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5 tips for Upcycling and Renovating a Second Hand Lampshade
Stumbling across a second-hand lampshade that has potential, whether vintage or relatively new, opens up a Pandora’s box of creative...
Jun 10, 20225 min read


Soft Shade Making Series: Making a soft shade cover from a pattern
Making a well-fitting outer cover for your soft shade is critical to achieving an eye-catching and considered lampshade and today, we...
May 17, 20225 min read


Book Review - Lampshades by Katrin Cargill
Rated highly by our professional lampshade makers, ‘Lampshades’ by Katrin Cargill at first glance might look like a very average and...
Apr 28, 20223 min read


Soft Shade Making Series - How to Make a Pattern
With the preparations for making a traditional soft shade covered in our Soft Shade Making Series, it’s time to talk patterns! Making an...
Apr 14, 20227 min read


Calling all Curtain and Blind Makers – April Interiors Trade Fair
The Dannells’ trade fair tour bus is still on the move! We’re excited to be attending The April Interiors Show, a curtain and blind...
Mar 31, 20222 min read


Lampshade Kit Hack #9 - Using Vinyl as a Lampshade Inner
Want to make a shade that stands out from the crowd? How about using colourful vinyl on the inside of your shade? Easy to apply and...
Mar 29, 20224 min read


Soft Shade Making Series - How to bind a lampshade frame
Our third post in our Soft Shade Making Series is about laying the foundations for the lampshade ahead, namely binding your lampshade...
Mar 16, 20225 min read


DIY Tutorial - Parchment Fluted Lampshade
Making your own lampshades means the sky is your limit in terms of the materials, design and shape you opt for and today's Parchment...
Mar 2, 20224 min read


CHSI Stitches - Come and say 'Hello'!
Trade show season is upon us and it’s great to be back meeting customers and sharing our inspiring lampshade making and craft kit...
Feb 17, 20222 min read


Soft Shade Making Series: Binding Tape
In our second post of our new Soft Shade Making Series, today we're talking about binding tapes and how they are an essential part of...
Feb 10, 20224 min read


Visit us at the Spring Fair 2022
Packed with wholesale homewares and gifts the Spring Fair trade show is a must for any craft or homeware retailer and we’ll be there,...
Jan 20, 20222 min read


Soft Shade Making Series: Traditional Lampshade Frames
Lampshade making comes in many forms and although making ‘hard shades’ is a popular and easy way to achieve a stunning new lampshade, our...
Jan 18, 20224 min read


Top of the Clocks – Creative ideas for Needcraft Clock Making Kits
If you’ve not yet tried one of our Needcraft kits, 2022 might be the year to try one out! Featuring a range of useful home ware kits,...
Jan 10, 20223 min read


Top 4 products to secure a lampshade seam
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...
Jul 22, 20214 min read


Interiors inspiration: The Cottagecore trend
Spanning both fashion and interiors, Cottagecore started to gain traction in early 2019, evolving as an internet and social media trend,...
Jul 19, 20213 min read


3 Essential Olfa tools for lampshade making
‘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...
Apr 29, 20213 min read


Lampshade Inspiration - The art of free machine embroidery
Via our #memadeshade Instagram competition we’ve seen our lampshade makers use a variety of art and craft skills, as the basis for making...
Apr 27, 20215 min read


Needcraft Kits - Easter holiday kids crafting ideas
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...
Apr 6, 20213 min read


Vintage Inspiration - Lampshade Making Book Review
For today’s modern lampshade makers, there are plenty of sources of inspiration, but looking back at the styles, techniques, methods and...
Mar 26, 20213 min read


Book review - Sewing Lampshades by Joanne Heptinstall
On opening the book, Sewing Lampshades by Joanna Heptinstall, our hearts skipped a little beat. Hit with an array of colourful lampshade...
Mar 11, 20213 min read
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