VELLUM LAMPSHADES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 792, 12 October 1929, Page 23

VELLUM LAMPSHADES

USEFUL AND ATTRACTIVE The most popular of modern lampshades are those made from parchment or thick vellum, decorated with a simple hand-painted motif, or stencilled in bright colours. To make a, shade of average size you will require a sheet of vellum (there are a variety of thicknesses and different “deckle” patterns to choose from at most good art shops). A large sheet costs about two shillings. The other materials are a wire lamp frame, specially made to hold parchment. and costing a few pence; oil paints or waterproof inks, or water colours (which require varnishing when dry), for the decorative motif. A two-colour shade looks well, the leaves being in black Indian ink, while the flower and buds are in gold paint. Cutting the Pattern Cutting the vellum to fit individual shades has to be done carefully and economically. Take your wire franie and drape it tightly round with any large sheet of paper. The paper will assume the shape of a cone with the frame hidden in the centre. Cut off tho surplus paper and then trim the paper pattern carefully, allowing a small margin for overlapping. When this pattern is laid out flat it will be seen that it is a semi-circular collar of paper. This can be laid flat on the vellum to the best economical advantage. Small surplus pieces of vellum can be utilised for candle shades. The Decoration Xow pin the pattern flat on a drawing board and sketch in the motif faintly in pencil. You can use a ready-made stencil to draw through, i,- you are not good at copying, adapting. or inventing a suitable design; but one soon acquires the knack of this sort of drawing, with a little practice. Then paint it in. Piold, simple motifs in bright colours are the most effective when the light shines through them. When tho shade is dry, a coat of transparent varnish may be added. It preserves the life of the shade and keeps it clean—over water colours it is essential. To make up the shade, fit it into the special wire frame Separate shades, designed to fit over frames already fixed to a lamp-stand, are completed by overlapping the two ends of the vellum “collar” and securing these with gum or three tiny paper clips—the kind with a small head and two "legs” which can be pierced through tho vellum and flattened out on the wrong side.