Felting and Fiber Studio

I finished the lamp shade this week. The process of putting the shade base together wasn’t to difficult. The directions wanted me to sew the fabric together, add a piece of Velcro and then cover the entire shade at once. But I wanted to show the organic edges of the felt. So I had to improvise a bit.

Once I got the frame together, I wanted to apply each piece of felt so that at least a portion of the edges would show along the wooden frame. The four pieces of wood still on the floor are the pieces that go on the outside of the felt to hold it down.

Those pieces of wood are held by a screw at the top and

at the bottom. These screws fit into a corresponding hole in the outer frame piece.

So I decided to use those screws through the felt to hold the panels in place. I didn’t make a hole, I just worked the screw through the felt.

And then I stretched the felt panel taut and put the bottom screw through to hold the bottom edge.

I put a panel on opposite sides and then added the other two opposite sides. I used blue tape to hold the pieces in place and keep them tight while putting it all together.

Here is a top view with three felt panels in place.

Then I added the outer wooden pieces and screwed those down tight.

I removed the blue tape as I went along.

And here’s a top view with all the outer wooden pieces in place and tightened down.

And here it is on a lamp that is lit. It is a pretty big shade and would probably work best with a floor lamp.

Here you can see how the organic edges show.

And here’s a texture shot of how the felt looks when the lamp is lit.

And a final shot of how it looks with the light off. I don’t think I would go out and pay full price for this type of lamp shade frame but since I got it at the thrift store, it worked out well. I have another frame just like this one but I’m not sure I will do another one of these. I don’t have a lamp to put it on at the moment and I’m not sure it is well enough put together to sell it. But it’s finished!