I can't remember if I posted last summer about the little incident with the ceiling in our spare room. David came home in between gigs one Saturday to find a huge chunk of plaster had given way.... spreading plaster chunks and dust everywhere and exposing the 100+-year-old lath underneath.
It's not a room we use every day, so fortunately very few things were damaged in the crash. One thing that did suffer was this lamp. The pleated fabric shade got crunched and the fabric torn... and it's been sitting there looking forlorn ever since.
I've had it in mind to do linocut lanterns ever since I saw lamps made by photographer friend Michael Mowry. Michael printed some of his black and white images on large pieces of paper, which he fitted to cubical wire frames and used for lamp shades. Very modern and sleek and lovely...I'd still like to try such a thing, but when I "rediscovered" the wounded lamp last week I decided to mess around with the idea a little. I figured this was a case where I couldn't make things any worse for the lampshade, after all!
It's not quite finished, since I need to do something with the ragged bottom edge and eventually I'd like to do something different with the lamp body, too. (It was my favorite blue in 1985!) But I learned a few things (namely that piecing multiple printed pages together on a conical surface is trickier than I expected) and kept myself amused and now have a better-than-crushed-and-torn lamp for that room when company comes next week.
Cool! Looks like a prototype for a new line for your Etsy store to me. And a great way to repurpose print experiments...
ReplyDeletethat looks so neat :D very neat pattern that would look great in a lot of places
ReplyDeleteDid you try it with the blue ink (from your last post)?
ReplyDeleteSherrie - what a terrific idea. I think it looks great. Having attempted to make a lampshade I can well empathize with the problems inherent in conical construction. I never did get mine to look good and ended up purchasing a new shade.
ReplyDeleteI like Susan's idea - Etsy store :-D
Lindy
Thanks, ladies... I don't know about Etsy store... A) I'd have to figure out a better way to make them and B) I'd have to figure out how to ship them. But maybe in a smaller size. David and I were in a store last night and looked at smaller shades....
ReplyDeleteWendy.. I did try to the blue/gray on white one and it looked better with the blue base... but since I'm planning to abandon the blue base I went ahead with the brown prints. If/when I try it again I'm going to carve a plate that's just dedicated to this, so I'm not feeling the pressure to get back to the work already in progress.
But it was a fun diversion. ;-)
Splendid idea, I'd never have guessed. I was thinking one should carve a plate for the purpose, and now I see you've already thought of that! :)
ReplyDeleteWow, I want one! Beautiful work!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic use of this block! Love the result; I'm with Mark, I want one too :)
ReplyDeleteBrilliant
ReplyDeleteSo cool! :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea! Don't think you'd have any trouble marketing!
ReplyDelete