Be Inspired by DaniDesign

Not too long ago the lovely Danielle Hunter attended my Lampshade Making Workshop at Sew Make Create. Much to my joy she brought along a fabric she designed herself and created a beautiful little lampshade. 

Then, inspired by our new 3Chooks Simple Lamp Base, Dani created her own version with a mid-century twist - and I love it! 

She has since written a lovely story about her lamping journey which I really enjoyed and I hope you will too. Here it is:

Guest Blog - by DaniDesign:

Creating my Lampshade and base

Until recently I never gave the Lampshade a second glance. Growing up it was something that was in other peoples homes. It’s not that I hated them, I just never thought of them. If I was to think of them, I probably would’ve described them as rather old fashioned and boring. When the time finally came for me to move out, I do remember I did buy this big old ceramic lampshade base, and then began the hunt unsuccessfully for the right shade that was also a bargain. For a few years it sat unhappily with its ill fitting shade until I gave up on both of them and they finally went out on the sidewalk during a council clean up. So for the next decade or two I never thought of them again.

Discovery of a Lampshade Making Class

Then, along came my love of surface pattern design and the Lampshade became more appealing as an alternative way to show my designs. I found 3chooks.com.au and signed up for a class at Sew Create Make in Sydney. Anna was a really wonderful, helpful and friendly teacher. I now am happy to say I have a lampshade that I am proud of and I’m happy with its very simple base from Ikea.

It hasn’t stopped there however. During the class Anna showed me some images of shades that she is making with a colleague that included a prototype of a base. This thought stayed in the back of my head for a for a while, and I thought ‘I wonder…’

I was inspired to come up with a base of my own. Something simple that I could make, something that was inspired by my ‘anything retro’ obsession and something that could be flat packed and reproduced easily if one day I ever get round to trying to manufacture and sell my designs.

I am really happy with the result and I want to make more!

My ‘Gourmet Garden’ Fabric from Spoonflower ✔️

Bases from Ikea ✔️

Excited ✔️

Making A Base for my Lampshade

Happy with the result, I then wanted to try and design my own base. I wanted something that I could make, I wanted something that fitted into the Mid Century Style and I wanted something that really made the shade and the base blend into one cohesive piece and no longer two separate items.

I have no woodwork skills so that actually helped me come up with my design that didn’t require and nails, dowels of glue. My Husband thankfully however loves his garage and has acquired many many tools over the years and has even made his own guitars so he helped me with what I needed and how I needed to go about it.

I didn’t want it to be an expensive piece of timber and I do like the edge of ply and how you can see the laminated timber. So that’s what I went with.

With hubby overseeing, off I went….lots of fun. Not perfect but for a first time user of the bandsaw I was happy with the result.

I do have to admit that I didn’t create these 100% myself - I HATE sanding so that was outsourced! I couldn’t decide on how to finish them, I knew that I wanted to retain the original hue and didn’t want them stained dark. I ended up going with a natural oil. I probably should’ve put a primer thingy on it as it became quite rough after each coat. In the end I just sanded most of the oil off so it was smooth again. It’s not the best finish and far from perfect. Maybe next time I need to outsource that too!

However I’m over the moon with the result and just love how it fits my style.

VOILA!

I would love to sell these as a complete item one day…

Watch this space

Dani :)

*****

Thank you Dani! 

Anna from 3Chooks again here ;-). Thank you so much for sharing with us all Dani. You are a very clever chookie! 

If you'd like to see more from DaniDesign head over to her Spoonflower store where you can purchase this fabric design and more. You can also follow Dani on social media - Instagram a_danidesign , Facebook @adanidesign and Pinterest 

Create Lampshades With Your Own Fabric Designs

Do you design your own beautiful fabrics? Why not create some lampshades for your range too?