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 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, 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.
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.
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”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 🏰”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”We have a new Ikea (well, it’s one year old) in Hammersmith, and I popped in there to get my lamp base, as it is those that I use in my photo shoots for my lampshades.
However, I found the new shapes and colours on display inspired me. It was mostly monochrome (black and white on display there). I grew curious about how they managed only to charge £8.00 for a floor lamp. I then began to look more closely at how these were made and noticed how they used plastic clips to attach the ring to the fabric.
I wondered why this form of making lampshades might exist and then realised it might enable the scaling up of the production.
Normally, the fiddly bit in lampshades is tucking the fabric into the metal frame. Some artisans get over this fiddly bit using a lampshade binder; see Lush Designs in the video below.
Seeing this and other lampshade manufacturing videos made me think of what is possible beyond my art being a hobby and into a full-blown business in the future.
However, a big part of me wishes to keep my hand in the work and mix a combination of digital technology and manufacturing equipment to still allow my items to emit a personality while offering a personal and even bespoke buying service to potential customers.
Although I didn’t make much this week, I made a lot of progress with decisions on what equipment to invest in to increase my making while developing my unique style to more customers.
I’ve started to integrate my two arts. In psychology, that’s a good thing to do to become whole. But I thought about that after and not before I did it.
I have integrated my graffiti art onto my lampshades. They look rather cool. I noticed my curly cursive writing when using paint and how it has a unique style of its own despite my dyspraxia dyslexia which allows the lines and the curves to take on another life of their own.
I was also inspired by a question in our Facebook group for lampshade makers. Someone had asked how to display the lampshades when they go to fairs. This question comes up often. The idea to use mannequins to display the maker’s lampshades came up, and I scoffed at the response, thinking it was that gimmicky, and I couldn’t imagine how that might look. It might look hideous and distract from the shades for the person asking. And I also thought that lagging the mannequins around and putting them together at the fair was difficult.
The person had large shades about 30cm 40 cm wide, and ultimately, the look would have been very Ascot-like, as if the manikins were wearing wide-brimmed hats.
Then I didn’t think about it again until I had to take some images for my 15 cm lampshades for the desks of stylish professionals and their statement yet cosey task lighting. I was searching for inspiration and realised that sitting across from me was a head figure I bought from a trendy interior designer, Abigail Ahern’s shop. I promptly placed one of the lampshades on the statue, which did seem like sacrilege a bit at first.
However, after some thinking about it, I realised how fitting and natural it was., Seeing a statue of a magnificent African woman or woman with African heritage with a tall cylindrical object on the head reminds me of what I saw when I visited Africa. I travelled on a Kenya safari and spent some time in Nigeria for work. Seeing a magnificent woman walking around with a cylindrical bucket containing water, shopping or goods for the markets on their head was normal. But it always pains me that the cylindrical buckets the African women (children too and young men to a lesser extent) normally have on their heads were often some garish yellow or blue plastic unimaginative vessels.
Looking at my graffiti lampshades on the figurine in more depth; I began to take pride in what my eyes were seeing. Noticing how my graffiti artwork on the lampshades then placed on the African woman’s head felt like fantastical art because it depicted a more luxurious scene, albeit slightly surreal.
I imagined myself as an African woman and recalled what I saw in the ritual of attending church and weddings and wearing big wrappers that acted like gigantic fabric expressions of a crown. The look is awesome.
But what if there could be something like my beautiful cylindrical vessels (lampshades) that the African women could continue deftly carrying on their heads as they go about their daily life and l chores?
It dawned on me that perhaps my placing of lampshades with graffiti art on sculpture together is another form of fantastical black art. It is indeed my fantasy that those wonderful ladies I saw in Africa had something more glamorous as a vessel to carry on their heads. I would like them to freely cast away those horrible unimaginative plastic yellow buckets and go for something more considered in its design.
Those women are very entrepreneurial and perhaps like taxi drivers in London; they could get the carrying vessels of their future sponsored by local businesses, and a local creative person might be able to use top calligraphy skills and design competence to embellish their vessels with more beautiful graphics that become useful communication collateral for local businesses. Ultimately their new carrier vessel earns revenue through advertising the local firm.
I’m going to look into it and see how I can help. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if the women have probably already done it because African women are reported to be highly entrepreneurial. But I would like to get an insight into what African friends think of my fantastical black art (graffiti lampshades on African head sculptures) and the extent to which it reflects the 21st-century African and African women’s vessels they carry around on their heads.
This week I experimented with the new smart French bell-shaped lampshades in gorgeous vibrant colours and curious textures. These new pieces are a start of an impressive new collection. More cool in situ images of these lampshades will be on the Wednesday posts as they will be at the product showcase. I’m excited to share items in the product showcase posts every two weeks. And you can find the product showcase tab under its little tab on the website menu here.Click to find the product showcase
I’ve been immersed in producing decor items lately. It will be wonderful to finally share my most recent efforts with more people online as I list items for sale in my Etsy shop and insert fabulous images here. Below is a little taster of items coming up in the product showcase soon.
See you next time.
I started painting and using Moss. There seems to be a trend with moss and using it in those IKEA box frames.
But I wanted to do something different. I integrated paintings with moss art. It is a bit of a continuance of the work I do with herbs dried flowers and things like lavender in art.
I know I’m not the first person to do it because I’ve seen recently how some of the top website artists and creative people have been integrating dried flowers to make their hair look big. And this picture shows me using moss simply by adding some texture to enhance the grass.
The other thing in this picture that stands out is the texture on the top of the frame. I found a new way of integrating my love of decorative nail trim.
15cm acrylic painting with gemstones & moss and decorative nail trim on a round canvas.
15cm acrylic painting with gemstones & moss and decorative nail trim on a round canvas.
This week, my post will speak for itself. It is a movie. You can hear me thinking and stumbling on not being able to say Swarovski Crystals. In this video, you will see that I used emerald green Swarovski Crystals for this emerald green and copper checkerboard painting. I like to create paintings like this, so they are ready to prop on a bookshelf without buying a frame. The dried lavender makes the painting smell wonderful.
The link to the story video is here
Below is the after with a view of the painted potion on the shelf of my home office.
We all need something uplifting and sweet-smelling and natural on our bookshelves, don’t we?
I had an aha moment when reflecting on the look of my shop. I noticed that it was vital to make it easier for my shopping list to find things they want. So I organised the collection by Design.
You will see from the pictures that I have a collection of at least five types. There is the line of Empire framed lampshades, these are new. I also have a collection of metal trimmed lamp shades with beautiful vintage crystal inserts. The collection of drum lampshades is stunning and they are organised by their design of having a simple decorative metal trim. The classical beautiful Victorian lampshades are always popular they get a lot of likes and they are organised under Victorian lampshades, I hand-stitched and stretch these. They are a lot harder to create that’s why they are a bit more expensive to buy. And lastly, there is the collection of stunning table lamps that come already with a plug and you simply just plug it in to get your lighting. With those table lamps, there is no need to buy a lamp base. You just need a socket to plug it in.
I hope people find it easier and enjoyable to browse these unique lampshades I designed to add drama to meeting scenes. Amazing backdrops are great ice breakers and they allow the beauty of our personalities to quietly shine.
I shared a video of lux interior designer Sophie Paterson talking us through her husband’s home office decor. I love that she did dark walls and combined the look with a few pieces of antique brown furniture. You can see in this picture I am trying out shades of dark paint as I love that inky almost black look but cannot decide on red/purple inky black or blue inky black.
The video SP refers to a couple of plain and simple square/ oblong lampshades, she got redone. And in the background, you can see some coolie french bell-type shades. See my finger-pointing on the left.
I probably would have been bolder with my lampshade choice. If it were me I would have gone for the taupe shades with amber or the straw in a small oblong or round shape, made of fabric like the ones below. It’s probably that she didn’t want to take away the attention from the beautiful ornate lamp base but I wonder if something in a plain light blue to echo the light tones in the wallpaper and in the blue in the base might have tied these lovely elements together more tightly.
Both the taupe and straw lampshades are available in the shop now. Here
Here are my latest makes and recently listed in my shop.
It is of the collection inspired by the green and gold or brass Bankers lamp. I wanted to create a softer alternative so that it is a more cosy fit in homes or hospitality.
What is your favourite lighting for creating a comfortable home office space?
The trend for cloth lampshades is returning. Whether gathered, pleated or stretched over a frame, I love making fabric lampshades.
However, I noticed a dilemma because fabric tends to gather dust and is too delicate for hoovering with the crevis or upholstery attachment. I have to be careful that the home is as dust-free as possible with my asthma. The video below came after a sleepless night of wheezing and being convinced I had COVID-19 at worst or the flu. I then took the lampshade out of the bedroom and washed it under the tap. I was using ordinary gentle soap gently trickling over it. I slept better with no wheezing after that.
After rinsing, I let it drain on a un upturned empty Gu pot. A yoghurt pot will do. And it dripped dried on kitchen towels. The washing process brought the colour of the lampshade up back to its normal sparkly shimmer too.
It’s interesting how dusty old lampshades often end up in landfill. But just giving your old lampshade a wash could be both good for you and the planet.
Home Office Charm 2021
I’ve been away, the break has allowed me to rest and I’m enjoying my new creations and identity. I’m a self taught artist and mostly do multimedia on boards with fragrant or textured elements.
I’ts Christmas and I’m very excited this season to have designed and made these sustainable lampshades. I created them out of recycled upholstery nails and my favourite banana fabric. I mainly designed them to be a modern development to the traditional banker’s lamp. You know the one I mean, they’re the old green glass shade and bulbous brass lamp base that fit traditional victorian inspired office spaces.
These new desk lampshades I love because they are sleek, modern and fit the mid-century trend as well as fit in with traditional spaces as well as those with apartments with a minimalistic vibe. They will be available to buy on my Etsy shop Home Office Charm in early January 2020
I got the inspiration for the form of the new collection of the sustainable lampshade from a traditional handstitched version I did (see image below).
Over the years, I’ve enjoyed its warm golden glow as my bedside table lamp. I knew it would be appealing after hearing the reaction to it while I had it on display at West London interiors showrooms. It was also a favourite shade in my Etsy shop. I had to price it high ( the soft hand-stitched version) as it took me ages to make and it hurt my thumbs along the way. I vowed never to make it again. But I was so enamoured with the warm glow that the shade generated I wanted others to experience it too.
So to make it easier for more people to buy and so that I could make more of them while fitting in with my earth shiny vibe, I created the new collection. I dreamed up the new collection and experimented with these sustainable lampshades at weekends and evenings to fit around my full-time work. I attended courses this year on wiring and batch make them during high days and holidays. I’m so excited to hear what other people think of them when they get listed in my Etsy shop from January 2020.
Excited that my photography skills are developing. It’s all that Instagraming I’ve been doing.
Anyway I thought I’d take a quick snap of the fabric. I’m using a Ralph Lauren that I got from the Designers’ Guild Autumn sale together with their natty gold and cotton trim.
I love the symbolic juxtaposition of the two fabric thread gold and hessian or Burlap as the Americans say.
I’m beginning to feel that the shades I make, create such a statement that they are infact ornamental in themselves and don’t need a base.
My passion for trimmings and tassels continue.
If you have any questions or comments about handmade lampshades with trimmings and tassels please drop me a line.
The frames are upcycled and stripped back and re bound.
I made these fabric disks in the Christmas break and originally had them on my wall spread out like the old flying duck motif.
But this weekend I was having a tidy up and rearranged some of wall decor. They look better layered up, I think.
I’m back to making and will do a few more of these discs and other shapes.
It’s been difficult finding time to make but I’ve managed to clear the decks for a season of showcasing my hand made office decor creations made from upcycled fabrics, cosmetics and skincare products.
It’s going to be a creative season. If you want to ask me anything about wall. Desk or wall styling drop me a line.
I’ve noticed the more we do Webex, Skype, Zoom meetings the more important it is to hand craft our own mise-en-scène. That’s film talk for how we look on screen.
I went browsing in Heals of London a couple of years ago and I was inspired by these double height lampshade sizes I saw.
The version I saw was made of Cork but what struck me was the size, they were 20 cm in diameter and 40 cm tall so in essence they were double height lampshades. And because my space is double height ceiling with 5m window height I’ve always been keen on finding how best to balance out the decoration in such a mammoth space .
So I made these double height lamp shades out of some fabric that I got from the Designers Guild sale recently. Then during my break I made these while catching up with a box set of some USA TV.
The name of the fabric is Aubriet lino and the colour is damson .
I love how it looks so floral and pretty but also it looks very organic and earthy with it’s burlap or raw linen backgrounds.
I wanted to do justice to this standard lamp as its trimming update was long overdue.
It’s one of the pieces that I realise now was over designed. And recently I’d
been wanting to strip down the details always remembering the less is more rule. I continued to be Inspired by smart office dress and my mood board contained images from Pinterest.
Then the finished piece is is what I’m much happier with. Just need to get a new lamp stand. Thinking dark burnt oak or ebony wood.
Home Office Charm 
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