#lampshades

Mar 21
6 min

Meet the Maker - Jennifer Fraser Lampshades

In this month’s Meet the Maker we chat with Jenny Fraser, an expert in making traditional hand-sewn lampshades, who now shares her skills and knowledge with a global audience, teaching students to make lampshades both online and face-to-face from her studio in Hampshire. After inheriting a lampshade that needed plenty of tlc, Jenny developed a passion for traditional lampshade making and her thriving business followed, Jennifer Fraser Lampshades, offering beautiful bespoke la

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Mar 16
3 min

Play with DIY Paper Lampshades

Making lampshades from paper is the equivalent of opening a Pandora’s box of creative opportunities! Paper's versatility and durability are the perfect medium to create interesting lampshades, not to mention the choice and selection of beautiful decorative papers available. In today’s blog post, we’ve rounded up our favourite ways to play with and use paper to make distinctive and creative lampshades with an eye-catching difference. Printed Paper Lampshades From offcuts of wa

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Feb 21
5 min

Meet the Maker - Established 25 Atelier

Established 25 Atelier, founded by Michelle Drew is a creative business firmly rooted in Newham, East London with an ethos of making beautiful, well-crafted homewares and accessories, using local craftsmanship and zero waste. After discovering lampshade making, initially for her own home, Michelle developed her own bespoke lampshade ranges, using her own fabrics, designed to echo the vibrant colours of her Caribbean heritage, which we think you’ll agree are stunning! In today

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Feb 6
4 min

NEW Product - DIY Table and Floor Lamp Bases

NEW product alert! We’re excited to announce our NEW Lamp Base Making Kits, which are as easy to tailor to your interior style, as they are to make! Available as both a Table Lamp Base Kit, standing at 35cm high and two Floor Lamp Base Kits, both over a metre high, each Lamp Base Kit has been cleverly engineered using the same principles and professional materials as our popular Lampshade Making Kits. Simply pick a patterned or plain fabric or paper, buy the accompanying elec

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Jan 19
6 min

Meet the Maker - Harbour Lane

Talented illustrator and printmaker turned lampshade maker, Tori of Harbour Lane, has captured her customer's hearts with her beautiful drawings that depict her Scottish surroundings, from quaint villages and industrial landmarks to local flora and fauna. After opening her successful bricks and mortar shop in South Queensferry in 2016, lampshade making quickly became a key part of her business and now, as her online business continues to grow, Tori has built her own garden ‘L

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Jan 10
4 min

How to Choose the Perfect Sized Lampshade

If you’ve discovered our Lampshade Making Kits but are struggling to work out what size of lampshade you need, this post has ALL the answers! Our guides will help you choose the most suitable diameter, height and shape of lampshade, allowing you to focus on the exciting part – choosing your fabric! Choosing the width or diameter of shade (height of base) Firstly let’s start by explaining the diameter of a lampshade, which is the width across a lampshade, from one side of the

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Jan 5
3 min

2022 Blog Review - A Year of Lampshade Making

Another year of fabulously creative lampshade making is nearly over and it’s time to look back on how the Dannells Lampshade Making blog has inspired, educated and supported your lampshade making skills and small lampshade making businesses. A true exchange of ideas, you, our customer community inspire us every day with the lampshades you make and we hope that the blog has done the same for you, in 2022! Soft Shade Making Series It was the year of the Soft Shade for Dannells,

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Dec 20, 2022
4 min

#memadeshade November - Foresters Lampshades

Capturing the season and our final #memadeshade competition of the year perfectly, November's winning lampshade has been beautifully made by Louise of @foresters_lampshades. Congratulations to Louise who picked such a charming wintry scene for her shade, which is based on a William Morris & Co tapestry, and then to really make the shade shine, added an elegant beaded trim. Louise, an accomplished soft shade maker, has recently turned her skills to hard shade making and we thi

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Dec 8, 2022
4 min

Meet The Maker - Brits Love Vintage

Proud small business owner, Jackie Moulla of Brits Love Vintage has found the sweet spot of lampshade making, supplying her customers with an enticing and eclectic range of lampshades, reflecting her love of fabrics from modern designer fabrics to retro and vintage-inspired prints. Nestled in the heart of Whitstable, Brits Love Vintage is full of upcycled furniture, paint and desirable homewares and in today’s Meet the Maker, Jackie explains how she took her fledgling busines

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Nov 16, 2022
4 min

#memadeshade October Winner - Lampshades by Maggie

October's #memadeshade winning lampshade is truly unique! Made by @lampshadesbymaggie in a beautiful bespoke fabric, its rectangle frames show off its art deco design to the max! Huge congratulations to Maggie for her beautiful winning shade and we're looking forward to seeing what she makes with her #memadeshade prize, a £100 voucher to spend at Dannells.com. Setting up her own lampshade making business, born from the need to bring some colour and life to her own home, Maggi

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Oct 20, 2022
3 min

#memadeshade September Winner - ETU Design

Congratulations to @etu_by_anabela, who has won our September #memadeshade competition! The winning shade, made in a beautifully bold tropical-inspired fabric, perfectly embodies autumn with its rich tones. An interior designer and lampshade maker Anabela, of @etu_by_anabela, is based on the Coast Del Sol, in Spain and loves bringing bright bold patterns into her design work. It's clear that her lampshades definitely follow the same theme! And with her passion for lampshade m

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Sep 27, 2022
5 min

Tips and fixes to help prevent and resolve Lampshade Seam Issues

Once in a while, you may experience an issue with your lampshade seam. It could be due to the type or thickness of the fabric you’re using for your outer shade and whether you’re making lampshades to sell, or just for your own home, it’s tricky to know what to do. In this blog post, we’ve compiled tried and tested techniques and tips for use on the kind of lampshade seam issues our fabulous Facebook Lampshade Makers group experience, to help you solve them too. Caving Seam Wh

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Sep 23, 2022
3 min

Lampshade Kit Hack #10 - Natural Table Lamp Kit

With natural materials and tones firmly rooted in today’s interior trends, we thought we’d give a natural make-over to one of our favourite products – the Table Lamp Making Kit. Effortless stylish and perfect for every room in the house, we’ve hacked this easy-to-make kit with the simple additions of raffia and wood, coordinated with a beautiful quality linen fabric from our latest fabric range. We think the result is both modern and impressive for very little time and effort

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Sep 15, 2022
4 min

#memadeshade August Winner - Jane Ellison Textiles

This month's winning #memadeshade takes its maker, @janellisontextiles, straight back to her 70s childhood, with its striking retro inspired orange and mustard colour combination! Huge congratulations to Jane, who initially made the shade as a bespoke design for her best friend, but luckily had enough fabric to make this one too. We love how it shouts Jane's 'modern retro' vibe! Find out more about Jane, her design style and her eco-conscious business choices, in our #memade

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Sep 8, 2022
3 min

New Products - Lampshade Trim, Binding and Braid

Personalisation is the fun and creative factor of lampshade making, after all, who wants to stop at just picking a fabric or paper for your Lampshade Making Kit or Soft Shade Frame? With this in mind, we’d like to introduce you to our NEW and extensive range of trims, bias binding and braids, so you can pimp your lampshade, whatever your style. Guipure Lace Guipure lace is a type of traditional continuous bobbin lace, which is defined by its lack of backing mesh, woven with b

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Sep 6, 2022
5 min

Back to Lampshade Making School - Tips & Techniques to Create Amazing Lampshades

Whether you need a quick refresher course or are completely new to lampshade making, today we’re taking you 'Back to Lampshade School' with a post filled with tips, techniques and insider knowledge ensuring every handmade lampshade you make is truly top-of-the-class! From using a kitchen mug to our top taping tips, there's no doubt our quick and easy lessons will take your lampshade making to the next level. We can feel a few gold stars coming on! Preparation Press, press and

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Aug 30, 2022
3 min

Lampshade Style Guide - Paper Lampshades

While fabric is an excellent covering for making lampshades, the possibilities of using paper are endless, whether you're starting with a blank piece of paper for your creative ideas or using a map or wallpaper to create your own unique shade. In today's post, we explore the long history of paper lampshades and also the traditional, modern and innovative crafts and techniques that contribute to making paper lampshades real things of interior beauty. Basic history A staple of

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Aug 24, 2022
5 min

Introducing Dannells Europe

As we launch our new dedicated European website, Dannells.eu, we get to know the people behind our European operation, Malgosia and her husband Nick and how they plan to expand our European market. Read on to find out how they became Dannells Distributors, the skills they are bringing to the new venture and their favourite Dannells products. Hi there! We’re very excited about the launch of Dannells EU. How did you get involved? Malgosia: Our adventure with Dannells started in

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Aug 24, 2022
3 min

#memadeshade July Winner - The Lampshade House

Brightening up people's living spaces is the mission of Jacqui, founder of @thelampshadehouse and her winning #memadeshade lampshade certainly fits her brief! Made as a commission for a customer, this 30cm floral drum shade is bold and bright and, we imagine, very at home in Singapore, which is where @thelampshadehouse is based. Our huge congratulations go to Jacqui and her £100 voucher to be spent at Dannells.com, is on its way. You can find out more about Jacqui and the @t

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Aug 16, 2022
5 min

BEAM - How to use Reels, Stories and Live Video on Your Social Media

Reels, Stories and Live streaming videos have increased in importance in the last 5 years, engaging and capturing customers’ imaginations across all social media platforms. Understanding what these different features mean for your lampshade-making business is all explained in today’s BEAM post, and we've shared our ideas on the type of content that we feel suits each medium, with the hope you’ll consider using these influential tools, as part of your social media strategy. Re

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