29 June 2017

Bedroom lamp


We had 2 rooms in need of a lampshade. One is the den: “link to the post” and the other was our bedroom. I am ultimately planning to paint a piece of silk that I will then apply on a frame I have already purchased. The silk fabric had been purchased years ago for a different purpose and I am still unsure where it might be. For a while I assumed I would find it quickly and get the lamp done but as other matters took precedence I realized It would take a while before I can do this.
I have therefore purchased another inexpensive lamp shade and, in the space of less than one hour, proceeded to transform it in something I would not be ashamed to show to people:
I have used newspaper yarn. I had spun it ages ago and some of it had been died in pink and wine. (I believe that I was dying something else and simply dropped the still wet yarn in the leftover dyebath). “link to paper yarn spinning”

The yarn is wrapped around the frame and held in place by tying the yarn ends with sewing thread. Once I am ready to make the silk lampshade I will be able to recycle the yarn.



17 June 2017

Back stencil shirt


For this one I have designed one half of the pattern, folded the freezer paper in half transferred the pattern to the other half. I have cut out the positive spaces and ironed the stencil onto the back of the shirt. This was probably the hardest thing to do. This is a cheap T-shirt from Primark and it is not exactly symmetrical.
I have sprayed red dye using a mouth atomizer onto the stencil. I have then tacked a contrasting fabric onto the back.
All I have to do now is quilt the 2 fabric layers together and, once done, cut off the top layer and any excess bottom layer.

This is the sort of work I like to have at hand because it is mindless and relaxing and it usually take a good long while to get completed. Since I have almost finished the Alabama shirt “link to post” I do need a new project of this type.

4 April 2017

Den lampshade

Since we moved in I have been planning to make 2 lampshades for the 2 rooms in the house that had naked bulbs when we moved in. The other rooms already have light fixture and we are not planning to replace them.
The lamp of the den was supposed to be a sculptural structure made of two panes of felt spiralling towards the centre. The felt I wanted to use is dark green and I realised that it would not let any light out. So I decided for a structural ball made of several stripes of felt. This worked from the point of view of light but the shape was ugly and lopsided.
I decided to change completely and went for this:

It is made of muslin fabric, supposedly dyed to have a gradient from green to almost white but the bucket tipped and the result is rather plain. I still like it. I have used fabric I already had and the frame was £2.99> For such an inexpensive lampshade I can decide to replace it at any point.