New embroidered lampshade

July 30, 2021March 30, 2025 Julie Gardner2 Comments

Most of the time I’m working on orders that come in from interior designers who I work with regularly, and clients that find me on Google, from all over the UK. But when I get some free time I always go back to doing something creative, like drawing or working on my machine embroidered lampshades. I even bought a new shelf for my workshop to display them on (which I’m hoping my lovely husband will put up above my desk for me this weekend). Don’t get me wrong, as I don’t work full time I also get to do most of the errands and driving around, and housework, washing, ironing, gardening, cooking etc etc (but I’m not complaining!) I’m very lucky that running a creative business lets me do a bit of everything, including volunteering once a week which I love and find really rewarding (and lots of dog walks with friends, with the odd coffee thrown in). Can you tell I like to be busy?!

My next task for gilhoolie is getting kind of urgent now and it is to set up some kind of shop page on here so that you can buy these embroidered lampshades, or maybe I’ll just put them on Etsy, I’m not sure yet. They take a long time to make and the process itself is all very organic, that’s what I love about them. No two will be the same and they all feature my illustrations of flowers, taken from gardens I visit as well as the botanical books I seem to be collecting. I feel very lucky that I have the time to do this and now that I have my workshop to work in there are simply no excuses! The new space is working out brilliantly for making lampshades and being creative too, especially as I’m in the heart of the garden which is looking lush right now by the way.

Here is my latest lampshade creation in front of our new veg patch (lots of scrummy courgettes, tomatoes, beetroot, rhubarb, peas, French beans and broad beans in our cooking right now!)

And below are a few close ups going around the lampshade. The first is an allium as it’s opening up. The second is supposed to be a hellebore but it changed a bit as I started working. And I’m not sure what the third yellow one is but it’s out of an amazing book I found in Waterstones when we were in Bath recently. Spot the buzzy bee too, about to land on the hellebore!

This time next week I’ll be on a lino printing course in Oxfordshire as I’d really like to have a go at printing my own fabric again. I’m thinking about combining the machine embroidery with printing but not sure if I’m being a bit too optimistic, we shall see, watch this space! Thank you for reading…

Please visit my new shop to buy this embroidered lampshade and other one off gilhoolie designs.

Lampshades

My new workshop

July 19, 2021March 23, 2025 Julie Gardner

I thought it was about time I shared some pics on here of my new lampshade workshop. It was built in our garden over a couple of months earlier this year. You know when you think, ah it’ll only take 2 weeks and then it turns into 2 or 3 months?! Well, that was partly our fault as we added some landscaping to the garden too, with a new garden path, a new flowerbed and two new raised beds for growing veggies.

Before I show you, I thought I’d mention why this is a good thing for my clients too, not just a nice space for me to work in. From now on when you come to collect a lampshade order, or come to enquire about lampshades, you can come round the back of our house to my workshop. There you’ll find lots of lampshade ring sizes to choose from, lampshade PVC lining samples as well as my plain fabric selection (a cotton from Villa Nova Seville). You can even bring your lamp with you if you like so that we can see what shapes and sizes will look best. I don’t have lots of samples of lampshades I’m afraid (being bespoke, everything I make goes out the workshop pretty much straight away). But I can also draw out your lamp base to size to help you visualise things.

This is my daily commute from the back door, across the patio and up the garden path:

I have been working out here now for a few months and I absolutely love it. The first week felt a bit strange being away from the house but now I’m so glad we did it. My lampshade ‘stuff’ (ring sets, PVC, cutting mats, equipment, art bits and bobs, lots of fabric remnants) had started to take over the house. And as I was using the dining room table I had to tidy everything away at the end of each day. Not great but on the other hand I also loved the space in the house and it worked well enough for nearly ten years…

My new workshop isn’t far from the house and it looks out onto our new veg patches, with peas, broad beans, rhubarb, raspberries, lettuce, beetroot and tomatoes. There is a new crunchy pebble path that leads from the patio to the workshop which feels a bit like walking on a beach but is also great as I can hear people coming up it towards me! I tend to get very absorbed in what I’m doing and am easily spooked otherwise!

We planned out what would go inside early on and I’m really happy with our finds, including:

A great workbench from Arbor Garden Solutions – it’s on wheels and is at the perfect height for standing and cutting PVC. No more back ache! There is also lots of storage underneath for PVC and ring sets.

A gorgeous quirky desk chair from Anthropologie (very me!) and a cute little bamboo desk from Ikea which is perfect for my laptop but also for my sewing machine.

A green metal trolley from Ikea – so handy for all my lampshade tools – no more hunting around in my tool box, everything is really accessible now.

The cupboard and shelving unit came from our house and were soon filled with fabric off cuts, my growing collection of botanical books and my embroidered lampshades.

Of course, Arthur has a bed out here too and usually comes and joins me while I’m working. Otherwise he’ll be wandering around in the garden next to me.

The walls and ceiling are painted in Little Greene Boxington and the woodwork is Olive Green. I decided to be bold, this space will be great for experimenting in interiors as well as art and lampshades! My next project in between lampshade orders and machine embroidery is to paint a mural on one of the walls of lots of flowers and leaves from my sketchbook. It’ll take a while but there’s no rush, I want to just add to it a bit at a time rather than planning it out. I’ll post more photos on here and Instagram once I have done some more (just a few flowers at the moment, it feels very strange drawing on a newly painted wall!)

I’m looking forward to welcoming lots more lampshade clients to my workshop. I’ve already had a handful collect their lampshades from here and it feels so much nicer and more professional than coming to the front door of our house. I just need to sort out a sign for deliveries as my husband is getting fed up having to take them all the time! I’ll add it to my list of things to do…

Lampshades

Embroidered Lampshade Commission – Cheeky Cracker!

May 12, 2021February 11, 2025 Julie Gardner2 Comments

Last week I finished working on a rather special embroidered lampshade commission for a lady in Wimbledon. The brief was to make two large drums for her daughter’s bedrooms using ticking fabric that matched the roman blinds. They could be slightly different but with the same theme – Cracker the much adored family pet – a cheeky black working cocker spaniel. The design was to be a story along the bottom of the lampshade, with Cracker walking through flowers on one side and more flowers, a watering can, bone, ball and toppled over (I wonder who by!) plant pot opposite.

The design developed as we emailed backwards and forwards and spoke over the phone – I worked on sketches from photos of Cracker and we decided on the story we wanted the lampshades to tell. All part of the creative process which I love. Even down to the colour of her collar (orange) and her little name tag with a letter C on it.

Most of the stitching is in a dark grey but I also added some black to draw Cracker’s fur, and some white on the darker flowers to make them stand out. I added a mustard yellow French knot on each of the daisy flowers.

They were finished off with a beautiful simple plain straight braid from JA Milton in a gorgeous green on the top and bottom rings. We thought it looked a bit like Cracker was walking on grass and it contrasts really well with the other colours in the stitching and appliqued fabric.

See for yourself on the many photos below, from the initial design drawing to the finished pieces of art in situ. I hope the little girls love and treasure them as much as I enjoyed making them! One of the girls is apparently angling for anther puppy, spot the sign behind one of the lampshades 🙂

If you would like to commission your very own piece of art on a lampshade do get in touch, I’d love to hear from you!