We often ask our lampshade makers ‘what’s your favourite part of making a lampshade?’ and more often than not it’s when the lampshade comes together and the seam is closed - the magic moment when you start to see a beautiful, bespoke shade. Closing the seam on your lampshade is important for creating a long-lasting and professional product and to help you choose the best finish for securing your seam, we’re highlighting four Dannells products for you to try. A little history

Spanning both fashion and interiors, Cottagecore started to gain traction in early 2019, evolving as an internet and social media trend, due to it’s popularity with the younger generations, particularly in the US. Cottage Core focuses on aspirations of rural lifestyles, romantic home styling, cosy country cottage vibes mixed with crafts and lifestyle hobbies, such as flower arranging, baking and gardening. A homely life is essentially at its core. A well adopted trend during

‘Give us the tools, and we will finish the job’ the proverb says, but what if those tools were made the job twice as quick and offered all sorts of creative opportunities? This is where our NEW range of Olfa products comes in helping you improve your lampshade making, and we’ve selected three products we think you’ll love. Olfa Rotary cutter If you’re making lampshades en masse or simply want to speed up your shade making, using a rotary cutter to cut away the fabric from the

Via our #memadeshade Instagram competition we’ve seen our lampshade makers use a variety of art and craft skills, as the basis for making beautiful lampshades. Today we wanted to shine a light - sorry, no pun intended ;) - on free machine embroidery and introduce you to the principles, techniques and some of our talented makers who create stunning lampshades, using this imaginative textile art. So what is free machine embroidery? Also known as free motion embroidery, free mac

With the Easter holidays upon us it's time to get imaginative with some of our Needcraft Kits. As inspiring and easy to make for kids as they are for adults, we've put together five ideas for turning our kits into entertaining child-friendly activities with exciting end results. It's time to play and get creative! 1. Lantern Making Kit The nights are already lighter and we’ve a feeling that there might be a (small) Easter garden party or two on the horizon. Create a cosy and

For today’s modern lampshade makers, there are plenty of sources of inspiration, but looking back at the styles, techniques, methods and materials used in vintage books, can literally be a light bulb moment, so we’ve fished out a couple of our favourites from the Dannells library. Lampshade Making History Lampshade making is a craft that has stood the test of time, since the invention of the light bulb in 1879 and its domestic introduction into homes not long after. The Victo

On opening the book, Sewing Lampshades by Joanna Heptinstall, our hearts skipped a little beat. Hit with an array of colourful lampshade images and a foreword from Joanna Heptinstall that oozes confidence in her craft, we knew that we were in for a treat. Time to grab a cuppa and take a seat on the sofa to read, read, read! Joanna Heptinstall was already a trained upholsterer when she stumbled across and old, damaged lampshade that needed some TLC. After plenty of research, s

50 Thrifty DIY Shades is book based around you guessed it.…decorative shades that can be made up of scraps of fabrics, bits and bobs and unusual materials. Packed with traditional lampshades and more quirky upcycling ideas for making shades, there are plenty of interesting projects, and skills, to get your teeth into, or as always to inspire your own lampshade making practise. When reading a book review we always find it interesting to found out a bit about the author and the

Lampshade making doesn’t have to be an off the shelf craft and can be as creative as your imagination will allow, a fact that’s proved over and over again, in Elizabeth Cake’s Make Your Own Lampshade book. Using her knowledge of collecting vintage fabrics and her passion for upcycling and recycling, Elizabeth has put together 35 projects that stretch your imagination and see what’s possible using everyday objects and second hand finds. Think clashing fabrics, cute crosstitch

Often referred to as the ‘go – to’ lampshade making book, Natalia Price – Cabrera’s book Handmade Lampshade certainly earns it’s moniker. Packed with essential information for starting to make lampshades, as well as hint and tips for seasoned shade makers, it’s full of practical step by steps project for soft frames and rigid shades. We thought we’d delve inside and tell you more about this ‘all you need to know’ guide on our favourite subject. Craft books come in all shapes

Visit the Dannells team at CHSI Stitches, at the Birmingham NEC. Find us at Stand A38, showcasing our lampshade and creative craft kits.

Exciting news in the Dannells world! We have some wonderful guest blog posts coming up from the incredibly talented Ella Johnston at Ella’s Place. Ella is an illustrator, crafter, journalist and stylist who over the coming months will show you several wonderfully creative and effective yet simple home styling projects. Tune in over the coming months to discover Ella’s fortnightly home craft projects. Now, grab yourself a cuppa and let the fun with Ella begin! How to upgrade y

Sam Sterkin and Needcraft’s director David Little We are one week in with our wonderful new lampshade crafter and TV presenter Sam Sterken and we’re feeling pretty chuffed! Don’t miss our next live show on 10th December! As most of you will know we recently did a shout-out on our social media looking for an expert crafter and lampshade maker who could be the face of Needcraft on Hochanda TV. We were looking for someone really special to share our lampshade know-how on the new

It’s really exciting! Watch Needcraft lampshade tutorials today, live at 12 midday, 4pm & 7pm here and tell us what you think! The wonderful Sam Sterkin, founder of the Ministry of Craft, demonstrates how to use our fantastic Needcraft lampshade kits. #HochandaTV #Needcraft #lampshades #create #creative #Needcraftlampshadekits #Needcraftlampshadetutorials #lampshadedesign #SamSterkin #handmade #craft #lampshade

We love our customers so much that we are introducing a new customer loyalty points scheme! It’s our way of giving something back to thank you for your custom! Collecting your points couldn’t be easier. Every time you place an order with us to buy your lampshade making supplies you will be awarded loyalty points when your order is despatched. You can redeem the points against any future orders, or you can save them up and spend them when you wish. All you need to do to collec

The Gosh & Absolutely team give us the low-down on their handmade lampshades and what it’s like starting a business… Last year a friend and I were discussing how much fun it would be if we could create a business from our craft-based hobbies. Basically, we were looking for an excuse to go fabric shopping on a more regular basis! I had just done a lampshade making course with the lovely Helen Round and had the idea of upcycling vintage lamps with new and exciting shades. My ne

We are delighted to have lampshade making Joanna Heptinstall featured in Craftseller’s online Magazine! Joanna is a force to be reckoned with… Her sense of design/ colour and attention to detail are hard to beat. She works creative wonders from her woman-shed with upholstery and lampshade creation, plus has a fantastic blog featuring wonderful tidbits on lampshade making here, Well worth a look. Joanna is one of many talented maker/ designers who entered Needcraft‘s ‘Business

Lampshade business = EASY! 1- Buy a ‘Lampshade Business Starter Package‘ containing everything  you need to make small, medium and large Lampshades saving you 20% off the full price! 2- Start making lampshades for you, your friends and family… 3- When you know which of our items your customers love, use our Needcraft ‘Manufacturers’ Pack‘ for a variety of sizes and start selling online/ local shops/ market stalls etc – You now run your own lampshade business! Our ‘ Business

A bright, shiny light-filled Hello to you! I am Kirstie Seonaid MacKay, owner/designer/maker at UrbanRebel Design, a dynamic new design studio based near Glasgow in the West of Scotland. I started the business of making lampshades in November last year after attending a workshop on a dark, wet November Sunday in Glasgow. My first shade was a stunning cerise pink, tartan, Harris Tweed which I named “Happy Harry” because it was lighting up such a dark day! My life long obsessio

I’m Nicky… and I’ve been making handmade lampshades as Botany Bay Designs for one year this June. I’ve always been interested in crafts and have dabbled in a variety of things from soap making, silver stamping and dressmaking. However, it was my love (some might call it an obsession!) of fabric which lead me to lampshade making. I am a great believer in using the internet for research and when a family member said they wanted a handmade lampshade with puffins on it I set to w