I visited Wales this week and happened to drive by Cardiff castle 🏯.
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.
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.
The clip system on Ikea lampshades
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.
Home Office Charm 
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