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Crafts
By Donna Flood

Decorated Lamp Shade


For so many years my house was difficult for me to decorate because I love the things around each one of my ancestors. My Gramma Bell's eggshell colored crochet pieces, rich tartan throws, Mother's strong Native American objects, her French influenced pieces of furniture, or lovely English Chintz floral patterns from some other grandmother probably of the Jones's.

Before "eclectic" was touted I learned to do this. In one niche will be a western theme, another the laces, and so on.

A friend gave me this lamp which has an amber base. It did not have a lampshade. The lampshade I purchased was plain. In order to tie it into the western theme I took a paper hole punch and punched holes evenly all around the bottom and top edge. I then cut a thin strand of leather and laced it through the holes. Maybe the photo shows slightly the mottled look to make the shade it resemble leather. This was done by taking a sponge, dipping it into a think acrylic paint.  The colors were white, ochre and burnt sienna.  If you blot the heaviest of the paint off your sponge until it is just barely moist this works better. However, if you get too much dark paint you can simply go over it with white and start over.

The lamp  has a black wrought iron at its base.  The wrought iron piece in the back ground I picked  up maybe ten years ago at a neighbor's garage sale for a dollar and a half. They owned the Glasgow stables so I have hung onto it as a souvenir of that small successful ranch. Of course, many ranches too, were decorated with Spanish looking wrought iron. Because my great great grandfather Jones was a blacksmith the love of iron work appeared in the decor of their houses.

The painting in the background shows a computer with buffalo walking through it and it rests across my daughter's legs. It was painted when she was a teenager.

Next to this, not in the picture. are my father's and uncle's branding irons. This satisfies my love for western decoration. Well, not completely.


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