On Starry Nights and Washi Tape

Washi Tape was a contentious issue in the shop days. Penny suggested we get some in, and I did. Felix came as close to pitching a fit as I've ever seen him, over it. These are two adults I adore and who flat together. But oooh blimey, they have different attitudes to washi tape.

Felix's position was that it wasn't a proper craft supply. I agreed. But, its beautiful, coloured, matchy rolls in a set was so intoxicating to the stationery lover in me! So, I decided to make something crafty out of it, as much to prove a point to Felix.

I decided to make a lampshade with a delicious set of Starry Night, Van Gogh washi tape. Even though it is sticky, I didn't trust it to be strong enough to hold a shade together, and making the rings sticky (as you do) held them onto the styrene.

I started off setting a diagonal, with the big diva tape.

Building those rows, one at a time. Ever so carefully not leaving even a sliver of white between the strips.

All filled up now, the ends roughly trimmed and tucked in.

I gently tucked the tape around the rings, nice and tidy!

And finally, here we are. It's silly, but I like it. I think it's still in the shop. Felix hated it! heehee!

 It's been at least two years since I made a lampshade and I miss it. Once, fabrics were divided into ones that would make a good lampshade, and the rest! 

I still have a few lampshades in me. I'll get there...

The Midwinter Affair Night Market 2015

That's our stall, in a biiig Bedouin tent. It rained, and rained, and rained. But the people came anyway! Roads were closing all over the middle of the North Island but somehow it all happened anyway.
Thanks to strong North West winds on the previous Thursday when the tents were erected, they had to be closed at one end and the open end facing AWAY from the pathways, so the poor punters had to trudge through increasingly muddy, slippery grass to come into the tents.It was a pity it didn't either blow OR rain, as if it had stuck to one or the other, the fair would have been easier!
But everyone was happy - they had their yummy eats and mulled wine and gumboots, and we chatted to lots of Wellingtonians, and locals, and gave out lots of postcards and class flyers, and we EVEN sold some lampshades!
Not quite as many as last year but given the numbers were much lower, we were delighted. And because lampshades and rain are NOT great companions, we made use of big rubbish bags to pack them and get them back to the car.
We stayed the weekend at Amelie Rose Cottage, not the fabulous Plum Tree that we love, which has sold and is no longer a holiday let - but just across the road. A lovely double bay villa.
My sister and her family came over for the fair and for the night - and it was a very novel experience to be woken up by a curious 6 year old nephew, knocking politely on our door then coming in and telling me off for getting "too tired at the market, Mamush, you shouldn't have let them get you so tired."
My sleep-fuddled brain finally clicked that this was Peter's roundabout way of telling me to GET UP. So, we did!
It is Sunday afternoon now and I am so pooped I can hardly move. I fell alseep on the drive home even.

Perhaps Peter had a point?

"Do You Have a Licence for that Monkey?"

Inspector Clouseau may never have uttered that exact phrase, but it was in my head when I found this fabric at Emporos in Greytown, and as I made this lampshade last Saturday.
My bestie Ross brought this floor stand and shade to me recently with a casual, "See if you can do something with this" that only friends of 35 years plus can pull off.
Knowing what an amazing house they have and what a penchant for the exotic they have, I went with Mr Monkey.

My naughty monkey in his flamboyant Aladdin's costume. I LOVE this fabric!!!

I didn't take a before shot of the shade, but it was right at home with these boring beige beasties

 A full length body shot.

 Close up and Personal

 One of the other Monkeys and the trims - a beaded one sewn to a braided one - I only bought two metres of it but the wonderful Zara from Off Grid Chic got me an extra metre as the shop is near her place of work. :) Yes I have a shop full of trims and a stash full of trims. But blue? Not one inch of blue did I own!

 Same trim with the edge trimmed flat.

 I was so lazy but it worked - I reused the original lining. It was in good nick and of course, fit perfectly!

A Productive Day Off.

Lately my Sunday off has meant reading  novels and not much else. I'm a bit brain dead, what with working long hours and this heat. But, it drives me bananas too when there are so many jobs outstanding!
So, I resolved that in spite of the heat and the lethargy, I was going to knock off two important domestic creative projects.
1) Recover the foot pouf. MrC and I made the pouf in 2002 and it has been recovered once before this, in 2008. That cover was fabulous, but it had ended up looking like this:

SO threadbare - look at the red flowers around the sides - most of the red had faded and worn off the top. And yes, that is a gaping hole. :(

The new fabric we bought from Graham and Sons in Martinborough. It was a short end and we got it for a fraction of the usual price. I love it SO much!

It has Tartars on horses! And goats! And flowers as big as the Tartars on the horses and the goats!!! And of course, it is red and gold and black. LOVE.

It looks blue in the evening light but it is black with lots of rich golds, olive greens and of course, reds. 

New pouf has a button on the top, a pretty antique bronze one. I hope it lasts longer than the previous button. The top is made of three pieces patched together on account of lack of fabric. Two halves, then one I sliced and swapped over so the Tartar was balanced with his bro across the other side. I did some illusory pattern matching and it all seems to work very well!

The piping is a bit wavy - it ought to be cut on the bias but there simply wasn't enough fabric. Ah well.

2) Lampshades! this is my third attempt at shades for over the kitchen bench. The first wallpaper ones were just appalling. The second ones looked awesome but the fabric was so dark, it didn't let the light into the room! A triumph of style over substance!

And so, in a different and more recent trip over the hill, we ended up at Emporos in Greytown and I simply had to buy this French linen.

SO in love. They sell remnants from France and so have things no one else seems to.

This third time, I made the shades 18 inches in diameter (previous ones were 15) to allow for maximum light.
My favourite part of this fabric is actually the in between bit which looks like a flow diagram drawn by a crazy botanist. And has lions and monkeys!

Aren't they pretty! Or elegant maybe!

I have the piece in the photo above left over, about 0.5m, which is not enough to make the enormous stacked piece of fabulosity I have planned for the beam over the living space, but I will not be thwarted! There's still some left in the shop.....

Holy Mary!

I am a big fan of Mary, mother of Jesus. I am fascinated by the way she is held in such regard by so many cultures. I see it as being a bit feminist even.
But no culture does VM with as much style as South America. This panel fabric is one of my most treasured, and I was dying to try something different with it.

Four images of the Madonna. My favourite is the bottom right. We call Her Wolverine Madonna - if anyone threatens Her or Jesus, the gold spikes flick out from all around Her!
Inspired some pictures of OTT lamps someone emailed me, I decided to have a go. I took the bottom two and made this lamp:

It's only 7 inches in diameter, just enough for the two panels, and a piece of black herring bone tape to hide the slight shortfall. Trimmed with pink and black bobble trim and a mad red braid, we love it!
The slightly barmy lampstand came from an unexpected sale next door, DesignMade Showroom. This is a very poshe trade only establishment that throws random members of the public out on their ear if they don't go in with their account holding designer. Except for two days last week when they held a sale, which means that various importers brought their stock in to sell off directly. I went mad at the lamp base table and bought about 8 of them, two floor standing ones and the rest table lamps. This pretty chrome and black faux jet one was on my THIRD trip back for loot!

Anyhoo, today I started another one made from the other two panels and I am in MORE LOVE with those.
And my try at Dr Who related lamps has resulted in them all selling out of the darned shop

My first two shades, both sold, replaced and sold again!

This is all in aid of my stall at the Martinborough Olive Harvest Festival Night Market next Saturday from 4-8pm. We will be dressing warmly, selling lampshades and kits to make them, and promoting a class I am holding over there on 23 August. My sister Jo is coming to help and I know we'll have a laugh, we always do!

P.S. In my search for a decent photo of the panel fabric, I came across another one and I HAVE to have it.

Isn't it lovely! Such a different palette to the other one. I'm already imagining what I could do with it... :)

Random Make Friday

There are so many cool recurring posts on blogs - I thought I would make one up too...
Welcome to Random Make Friday, from Sent from my iRon.

Today's Random Make is a lampshade I made last week. I made the shade up in white calico, slathered it in Mod Podge, smoothed the pretty bird tissue over it, and slathered more Mod Podge over the top.
Tada!!

Here is the tissue in its natural, tissuey habitat. The Mod Podging brought the colours out even more.
I am in love. I am also in love with the black toile du jouy beside it and may have to try it as well!
(Please ignore the strange "Chianti Bottle woven with Rex Lace by a Hippy in the 70's" lamp base. )