I’m still here!

February 14, 2024March 8, 2025 Julie Gardner

I realised I hadn’t written a blog post on here for a long long time, sorry! It’s usually a sign that things are busy but no excuse really as it may look as though I’m not here any more. And I definitely am!

Lampshade orders are still busy and I have also run a few workshops already this year so all good. I’m also getting more and more into my art and on my second booking of a printmaking course at South Hill Park every Monday which I absolutely love. I’ve found my thing (aside from lampshades of course!) I’m working on a website for that at the moment so I’ll share it once it’s up and running.

I also work part time in Toast in Marlow which has been amazing for the social side and also for inspiration for my art. It means my lead time for lampshades is 3 weeks (but often quicker). I’m just trying to keep time in my diary for art every week rather than rushing through orders and running out of time for it. It’s all about balance isn’t it?!

So here you go, a few of the lampshades I have made recently. You can find lots more on my instagram feed here.

Get in touch if you’d like a lampshade made or recovered, I’d love to hear from you.

And if you’d like to follow my printmaking journey too, you’ll find me at Julie Gardner Art here. Thank you!

Lampshades

gilhoolie 2021 round up!

January 20, 2022March 10, 2025 Julie Gardner2 Comments

I thought it was a good time to do a round up of last year, we are over half way through January after all! I always find it helpful to look through and realise how much I’ve achieved.

gilhoolie 2021 highlights went a bit like this (see images below from left to right):

My workshop was built in our garden in the spring of 2021. Oh my goodness, it’s amazing! So nice to have a dedicated space to be creative, as well as somewhere to greet lampshade customers (and store all those ring sets!)
I attended a brilliant lino cutting workshop near Oxford which reignited my passion for the craft. It’s on my list to do more of this year. Read about my day here.
I made lots more bespoke machine embroidered lampshades – this is one of my favourites, I love the yellow French knots. I have just finished a commission but will be starting some more of my own designs very soon, watch this space! See more in my shop.
As 3 above – this is the finished lampshade – colourful flowers embroidered onto a natural linen fabric, with a navy braid on the top and bottom rings.
Gold lined lampshades were very popular with clients – this one was made using a striking wallpaper, with mirrored gold lining and a dusky pink trim.
I reached 1000 followers on Instagram – quite an achievement for me, and I enjoyed embroidering this foxglove to commemorate it!
I made lots of little candle clip lampshades and particularly liked this fabric from Charlotte Gaisford, they worked out beautifully.
gilhoolie house illustrations – these are still going on in the background and I’m always over the moon when I’m commissioned to draw one. Drawn in black ink, with a printed gilhoolie patterned sky, a message at the bottom and the option to add a pet (I’ll do my best to capture a likeness!) This was of a family holiday home, a bit different from the usual requests but great fun to draw.
Last but not least, we had to say goodbye to our much loved miniature schnauzer Arthur just before Christmas. I’m still heartbroken but feeling a lot better (most of the time…)

I think I’ll write a separate blog post on my plans for 2022, I’m still going through ideas in my head, in amongst working on lots of lampshade orders!

Lampshades

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

Lampshade for a jet fighter

April 29, 2021February 11, 2025 Julie GardnerLeave a comment

It’s not every day I’m asked to make a lampshade for an RAF fighter pilot. It’s more likely to be interior designers or curtain makers! I didn’t realise Clive was an ex fighter pilot until he sent me this lovely review after receiving his new lampshade in the post:

The lampshade arrived this morning, safe and sound and completely undamaged. We love it. It is even better than we’d hoped. It was a bit of a guess as to the dimensions and shape on our behalf, but it is perfect and makes our standard lamp look much more modern and contemporary as well as fitting in with the new décor. The way you decided to run the pattern on the fabric is right too. This standard lamp is actually rather special. The stainless steel stem was once the pitot tube sticking out the front of a supersonic Lightning jet fighter, a type of aircraft that I flew for 7 years during my 36-year career as an RAF fighter pilot. It will have flown supersonic on many occasions, so this a sort of supersonic standard lamp! When the Lightning was retired from RAF service I acquired this pitot tube and made it into a standard lamp myself. Thanks for making this for us and for the service you have provided throughout.
Clive from Horncastle

What an amazing story! I don’t think I have made a lampshade for an RAF fighter pilot before and I love the fact that Clive made the standard lamp himself too. It all sounds a bit like the Repair Shop doesn’t it?!

The lampshade itself was super big, and covered in a lovely simple geometric print linen fabric from Ada & Ina. Usually I would advise clients to steer clear of geometric prints for empire lampshades (smaller at the top than at the bottom) as the pattern tends to twist as you go round the lampshade, but in this case it all worked out really well.

For more ideas on fabrics for your lampshades have a look at some of our favourites here. And get in touch if you have a treasured lamp stand that needs a new lampshade!

Here it is in situ on the stand (always great when clients send their own photos to me too!)

Lampshades

1960s vintage lampshade restoration…

April 27, 2018April 25, 2025 Julie Gardner

Restoring a treasured lampshade for a client has to be one of the best things I get to do at gilhoolie.

Jules from Flackwell Heath had two 1960s, very unusual shaped lampshades that her mum had bought many years ago. They were looking very sorry for themselves but still in use by Jules.

The lampshades were originally made from silk fabric stitched to cardboard and then stitched again to a metal frame. I’ve never seen anything like them and totally understood why Jules wanted to revive them if at all possible. You certainly wouldn’t be able to find replacements in a high street shop!

The whole process started with Jules sending me photos and measurements of the two lampshades. As she isn’t far from Maidenhead we met up and talked about options for fabrics and I checked that the frames weren’t misshapen so that I could reuse them. All part of the service 🙂 Jules sourced a beautiful orange silk fabric that would look amazing when the lampshades were lit. Most fabrics are fine; you just don’t want to choose anything too thick or fabric that frays really easily.

Here is one of the original lampshades – a bit torn and battered as you can see, but the frames were fine.

Original 1960s lampshade ready for gilhoolie restoration

The lampshades were taken apart so that I could use the cardboard as a template for cutting new PVC for the new silk fabric. What a lot of dust and quite a tricky operation to make sure it all came off in one piece – it was over 50 years old after all! You can see the panel goes round in a spiral but the two ends don’t meet so this had to be taken into account.

Quite a lot of patient, careful work (and breath holding!) later and the lampshades came back to life. What a transformation! (Scroll down to see). Always exciting when I stand back and look, especially when I know how treasured they are.

Jules was really pleased with the result and said her mum would’ve been happy too. I love a happy customer! To top it all off she gave me an original 1960s lampshade book that was in her family as a thank you gift – what a lovely surprise. It’s the little things and gestures that can make your day!

You can see the lampshades below in my workshop, and then in Jules’ garden when she got home, on the original 1960s vintage glass bases.

If you have a lampshade you would like restoring just get in touch with photos and measurements and I’ll get back to you.

Looking even more happy on their original bases

Lampshades

Lampshade challenge…

February 4, 2016February 16, 2025 Julie GardnerLeave a comment

Lampshade making is not always easy. Mostly because they come in all shapes and sizes; not just the simple, straightforward drum shape. Sometimes a client has an existing lampshade they want recovering and sometimes they just have a frame that they want to see transformed into a beautiful light source.

[Recovering, by the way, isn’t as simple as it sounds – it involves stripping down the lampshade carefully and then using the old PVC panel to cut new PVC and recovering that in new fabric, then remaking the lampshade. It’s a great idea though if you have a lampshade you like the shape of and can’t find a replacement in the shops.]

One of my clients had seen these lampshades in India and managed to find someone to make the frames for her, which then sat in her garage for a while… until she found me 🙂 and asked me to make them into lampshades for the corner walls of her extension. She also had a pair of curtains in a sheer fabric that she wanted to use as they would let through lots of light.

It was a bit of a challenge to make them as I wasn’t sure if they were all identical so had to make each one bespoke. I’m so happy with how they turned out though – sometimes the challenging jobs are the most satisfying when you can sit back and look at what a good job you did!

There were 5 lampshades in total, all measuring 63cm tall – here is a shot of them halfway through making (the one in the middle is finished). I covered the PVC in the client’s curtain fabric first and then attached it to the frame on the curved side only, folding slightly around both edges to give a neat finish.

Below is a photo of 3 of the 5 lampshades all ready for collection by a very happy customer. Hooray!

Creative Courses · Lampshades

Lampshade workshops – such fun!

November 26, 2015February 8, 2025 Julie GardnerLeave a comment

Where does the time go?! Being a busy mum of two, working part time and running a small business means sometimes I tend to neglect my blog and end up writing for others instead of myself – which is all very good but surely I can do both? I know it’s my own fault but there always seems to be something else I need to do, (including the gardening, keeping the house running, shopping, oh and of course coffee and a chat with friends, very important for my sanity!)

I was thinking the other day, “what’s missing from my life right now?” Well, I was actually sitting down with the Headspace meditation app which I have been doing for 18 months or so. (I’d really recommend it – whenever I feel like my head is too busy, which it often is, I get back to Headspace on my phone). The app is great; you just download the ‘pack’ you want to follow and away you go – ten minutes of calm a day, bliss.

The new pack I have just started is called ‘Acceptance’. Basically, I had to think about what, and who I am resisting right now. To be honest, I’m pretty happy with my lot, in fact very happy. So I found it hard to answer this question straight away (well, the whole point is that you don’t answer it straight away, but anyway). The only thing I could think of is that I’m a little frustrated that I’m:

a) not writing enough for my own blog and

b) not drawing or sewing at the moment.

Both are things I really enjoy but have to be in the right frame of mind to do. Since I started working part time a couple of years ago (after 2 years off work, just being creative and doing ‘gilhoolie’ stuff) I do find it hard to fit it all in and these things always seem to come last. I absolutely love my job though so I wouldn’t have it any other way. And here I am, finding time to write (at last), and I have some ideas on what to draw too so I plan to get on with that ASAP. So it is possible! Hoorah! I’m even finishing this off at 8 o’clock at night rather than watching TV 🙂

For this blog post, I thought I’d tell you a bit about the lampshade workshops I run from my house in Maidenhead, Berkshire; in particular the one I ran this time last week, the day before my birthday.

It was with two ladies who had traveled from Milton Keynes and been in touch by email a lot over a period of six months or so. I teach private lessons too but it’s always nice for someone to bring a friend to keep them company and learn a new skill together. It’s fantastic when we come to the end of the 2 hours and they can sit back and compare lampshades over a cuppa.

As soon as I opened the door I knew we were going to get along and have a really fun time. It’s not like working at all and I’ve come a long way since I ran my first lampshade workshop a few years ago.

The beginning…

The workshop starts with a cup of tea or coffee and a chat while I have a look at the fabric they have brought with them and then iron it to make sure it is nice and flat for making into a lampshade. In this case, they had brought some fabric remnants from John Lewis so made identical lampshades but you can bring whatever takes your fancy as long as it isn’t too thick and doesn’t fray too easily.

The middle…

Ironing and introductions made, we crack on with the fun part – making a lampshade. I’m obviously not going to tell you what goes on exactly (you’ll have to book a workshop!) But everyone ends up with a perfect, 30cm drum lampshade for a table lamp or pendant fitting. All with a little help from yours truly – I show them what to do and then hand over – doing it yourself is the best way to learn. Some techniques are more tricky than others but the most satisfying bit is definitely when they roll the rings along the panel and the lampshade starts to take shape. You can see the relief on their faces that they have done it right!

And the end…

We always end with homemade cake (gluten free brownies today, Victoria sandwich with cream and jam last week) and tea or coffee, plus a bit more of a chat about making lampshades of course. I advise on attaching trims, making lampshades using paper, making lined lampshades and answer any questions they may have. They’re always welcome to contact me afterwards too for advice, all part of the service.

So the two ladies last week really enjoyed themselves and went home clutching beautiful handmade lampshades for their homes. One of them wrote a lovely testimonial for my website (before I asked her to!)

“Many thanks for giving us a thoroughly enjoyable time today: making lampshades, eating your scrumptious cake and generally having fun! it was a great pleasure to meet you and spend time in your lovely home.
I am absolutely thrilled to bits with my new lampshade and now feel confident to embark on making more – you gave an excellent course.”

When I close the front door after a workshop I always feel satisfied and incredibly lucky that I get to do what I do.

Now I need to get on and draw – that’s my aim for the next couple of weeks – I mustn’t put it to the bottom of the list of things to do… (must look back at this blog post to remind myself that).

To find out more about drum lampshade workshops click here or contact me for more information and a booking form. I tend to book them when asked so I’m very flexible on dates. Anyone can learn with the right guidance, even those who say they’re no good at using their hands or not creative can make a lampshade on a workshop with gilhoolie!

Lampshades

gilhoolie is still here…

June 12, 2015February 16, 2025 Julie GardnerLeave a comment

It’s been a while since I posted on here, well a really long time actually! In fact it took me five minutes to figure out how to login to my WordPress account to write a new blog post! ha ha…

It’s not that I haven’t been doing gilhoolie ‘stuff’, it’s just that I got out of the habit of blogging I think, and found it really hard to motivate myself to get back into it.

I started this gilhoolie blog when I wasn’t working and it was a brilliant way of motivating myself to get on with my creative ‘journey’ as I was exploring what I could do when I didn’t have to go to the office for a while. I was really lucky and absolutely loved it; my head was buzzing with new ideas and I had so much I wanted to learn and do.

That was a few years ago now. Since then things have changed… a lot. I now work part-time at a job I also love. I work for someone else who has their own business, five minutes from my house. 🙂 Well 20 minutes at the moment as I’m trying to be good and cycling there. What is my role? Doing everything really… I recently redesigned their website and had to write a biography on myself and could have written pages! From admin to social media to web design and anything else I want to get involved with. It’s great working for a small company; I get to have a big influence and can easily see the effect my efforts have on the business. And it’s not all boring stuff like customer databases and PowerPoint! Plus I get on really well with ‘the boss’ and we’re visited by her two lovely dogs occasionally too…

So working has definitely affected my creativity but I feel as though I am getting back into it now, it’s amazing what you can do once you just get on with it and stop procrastinating! Actually, I probably haven’t written on here for so long partly because I haven’t done as much gilhoolie stuff but also because I do a bit of writing at work (I write some of the mailings we send out to clients) and I also write a blog for an Interior Designer now too. That’s great fun, really interesting and sometimes involves going to venues to look at the interior or visiting art shows, then going home and writing about it. So it’s understandably hard to find the time and motivation to write here sometimes. But I have decided I am going to try and write every other week; should be a doable target I think, don’t want to stretch myself too much!

So what is happening at gilhoolie right now? Well, I made a lovely big tartan lampshade this week for an Interior Designer in Henley. It’s really hard to photograph lampshades well I think – it’s not on a stand for a start but I did my best! It’s lovely, 45cm in diameter and 25cm tall, made from a soft wool grey and blue tartan fabric by Sheila Coombes called Hamish. I have a big soft spot for tartan as I had a much-loved pair of tartan trousers at university. I bought them on an outing with a good friend (you know who you are!) to Kensington market in London. Anyway, it was a bit of a funny experience as Ronnie Corbett was buying some at the same time, not to mention all the zips on them (which I removed as soon as I got back to my room!)

I am also making a huge effort to get back into drawing and actually doing quite well at fitting it in with job, school runs and exercise (and the odd coffee with friends). This is brilliant as it really helps me escape and I now realise how much I miss it. I’ll show you more of that on another post, along with machine embroidery and helping a friend design a logo for her new business. So you know when you think, I haven’t done much, just list what you have done and it usually adds up to quite a lot!

At least I can tick off ‘write a blog post’ now at last. And I really enjoyed it, hope you did too!

Lampshades

Bling it up!

July 18, 2013February 16, 2025 Julie GardnerLeave a comment

I was recently asked to recover a traditional lampshade to go in an Art Deco living room. I just thought I’d show you some photos of how the lampshade developed, because it really did develop over time as various fringing and braiding was chosen for the design. It had been bought, along with the stand (not photographed here), from eBay, and was definitely a bit of a floral granny shade with a gold tassel trim. Nevertheless, it was a lovely shape with scalloped top and bottom rings:

From here on the design was down to the client along with her Interior Designer, Kate Lovejoy. I have to admit it wasn’t my style, but I also became quite attached to the finished lampshade – especially after working hard attaching so many trims and fringing! It was also great to make something a bit different, with strict instructions to ‘bling it up’!

The body of the lampshade is made from pink herringbone tweed which I love. Here’s a shot of it pinned to one side of the lampshade frame:

Next I added purple braiding to the top ring of the lampshade (this is a good close-up of the fabric too, oh and a gilhoolie tag with matching purple ribbon added at the end):

Followed by two layers of different length fringing in grey and purple:

Then more purple braiding on top of the fringing and a silver sequin trim (the bling):

Finally, the finished lampshade in all it’s burlesque glory:

I’ll post a photo of it in-situ soon hopefully; it doesn’t really go in my conservative looking dining room does it?! I was sorry to hand it over in the end though, maybe I should think about adding a bit of bling more often…hmmmm…

Lampshades

Go with your gut Julie!…

May 10, 2013February 16, 2025 Julie GardnerLeave a comment

Sometimes I think far too much about what I’m doing, especially when I’m designing and I wish I could just get on and ‘do’ more. I had a lovely day yesterday with Angela from Cocoon Home, trawling fabric and trim shops across London (literally, I slept well last night, it felt like we covered the whole of London, by foot!) So today I decided to get on and make a lampshade from some fabric I’ve had sitting around for ages. I bought this Liberty print to make a hand-stitched lampshade originally but it’s a bit too thin on it’s own so I decided to line a drum one instead. Now, the yellow is very bright; much brighter than I thought it would be when I bought it on-line (another good reason to go up to London more, much better to see and touch for yourself) but… it looks really striking with the subtle floral print on the outside and I’m really pleased with it.

So it’s good to get out and about with someone who knows where they’re going and we found some brilliant shops and some that weren’t so inspiring (but useful for any size and colour zip!) I even managed to buy some lovely braid at a bargain price for an empire lampshade I’m making, more on that another day… Thanks Angela, it was a real treat! Let’s leave time for cocktails too next time!