Oxfam shop find

I bought this lamp base at Christmas in the local Oxfam shop, It's in some sort of spelter which looks like brass. I thought it was a bit expensive at £19. Is it me or are they getting fancy with their prices nowadays? I can remember the times when they were glad if you spent £2 on a visit...Anyway, I liked the look of it and knew with DH's help that it could be good.

So it needed some wood adding to the inside base at it was rough metal and then after he glued that in place I cut up an old mousemat with a super non-slip base (thanks Dell) and glued that on the bottom. It had all been electrically tested by the way so I knew it was safe (perhaps that's why it cost so much).




What I did realise was it would be hard to find a suitable shade in Keswick, so I decided to make one. Not a job I have ever found difficult as I have done it before, but where can you buy lamp shade frames? I thought it would be easy on the internet but no, it was not......So I turned to my magician once again and hey presto..

A man who makes scratch built 'O' gauge railway engines can do anything and has all the tools to boot. So he cut out the ring for the frame and ordered the wire from his suppliers and when it came, soldered it all together as neatly as could be.

Back to me then.. so I had to match his efforts and decided to make my own silk paper shade. Now if you don't have an old one to model the new one on its not easy; you need some maths, because you need to know how to make 'a frustum cone'. "The formula is the same as making a cone for a boiler" he said, "I have it somewhere." Well he did and before long I had some shapes he made me in various sizes all cut out of old wallpaper.

Well this was becoming a family project and I really must NOT let the side down now. So this is my effort at the silk paper bit.

It is quite large and now I need to spray it all with fire retardant so that it is safe to use. This next photo is a close up of the paper I made with Mulberry silk and some Madeira thread with little tiny snippets of gold lamé.

That is as far as I have progressed but I intend to tackle the making up this weekend.

Meanwhile the quilt is progressing fairly well too and I did some more at the Cumbria Patchworkers meeting last Wednesday in Penrith. However, one of our members talked me into buying the boiled wool fabric below, after I admired the wonderful jacket she was wearing.  Well they just happened to have the fabric on sale downstairs she said "it's a bargain  not to be missed"......... I hope I am up to the challenge as I have not made a jacket for quite a few years. I think the last one was about 12 years ago when I made a pink Linton Tweed suit after another friend challenged me to make it.  Similar story she said you must buy the fabric its going cheap........Once I reached home I had this sudden thought, are shoulder pads in or out???? Oh yes she is also lending me her pattern so when it arrives maybe I will find out.