#lampshades

4 days ago
6 min

Meet the Maker - Hillview Soft Furnishings

Switching career to find a more flexible role, Ellen, of Hillview Soft Furnishings is a City & Guilds trained curtain and blind maker and soft furnisher, who has added lampshade making to her broad repertoire of furnishing skills. With a passion for sewing from being young, Ellen enjoys working closely with her customers to find creative solutions to enhance their homes to fit with their lifestyle, whether it be making them a pair of beautiful wave curtains or an oversized dr

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Aug 3
4 min

Lampshade Style Guide - Loose Cover Lampshades

Following the trend for whimsical, country cottage interior design, the loose lampshade cover has made a comeback in the last couple of years. Originally created for its functionality in busy working homes, the loose covered shade has become a way to effortlessly bring delicate patterns and prints into your home, with a side order of fabric embellishments! We explore the creative options the loose shade offers, the sizes and shapes of shade that work best with this style and

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Jul 21
4 min

BEAM - Using Social Media to promote your Lampshade Making Business

In today’s digital world, using social media for your business cannot be ignored. A crucial free marketing tool to get your lampshades noticed, social media allows you to engage with customers directly about your products, build a community and increase your revenue. In this BEAM post, we’ll share pointers and ideas for creating social media content and how you can make it work for your lampshade making business, however big or small. Why use social media for your business? T

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Jul 14
3 min

Lampshade Kit Hack #9 – Retro Flower Silhouette Lampshade

Using the silhouette lampshade concept as the basis for our latest Lampshade Making Kit #hack, we've transformed a drum lampshade, by adding a hidden pattern to the inside. With a darker or coloured fabric, this will only show when the light is switched on. The striking retro flower design is created using the easy-to-use Olfa Circle Cutter, meaning a perfect circle every time. Have a go at our tutorial and you'll realise that the silhouette concept holds masses of creative

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Jul 12
3 min

#memadeshade June Winner

June's #memadeshade winner is a stunner! Made by Stephanie of @sewcoordinateduk, this geometric gem was made as a bespoke custom shade for a customer, but it has captured everyone's imagination! Huge congratulations go to Stephanie, whose successful lampshade and cushion-making business is going from strength to strength. We're sure she'll put her prize - a £100 voucher - to good use when spending it on Dannells.com, Find out more about Stephanie and her business in our #mema

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Jul 6
3 min

Lampshade Style Guide - Silhouette Lampshades

Unique and striking, Silhouette lampshades have a fabulous element of surprise that springs to life when the light turns on! Increasingly more popular, this clever style can be made by using a plain lampshade outer fabric and a patterned inner covering, which can be seen as a 'silhouette' due to the glow from the bulb. This month's Lampshade Style Guide tells you all you need to know about Silhouette Lampshades, the lampshade supplies you need to make them and an inspiring mo

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Jun 30
3 min

#memadeshade May Winner

Featuring the iconic Frida Kahlo, this month's #memadeshade winner is Bodil of @skumringstid.dk, who runs her lampshade making business in Nykøbing Sjælland, Eastern Denmark, choosing vibrant and unusual fabrics and making bespoke lampshades to suit her customer's interiors. Bold and bright, this colourful lampshade is precious not only because it won, but because one of Bodhil's customers kindly sourced the fabric for her, knowing how much she loved it! We love a happy lamps

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Jun 29
4 min

BEAM – How to use SEO Keywords for your Online Shop

Considered an essential part of digital marketing, understanding the basics of SEO keywords can really benefit your lampshade making business and increase your sales. From creating a list of keywords and highlighting free online tools, to exploring how to maximise product descriptions and website content, today's BEAM post is packed with information to take your online shop from invisible to visible. What is SEO? SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, which is a digital

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Jun 23
3 min

WIN a Mango Wood Floor Lamp Worth £99

Our improved wooden table and floor lamp bases are back in stock and to celebrate you can WIN a June Floor Lamp worth £99! For 2022, we’ve gone the extra mile for our beautifully carved Lamp Base designs using environmentally friendly Mangowood, which is sustainably sourced. The perfect way to display your handmade lampshade, we have a variety of table and floor lamp designs and heights, in unfinished wood, that can be painted, oiled or stained, for a unique look. Read on to

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Jun 14
4 min

Lampshade Style Guide - Candle Clip Lampshades

Wall lights can be a beautiful source of subtle lighting in your home, but can also be overlooked as a focal feature or being shown off with a unique shade. In this month’s Lampshade Style Guide, we look at the origins of the wall lights, tips on making Candle Clip Lampshades and ideas and inspiration from our army of makers to ensure these little shades shine! A little bit of history Wall lights and chandeliers have been the mainstays of lighting in homes, since medieval tim

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May 31
4 min

Meet the Maker - Rosella and Lime

Fashion graduate Sharon, of Rosella and Lime, takes inspiration from her sketches of nature to create stunning collections of lampshades, with gorgeous complimentary, and often bold, colour palettes. A fan of playing with proportion, her eye-catching elongated conical shades lend a mid-century modern twist to any room and in month's Meet the Maker, we go behind the scenes of Sharon's business and studio, to find out more. Hi there! How are you today and what’s on your workben

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May 26
6 min

BEAM - Setting up an online shop

Have you ever wanted to create your own online shop? Whether you're new to selling lampshades or are already selling via other online retail platforms, today's BEAM post explores three online eCommerce platforms and what they offer and includes pricing, domain names and what you’ll need to consider and prepare to show your lampshades at their best, before entering the world of being your own online shopkeeper! Choosing a Platform There are dozens of eCommerce platforms to cho

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May 24
3 min

Lampshade Inspiration - Neon Lampshade Making PVC

Get out your sunglasses - we're going bright, REALLY bright! Today we're taking a look at our Fluorescent Neon Lampshade Making PVC Range. It won't fail to bring a dazzling and eye-catching quality to your shade and with four dayglo colours to choose from, there are plenty of possibilities for using this fun material. Read on to get the low down on our Neon Range, how to make a shade with it and some inspirational examples of how it can make your lampshades pop! Neon Need to

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May 19
4 min

#memadeshade April Winner

April's #memadeshade competition has a real buzz about it (pun intended!), as this month's winning shade is made by the talented Liz of @loveyourhome.uk from a pretty Angel Strawbridge honeycomb fabric, featuring bees. And Liz's talents don't stop at lampshade making! Running a small interiors business from home, she can turn her hand to many interior crafts and we're sure her prize of a £100 voucher to spend at Dannells.com will come in very handy for her future projects. Co

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May 12
3 min

How to Use a Rolled Edge Creasing Knife to Cut Lampshade Panels

If you’re wanting to explore bespoke sizes or shapes of shade, or simply enjoy cutting your own lampshade panels, then you need to know about the Rolled Edge Creasing Knife. Essential for adding the perfect fabric margin to your lampshade panels, to give your lampshade a professional edge, this clever tool scores the perfect ‘kisscut’ into your lampshade panels, which is then removed. Quick and easy to use it's a great professional tool to have in your Lampshade Making arsena

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May 10
6 min

Lampshade Style Guide: Velvet Shades

Velvet, it seems, is never out of fashion. Its opulent qualities lend a touch of luxury to our interiors and for lampshades, it’s no different. With its history steeped in regal influences, in this month's Lampshade Style Guide we explore how velvet has become an accessible and tactile material for lampshade making, the perfect coordinating materials to use to showcase this and plenty of troubleshooting tips from our professional lampshade makers. A little bit of history Firs

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May 6
3 min

Lampshade Inspiration - Making lampshades on a budget

Making or crafting is a fantastic way to achieve a look on a budget and is guaranteed to be a purse-friendly alternative to shop-bought, not to mention the list of ‘feel good’ advantages that crafting for your home, your garden or as a gift brings. In today's post, we'll show you that making a lampshade is no different and as well as being a much cheaper option than buying shop-bought, it means you get exactly what you want for your shade as well as learning a few new skills

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May 4
6 min

BEAM – Offering Returns and Refunds

Although we imagine your lampshades are amazing, there may be some circumstances when a customer wants to return their shade. Dealing with returns and refunds can be a tricky business, so in today’s Business Expertise and Advice for Makers post, we’re going to explore the legislation on refunding customers, based on the lampshades you make and the method you use to sell them. We'll also look at customer returns and how to ensure your customers are clear on your refund policy

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Apr 28
3 min

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 potentially dated book, but digging a little deeper this lampshade making gem offer oodles of inspiration, excellent instructional techniques and lampshade styles from the 1990s that can easily be brought up to date. It’s time to soak up some more lampshade making wisdom! Katrin Cargill has written over 25 books on everything from making soft fu

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Apr 26
7 min

Tips and tricks to achieve a professionally tucked in lampshade edge

Tucking in your fabric seam allowance is the final stage of making your Lampshade Making Kit, which gives your shade a wonderful and professional crisp finish. Over the years, we’ve collected lots of useful information from our army of Professional Lampshade Makers, which includes tried and tested techniques, extraordinary tools and valuable tricks to get a perfect lampshade edging. In today’s post, we’re going to share them all! Tucking Tools Our obvious go-to choice of tool

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