Customer Reviews

Easy-to-Make Arts and Crafts Lamps and Shades (Dover Craft Books)

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I like this book as reference for lamps in the arts and craft style however if you are looking for lots of step by step instructions you are out of luck. if you are looking for a good reference book and can visualise a project based on a few black and white drawing and some instruction then this book is for you.

I work in both wood and metals and was expecting a basic volume of metalsmithing techniques. To my surprise, this book can be used in metalsmithing (example: dimensional layout drawings awayla), but it focuses on the use of colored paper (instead of mica or stained glass) and cardboard (instead of metals) Although it explores a medium I ordinarily use to design and make mock-ups, the drawings can easily be used in the metal shop using solder or riviting as a fastener instead of glue and tape and mica or glass in the place of paper.

Please note: These are vintage lighting designs put together by Popular Mechanics during the Arts & Crafts era and I would recommend it to anyone interested in this period of design and technique. Although some of the designs are a little 'dumpy', it would take little time or effort to change them to your liking. This book is a steal!

This is a reprint of a book published by Popular Mechanics in 1917. Some of the lamps have an authentic Arts and Crafts period look. Others seem a bit hokey. (The square-shaped lamps are right on target, while the pendant shaped ones seem to miss the mark.) The book calls for the lamp shades to be made out of cardboard and colored paper, which is quite strange. After all, why would you take the time to a build lamp base out of solid materials and then adorn it with a flimsy shade? Also, the instructions include no useful information on how to actually build any of the lamps, so other than its value as a historical artifact, the text is quite useless. That said, the supplied patterns include dimensions so they are a great reference if you want to adapt them to more substantial materials.

This book didn't peak my interest in Shade making.....I was hoping to find a simple wood plan and all the ones I liked seemed way over my skill level.