A recent home improvement project here in the Mythological Quarter: Make your own lampshades. This was an easy project to do, but time consuming. So with more time than money, I made three paper mache lampshades for our apartment.
To make the lampshades for our hanging light fixtures, I used wood glue, balloons, newspaper, white paint, and wood lacquer. First, I cut the newspaper into strips. Then, I blew up the balloon to the size I wanted and mixed the wood glue with a small amount of water. I layered up four layers of newspaper strips and glue mix, letting each layer dry before adding a new one.
After layering four layers, I painted two of the lampshades white on the final layer and left one plain. I used only two layers of paint because I liked how the newspaper peeking through the paint appears. On these two lampshades, I also cut out triangles so that this would make a pattern on the ceiling once it was fixed on the light fixture.
The larger lampshade is plain newspaper with two coats of wood lacquer. I made a semi-pattern on this one because I knew I was going to allow the newspaper to show through.
Thinking about the pattern of the layers as you paste them on the balloon is a good idea. Then you can get some cool color effects on the inside of the lampshade.
The cut-out patterns throw shapes on the ceiling when lit.
And that is our DIY paper lampshade party.
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