Let There Be Light

I've wanted a new lampshade for the sitting room for a long time and had my eye on a large drum shade covered with vintage fabric - quite a few of these are being sold online currently but I thought it best to make my own as it would work out cheaper.

But what could be cheaper than free?

Look what the Gods of Craft and Upcycling had in store for me - I stumbled across a dumped lampshade on the corner of my street one evening, but wasn't overly impressed with the colour.
The very next day I came across a bin bag of discarded curtains on another street corner, with this beauty of barkcloth lying on top!

It was a project crying out to be made - so I went right ahead.

I am posting this on the Handmade Monday linky party - pop over and see what other people are making this week.

Now I was glad to able to re-purpose unwanted bric-a-brac dumped in my neighbourhood, but honesty fly tipping makes my area grim, unloved and leaves me depressed.

It just takes one call to our council to arrange collection of unwanted stuff, or it can be done online - surely that's easier than driving out to someone else's manor with car load of rubbish and dumping it under cover of night.

Pisses me right off.

Boat Lamp Revamp

It’s amazing what people throw away. This beauty was down and out in the gutter outside my house last month. I looked around for a ripped bin bag or evidence of a discarded declutter box, but the lamp was the only thing on the kerb.

Naturally I took it in.

I’m guessing this piece of junk (see what I did there? Junk being a flat bottomed boat with sails) was thrown away not simply lost. After all there was no plug, a chunk of the wood had split, bits were missing and it looks there may have been a long 'prow' or figure head of some sort.

I wonder if the thing was lobbed out of a window in the middle of a domestic, with a yell of ... and I’m sick of your trashy kitsch boat-lamp! I’ll never know, although I suspect it probably belonged to my next door neighbour – they leave a lot of stuff on the kerb.

I glued the boat bottom splinter, then found a couple of wooden beads and toggles that could reasonably replace the missing bits – one looked a little like a barrel.

The whole thing has the feel of a ‘kit’ about it, it’s not beautifully manufactured – I wonder if it was a hobbyist’s project at one time?

Amazingly the lamp is also ... a music box!  I dug around for a spare key and managed to get a little tinkle out of it, but the music mechanism is quite bust. Ah ... I really should have replaced it before gluing her back together.

But with a new bulb and a new plug, I think she looks quite majestic. 

For those old enough to remember 'Bagpuss',  I should really place the boat in my window for the owner to reclaim it, then go back to sleep on the Mouse-organ.

I’m amassing quite a few kitsch lamps and don’t have enough surface space or electric sockets (to the relief of my family frankly). The Junk now sits on a bookcase next to my parrot, but will have to remain un-illuminated unless I rig up a complicated extension lead.

It would be great to hear about any similar lamp sightings – I reckon it’s probably circa 70’s?

Red Deco Alcove - With Poinsettia

I finally got around to decorating the alcove in my bedroom this week. The room isn’t big and I like the airiness of neutral colours on the walls, but look what I found on eBay last year - these are the listing photos from the auction.

 the actual dresser is much darker in situ, here with mirror removed ...

... and it needs showing off. In order to do this I decided to create a little Deco nook of colour on one wall, a sort of sumptuous boudoir corner in contrast to the modernist décor in the rest of the room. Do take a look at my stained glass bedroom door which I blogged about here in an earlier post.

I am a sleeves rolled up and go for it type of dame and I love hanging wallpaper. My efforts don’t take close inspection, I’m far too eager to get the stuff on the walls to hold a plumb line or a spirit level to it - I think this comes from having done Theatre Design work where the overall ‘look’ can outweigh perfectionism (I have been known to gaffer tape curtain hems…).

This paper ‘Moulin Rouge’ from B&Q (cheap and cheerful) behaved itself and went up brilliantly - no stretching or snagging, the corner was completed in under two hours with coffee breaks.

Now my little Deco chest of drawers looks really at home and I use it to display my paper ephemera and postcards (so many vintage retailers and club nights are producing wonderful postcards these days). I had a piece of glass cut to size from a local glaziers to cover the rather scuffed drawer top then found some backing for my collage from my paper stash. I have a ‘stash’ for most things…

Very soon the collaged pictures, limed oak and bakelite handles will be obscured by hair products and various cosmeticy bits and bobs - but she looks real classy for now.

And to top if off, how about the kitschiest cheesecake chalk-ware lamp ever, which I found on eBay. 

This one arrived intact unlike the Geisha lamp I bought which arrived smashed, a restore project I will gladly blog when I work out exactly how best to mend it! Any chalk-ware restoration tips anyone?