Has anyone seen or heard of lamp/ceiling light shades being made from
wood? I'm thinking it should be relatively simple to make shades from
veneer-thickness woods which would provide interesting contrasts/
compliments to existing room decors. I'm going to have to do some
opacity testing on veneers to see if there is any translucency through
different woods. Or whether, in fact, that even matters very much.
Probably shouldn't be that difficult to get frames & fixings either.

I'd appreciate any thoughts anyone might have.

FoggyTown
Most of my projects' best features began as mistakes!

FoggyTown wrote:
Has anyone seen or heard of lamp/ceiling light shades being made from
wood? I'm thinking it should be relatively simple to make shades from
veneer-thickness woods which would provide interesting contrasts/
compliments to existing room decors. I'm going to have to do some
opacity testing on veneers to see if there is any translucency through
different woods. Or whether, in fact, that even matters very much.
Probably shouldn't be that difficult to get frames & fixings either.

Been done, already...

I don't have a link handy, but there was a FWW article years ago and
several other places I've seen them as well.

One that I liked that I recall from the old FWW article used red oak
sliced then across grain (end grain showing) so the open porosity was
utilized...

--

FoggyTown wrote:
Has anyone seen or heard of lamp/ceiling light shades being made from
wood? I'm thinking it should be relatively simple to make shades from
veneer-thickness woods which would provide interesting contrasts/
compliments to existing room decors. I'm going to have to do some
opacity testing on veneers to see if there is any translucency through
different woods. Or whether, in fact, that even matters very much.
Probably shouldn't be that difficult to get frames & fixings either.

I'd appreciate any thoughts anyone might have.


Haven't tried that, but here's a Humvee made out of balsa

http://www.usatoday.com/news/militar...-humvees_N.htm

On Sep 12, 11:20 am, FoggyTown wrote:
Has anyone seen or heard of lamp/ceiling light shades being made from
wood? I'm thinking it should be relatively simple to make shades from
veneer-thickness woods which would provide interesting contrasts/
compliments to existing room decors. I'm going to have to do some
opacity testing on veneers to see if there is any translucency through
different woods. Or whether, in fact, that even matters very much.
Probably shouldn't be that difficult to get frames & fixings either.

I'd appreciate any thoughts anyone might have.

FoggyTown
Most of my projects' best features began as mistakes!

I'm thinking about turning some pendant shades for lighting over a
pool table. Probably segmented turnings. Not so much worried about the
opacity, but the fire-rating. These won't be UL listed. Tom

Haven't tried that, but here's a Humvee made out of balsa

.... and here's some motorbikes made from wood too.

But seriously, go to google images and search for "Wooden lampshade".
Theres a few. It wall all the rage in the 70's over here, so some are
pretty dated, but looking at the images some are very cool and modern.

Let us know how you get on.

Digga

On Wed, 12 Sep 2007 11:20:16 -0700, FoggyTown
wrote:

Has anyone seen or heard of lamp/ceiling light shades being made from
wood?

I'd appreciate any thoughts anyone might have.

Check out this guy's work:

http://www.jameseddywoodworks.com/index.html


Bill

On Sep 14, 11:35?pm, (Bill) wrote:
On Wed, 12 Sep 2007 11:20:16 -0700, FoggyTown
wrote:

Has anyone seen or heard of lamp/ceiling light shades being made from
wood?
I'd appreciate any thoughts anyone might have.

Check out this guy's work:

http://www.jameseddywoodworks.com/index.html

Bill

oooooooooooooooooooo! I like!

If you have a "rustic" decorating theme, you might want to check out two
different lamp shades & lamps that I made from a tree that a beaver cut down
in my yard a few years back.

Scroll about half way down page after clicking on this link to see some
pictures of my beaver lamps. http://rusticwoodworking.com/samples.htm You
can click on the picture to see a slightly larger version.

For the willow lamp shade, I peeled the bark off of some willow branches,
used the band saw to saw them in half so one side is flat lengthwise, and
attached them to a wooden circle I cut from a regular piece of pine. I used
brads to attach the willow to the wooden circle, then used jute rope for
decoration. It makes an interesting shadow effect when the light is turned
on. I suppose you wouldn't even have to saw them in half. You could also
line the inside of the shade with parchment paper for extra filtering.

The second example of a rustic lamp shade was made from a birch "tube".
After a birch tree falls to the ground and lays there for a while, the wood
inside decays, but the bark doesn't. This shade also makes interesting
light shadows because of the natural holes and other imperfections of the
bark, especially if you put a colored light bulb in it for an accent lamp.
I had to bend some wire to attach the bark for both the top and bottom rims,
and using jute rope, "sewed" the bark tube onto the wire. I also bent some
wire to make the part that holds the shade directly onto the light bulb. If
you need any birch "tubes", let me know because I have a bunch out back on
the pile, all different sizes.

Both of these lamps were made from the same log that the beaver chopped
down. I just bought the electrical parts and drilled through the log,
finished it, and glued some felt on the bottom.


"Bill" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 12 Sep 2007 11:20:16 -0700, FoggyTown
wrote:

Has anyone seen or heard of lamp/ceiling light shades being made from
wood?

I'd appreciate any thoughts anyone might have.

Check out this guy's work:

http://www.jameseddywoodworks.com/index.html


Bill

dpb wrote:

FoggyTown wrote:
Has anyone seen or heard of lamp/ceiling light shades being made from
wood? I'm thinking it should be relatively simple to make shades from
veneer-thickness woods which would provide interesting contrasts/
compliments to existing room decors. I'm going to have to do some
opacity testing on veneers to see if there is any translucency through
different woods. Or whether, in fact, that even matters very much.
Probably shouldn't be that difficult to get frames & fixings either.

Been done, already...

I don't have a link handy, but there was a FWW article years ago and
several other places I've seen them as well.

One that I liked that I recall from the old FWW article used red oak
sliced then across grain (end grain showing) so the open porosity was
utilized...

--
get some of the self adhesive hardwood veneer and use clear acrylic for the
structure (strength) and wire lampshade parts etc.

P.S. you can use your scroll saw to do piercing designs on the laminated
acrylic/veneer parts.

On Sep 12, 1:20 pm, FoggyTown wrote:
Has anyone seen or heard of lamp/ceiling light shades being made from
wood? I'm thinking it should be relatively simple to make shades from
veneer-thickness woods which would provide interesting contrasts/

Maybe a year or so ago, DIY network had a "I did it myself" show of
interviews with different artists. One of them was a guy who turned
lampshades out of wood. Haven't seen it for a year or two but if I
recall correctly he used oak. He and his wife hefted a huge chunk onto
a huge lathe and he turned it into a paper-thin lampshade. Made
mountains of tailings. Towards the end he had a little lightbulb on a
holder that he mounted inside the piece so he could see how
translucent it was getting.

Nice work, but man. Looked like he turned a hundred pounds or more of
wood into a half pound lampshade.

I liked that show.

" writes:
One of them was a guy who turned lampshades out of wood.

Peter Bloch?
http://www.woodshades.com/

On Sep 19, 4:38 pm, DJ Delorie wrote:
" writes:
One of them was a guy who turned lampshades out of wood.

Peter Bloch?http://www.woodshades.com/

That sure looks like him. Like I said it's been way over a year but
that's the right size chunk and there's that little lightbulb inside
it, and the lampshades look like the ones I remember. The only thing I
forgot was he likes popple, not oak. And it's 200 pounds of woodchunk
turned into a few ounces of lampshade. :-)

On Sep 21, 6:42?pm, " wrote:
On Sep 19, 4:38 pm, DJ Delorie wrote:

" writes:
One of them was a guy who turned lampshades out of wood.

Peter Bloch?http://www.woodshades.com/

That sure looks like him. Like I said it's been way over a year but
that's the right size chunk and there's that little lightbulb inside
it, and the lampshades look like the ones I remember. The only thing I
forgot was he likes popple, not oak. And it's 200 pounds of woodchunk
turned into a few ounces of lampshade. :-)

Seems like an awful waste of wood. Like felling a whole tree to get
one plank. I'd feel guilty if I did anything like he does -
especially with hard wood.

FoggyTown
Most of my projects' best features began as mistakes!

FoggyTown wrote in
oups.com:

On Sep 21, 6:42?pm, " wrote:
On Sep 19, 4:38 pm, DJ Delorie wrote:

" writes:
One of them was a guy who turned lampshades out of wood.

Peter Bloch?http://www.woodshades.com/

That sure looks like him. Like I said it's been way over a year but
that's the right size chunk and there's that little lightbulb inside
it, and the lampshades look like the ones I remember. The only thing
I forgot was he likes popple, not oak. And it's 200 pounds of
woodchunk turned into a few ounces of lampshade. :-)

Seems like an awful waste of wood. Like felling a whole tree to get
one plank. I'd feel guilty if I did anything like he does -
especially with hard wood.

FoggyTown
Most of my projects' best features began as mistakes!



Seems like we look at things from what is scarce to us. In many areas,
wood is a waste product, and gets chipped up and composted, burned for
fuel, used as path covers and mulch, all sorts of things. What gets
turned into bowls and lampshades usually can't be used for much beyond
firewood.

There's a spot in the Oakland, CA hills where the city and park district
dumps wood they've needed to trim and cut, and folks are encouraged to
come by and pick out what they need, for free. There's quite a pile of
'future bowls' in my yard right now, waiting for the lathe.

London may differ significantly.

Enjoy your art!

Patriarch