Customer Reviews

The Paper Shade Book: Simple Techniques for Making Beautiful Lampshades

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a wonderful book for anyone who wants to make impressive looking lampshades without spending a fortune. With styles ranging from classic to modern, elegant to wacky, they are exciting and fun to make, and much more interesting than store-bought.

The book starts out covering all the basics such as fixture selection, measuring, and gluing. Choosing paper and creating surface effects along with crafting & trimming a basic shade are also included. Each shade design includes a complete materials list and step-by-step, easy-to-follow instructions accompanied by helpful photos. A large picture of the finished project is also included.

Over 20 projects cover a variety of shapes such as square, conical, and fluted. They also use a wide range of materials including vellum, twisted craft paper, unryu paper, and papyrus. Most of the materials are easy to find. Some of my favorite projects include a double-decker marbled lampshade, basket weave shade, Japanese lantern and musical script coolie.

In the back there are templates with exact enlargement requirements for all the shades. A nice list of suppliers is also included. This would make a very nice housewarming gift for someone into crafts.

The book itself is well written and mostly easy to understand. It's the person executing the steps that could be problematic. Although helpful I believe one must have a great desire and talent in such matters. A novice shade maker may need some more basic help.