps and various colour palettes Homes and Gardens on Instagram thus we live in hope of the un-bland-ing of ambient lighting pieces.
The main thing to remember when selecting your lighting or designing your lights for ambiance within a colour scheme is to not be pulled in by what is obviously available. Dog deeper for more interesting suppliers. Go for colour drenching, harmonising or coordinating until you are happy that you are making your own mark and showing your personality.
Do you prefer a colourful light for ambient lighting or white lights?
Let me know in the comments, below.
Click on the link to view the colourful lighting I have in my Etsy Shop
Since it’s the end of the month here are links to the previous four weekly posts, just in case you missed them.
When it comes to home office decor themes I discovered that have my preferences.
I don’t like the cold, stark, hard surfaces office look. It might seem futuristic (very 21st century to us Baby-boomers). But those images used to be the standard result of search for office decor or desk style as far back into the early 2000’s. It felt boyish, channeling teenage son lone woolf, building code and gaming in their bedroom and I just couldn’t relate.
To the other extreme I do not like the overtly feminine big frilly country kitchen table, make shift office desk and ramshackle bookshelf disorganised recipe books; propped up iPad against tiny metal pots of lavender look. That was a trend for a while, fitting in with a cottage core or rustic chic.
There is also the girl boss look, I see with some YouTubers which is less chintzy but has neon name signs on white walls and lots of fluffy textures incorporated whether the a macrame wall hanging or stringy plants dangling from shelves or wall (for the backdrop). These are combined with sheepskin covered chairs or armrests. It does give off a dreamy fantasy of what a girl’s world of business could be like (pink fluffy and pretty). It seems to be playing at being in business and those of us women working in corporate or refugees from freelancing know that, it sure ain’t no game. However I get the need to convey the light ethereal fantastical vision contrasting the hard realities of our capitalist system.
Instead, I like a style that that emanates wisdom, elegance and being grounded. The moody and cozy home office style is indeed a theme on Pinterest. When you look at those images you see a bold cohesive comfortable and elegant look.
The cozy home office
Be mindful, though. This look isn’t that shining high polished look that you might find in Dubai, Knightsbridge or Belgravia show houses where our top interior professionals produce. Perhaps akin to what you see in TV show Buying London (Netflix 2024). No, this cozy home office look is somewhere that you and I will feel comfortable doing everyday business because it is as if our friend down the road was the cabinet maker and our interior design pal (old friend from local comprehensive/ grammar school) helped with sourcing of fabrics for the wall and space planning of our furniture.
Continue reading “Intensive Pigment Palettes: Creating a Moody and Cozy Home Office Aesthetic”
My return to and finding new uses for the small drum lampshades have sparked fresh creativity and renewed interest.
Currently the empire and coolie (more correctly conical) style of lampshade is all the rage. This created my dilemma, as fewer people were buying the drum shades, especially in the small sizes that I make. And I had made a lot to experiment and sharpen my practice of adding more decorative elements to them like the metal upholstery studs as I’ve always loved that classic look.
But, this week I set on a spree to rediscover what the styling options were for the plethora of small 15cm drum lampshades that I have in store (not all are in the online shop).
Continue reading “The Drums are not Beaten”This is the new movie going into the shop.
It shows how I make the new shape from start to finish.
I’m an obvious urbanite and was nervous about travelling to England’s South West Countryside for work, this week. I had to visit Somerset in particular Chard for my 9 to 5. But my journey was helped because I stayed at a lovely little local guesthouse. And while the Chard guesthouse did not exhibit all the slick, minimalist, post modern or contemporary industrial style I have been accustomed to seeing on my usual business travels, this place really did emit some helpful old world charm
What makes a good leader?
This bloganuary prompt (what makes a good leader?) made me chip in mid week and roll over to Sunday. We are seeing more reports on successful leaders being able to follow a variety of elements within the organisation. Some of the elements include what their followers say is of concern. Leaders today also must follow guidance and advice from a range of stakeholders. Later you will read how important it is that leaders get the very soft and aesthetic elements right too.
Following rules for shelf styling. Clumping elements in threes, fives or sevens, Maximising the layers, using lighting, botanicals, colour and painting tactically to get an inspired feminine industrious vibe.
Zone into wellbeing elements like designer iconic candles and image on a brochure i liked.
My last post of 2023. This balances out the product showcase post on Sunday 17th.
I went on an interior styling intensive course at Chelsea College of Art and Design. It strangely felt like revisiting my old employer twice. Once because I was previously course director of a MA programme at UAL and second because I worked for the Tate one summer in the membership department at the Tate Britain (Millbank) site in the 1990’s. My work at Tate Britain meant that I then went on to do my arts management dissertation comparing Tate and Art institute of Chicago’s membership strategies. Ahh, those were the days. Sorry I digress.
Anyway, last week, the tutor for my interior styling was the amazing Emma who took us through the practical steps of being one of those people who set up the shots for glossy interiors magazines as well as the communication collateral for big brands.
Continue reading “A Better Style”I live in West London. These are photos of the wintery views this week. I was mesmerised by the ghostly set of buildings arising from the Olympia vicinity. I was transfixed on the building cluster in the distance that seemed to appear and sometime not appear, as if a mirage.
I was thinking 🧐 of contrasts and reducing my colour palette recently. Below are a couple of images where I played with new forms and hues. This week I was struck by the work of Mexican artist Sandra del Pilar and British artist Sahara Longe. Both seem to assert figures of humanity in subtle ways. I like how their figures seem to give way to the paint and colour form.
Here is is one picture series for the product showcase, ideally. But these images of new pieces of work are placed here for now until I get my new laptop and can access the product showcase part of my blog again. I’ve already asked WordPress about such a strange anomaly, they said they’re working on it.
Blogging via phone 🤳🏽 the last few months has been interesting but it has its limitations. Nevertheless it’s a short one this week to give my thumbs a rest.
Main message is that I love plants and it shows up as if by magic in my art.
Continue reading “Botanical Mesmerisation”I visited Wales this week and happened to drive by Cardiff castle 🏯.
I first noticed all the Japanese business people walking past and admiring the different gargoyles and statues on the castle as they walked hurriedly in their smart business dress. I too thought about the makers of the stone and metal castings and carvings. But I wondered about their daily toil. I imagined the working conditions of those aged artisans who made their creative marks luckily lasting 100s of years.
Continue reading “Cardiff Castle Inspo 🏰”I visited Covent Garden for a meal and did some shopping. There I also noticed how the artistic contribution features m in our everyday encounters. Sometimes we must look deeper to notice how the hidden artist gets to express their work through mundane things like our retail experiences and our eating out.
I’ve been enhancing my photography. The aim is to tell a story in small vignettes. I’ve been learning from iconic professional photographers who specialise in products, lifestyle and jewelry photographs. I’ve learned my photography from various courses online and in classroom settings in London.
Continue reading “Clarifying three stories of the bookish hedonistic professional”Recently I’ve been experimenting with colour intensity and they’re beginning to convey my sense about how we work and contemporary working environments.
Continue reading “Brushes with colour therapy”Short one this week as blogging from my phone as my laptop died and I cannot decide whether to buy an I pad or laptop.
Meanwhile I’m back in the swing of painting and making as I settle into my new 9 to 5 role. It’s amazing what a rested mind will do for art and creativity.
Continue reading “Mixed Three Mixed Media Techniques”It’s a photo and video post this week. I’m currently in the process of creating three items that I’ve been dreaming about making for years and months.
Continue reading “3 Fantasy Makes: Ducks in a Row & Houses in Order”Three lampshade style trends I’ve noticed in the highstreet this summer (2023) are:
Continue reading “High Street Table Lighting Trends: Summer 2023”I uploaded youtube videos to clarify how the fittings work. Below are videos that answer frequently asked questions. The first one answers the question to show how my lampshades fit on your lamp bases. Please drop me a line if you have additional questions about the fittings.
Continue reading “How the Fittings Work on My Lampshades: Video”
Home Office Charm 
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