PARCHMENT LAMPSHADES

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 303, 14 March 1928, Page 7

PARCHMENT LAMPSHADES

While every imaginable substance is being tried just now for iampshades, including beads, there is also a return to the great standby of parchment. Parchment has suffered a little from the inverted light to which it has not always been skilfully adapted. It has been coloured and used cylindrically round a bulb set on a square block of wood, but the old, turned-down parchment shade, which used to be so attractive, has been rarely seen. A good many turned-down shades are now being made with a narrow petticoat round the edge to keep the light out of the eyes. The petticoat is fastened on at an angle to the slope of the ghade, so that it is perpendicular and if is only an inch or so wide to prevent the whole from looking heavy. Another method is to fill in the lower opening of the shade entirely with the parchment. The shade thus becomes a sort of open milk-can. It gives a very good light, which is, however, generally insufficient for reading. Other methods of using parchment result in what look like Cubist lanterns. Many Cubist lamps have bulbs which merely x shine through sheets of frosted glass, cut in simple forms and held in slits. The parchment, of course, needs a frame, which is generally made of black iron. It must be stitched very taut, and to counteract the stiffness of this it is sometimes made cloudy to show the kind of material it is. & & 3K SK