gilhoolie has been featured in the June/July edition of Craft Focus, the leading trade magazine for the arts, crafts and hobby industry! Have a look at the Craft Focus feature to see my instructions on making a drum lampshade and a comment from me on the benefits of running workshops.
If you’d prefer to come and learn how to make a lampshade you could book a place at Make & Do in Caversham, Reading – bring a friend, it’s great fun and you’ll take home a lovely lampshade (you can even add a bobble trim if you like!)
I also offer 1-2-1 lessons, just get in touch for details.
I finally started binding the rings of my big lampshade yesterday and I had a big smile on my face! I don’t know why lampshades make me so happy but they do. It’s just so therapeutic; I even finished off the bottom, very big ring, while watching TV this morning after dropping off at school. I never usually have time to watch telly during the day (honest!) so it felt very relaxing, almost like a ‘duvet day’!
Very neat don’t you think?!
I’m going to take this lampshade to the Waddesdon Country Show near Aylesbury this Saturday, 2nd June so that I have something to show and do as it’s a long day. I mustn’t forget my pins and thimble!…
I have to admit I was quite nervous about my first 1-2-1 lampshade lesson today – there seemed to be so much to get ready to make sure it was perfect, especially as I was running it from my house. I had a big checklist to work through – garden tidy, check, house clean, check, cakes baked and decorated, check, not to mention making sure I had all the lampshade bits and instructions ready, check!
Have I forgotten anything?!
But after all that it went really well and I met a lovely lady called Lynne Sharpe who had driven all the way from Chelmsford to come and make a beautiful drum lampshade in my dining room. Lynne specialises in felt making and runs workshops in this as well as sewing, knitting and crochet. She is one of a team of resident artists at Hylands House in Chelmsford where she has a studio. She also runs workshops from her house under the name of The Make it Room. Maybe that will be me in a few years time?… (We can all dream, can’t we?!…)
Well, we had a lovely chat about work, life, craft and everything in between, while she made a lampshade from a gorgeous Amy Butler fabric under my guidance. I really hope it’s the first of many 1-2-1s and workshops chez gilhoolie – check out my workshop page for more dates or contact me to book…
I made a lampshade this morning from some of my screen-printed fabric and I thought it would be nice to write about what goes on behind the scenes. Not every detail, don’t worry, just a little insight into the journey of a gilhoolie hand-made lampshade.
As I’m not organised enough to have lots of fabric already printed, I started off by screen-printing my fabric using my butterfly design. Well, at first I had to mix up some more ink as I had run out of purple, nothing’s ever straight forward you know!
gilhoolie butterfly fabric in dusky purple
Five perfect screen-prints later (phew!) and I have a strip of crisp cotton/linen blend fabric printed with my butterfly design in dusky purple. I love screen-printing when it goes right but it’s not always as easy as you’d think. It’s unbelievably satisfying though when I make a lampshade from my own print and that’s why I do it.
Once the fabric has dried, I iron it to set the design and then get ready to transform it into a drum lampshade. I won’t go into details but you can see the course notes from my first lampshade workshop on FromBritainWithLove. Or come on a lampshade making workshop with me!
I love it when the lampshade comes together and I must admit I still have a little jump for joy when it’s done and perfect!
Next I wrap it in cellophane, add a gilhoolie tag and wrap it in bubble wrap before placing it in a box and sending it on it’s way to a lovely Etsy customer. This all takes time but I love the fact that it’s all hand-made by me, here at gilhoolie…
This lampshade was most definitely a labour of love. Now it’s complete I love it, but making it wasn’t an easy experience… but then the reward when I finished it was great! When you know what you’re doing these hand-stitched lampshades aren’t actually as difficult to make as you’d think but when you don’t know what you’re doing (or can’t remember exactly how you learnt what to do as in my case!) it can be quite frustrating. I really wish I had made one straight away after the course at Homemade London but I guess I have learnt a lot from my mistakes and hopefully won’t make them again next time. Before I went on the course I really had no idea how these traditional lampshades were made; I thought each panel was attached separately and I remember hating to remove all the pins I had used to pin the fabric to the frame to get the outline.
I breezed through attaching the outer Liberty print fabric and I could do streetly stitch in my sleep now, but I remember from the course the lining was much trickier and easier to get wrong. It’s not perfect but I have now made notes on my notes (!) so I just need to find another frame to practice on before I tackle recovering my big lampshade. I think another trip to a local antique shop is in order!
I’m really looking forward to teaching at my next drum lampshade workshop at Make & Do in Caversham, Reading next Thursday evening (26th April, 6.30pm). Maybe one day I’ll feel confident enough to teach others how to make hand-stitched lampshades too – better keep practicing (how many lampshades can I fit in my house d’you think?!)
