All ends good

I hope you remember about the story of the soda fountain which we had to change to a lamp base. If not scroll down and read it - so interesting. Well, with lots of effort and patience the change could be made. And this is it now....

Raffia shades

I always wanted to make these. pendant raffia shades.  They are ideal for Lodges and homes near the seaside. So natural looking. And say good bye to mildew....

Large pleated pendant

One of my staff spend most of the day pinning and pleating this shade. and she is not even halfway.... Its BIG. I always have to check the weight of the fabric and fullness, so that the pendant dont become to heavy.

Isn't she pretty?

She just came in for repaires. I dont know her history, but somebody must have spend hours in the making. The inner rings collapsed, so we are fixing it.

Three in one

The Big Five of South Africa is always very popular. We used it in a 3 in one lampshade.

Lovely old one's

These beautiful little lampshades came in for recovering.  We have to show you how beautiful the finishing of the lampshades are, before we demolish the paper.  Tiny golden threads,  tiny gold band on the outside and it is hold together with tiny cross stitches.  So so pretty, we can't hardly torn it apart to refurbish it.  It must be at least 50 to 60 years old.....

Swivel head lampshade

We recovered these lampshades. The main reason why the client kept the shades,  is because of the swivel head. You can turn the shade up to allow more light for reading. These lampshade fittings are rare, so if you still have old one's, have it recovered as the factory which made it, has closed down looooong ago

Antique lampshade

A lamp base came in for repair as it was damaged when the owner moved home.  She brought the lampshade with the base.  I could not resist taking a few pictures of the lampshade, as we dont see this style lampshade, any more.  Even more so... -  this one is kept in an excellent condition.

 

 

Beautiful, thick folds at the bottom

And the inside is as pretty as the outside

 

It reminds me of this lampshade, which we repaired and  then

changed the fitting so that it can be hanged.

Lining a lampshade

A lining inside a lampshade dims the light and just gives a better presentation.  Here we are lining a lampshade after we designed and made the frame, then twist pleated it and the last step - the lining and trim.

And this is the completed lampshade...

Pleating a lampshade

Clients do ask "why is pleating expensive?"  - It is labor intensive.  First we measure, then we iron, then we pin, then we finish it off -  It takes many hours of concentrating and measuring.  So when you see a pleated lampshade again - remember it took a long time....

Just use the frame

Do you want a different look?  This shop used lampshade frames for a clear clean look.

Wine Cellar lighting

We are surrounded by Wine farms and Wine Cellars where we live. It is always interesting to see what type of ligting is used in this environment. This morning we visited the Fairview Wine and Goat cheese farm, near Paarl. The ligting was done by combinding glass, wine bottels,steel wine leaves and a steel  vineyard construction to create the warmth and style of a. wine ligting look.