I thought I'd show this lampshade off again. There may be a few people that have already seen it but it's a great way of showing the sheer scale of work involved in one of the simpler lampshade designs that I've done. (Yes - I said simpler!)

One of these lampshades take about a month to make, alongside any other work I have on and finishing each of these stages is a milestone that keeps me going until the very end!

The design is my own.

The pattern is put in a water-proof sleeve and all the pieces of glass are cut to this pattern. Every piece above has been cut out twice (two halves) using a little yellow for the very top, streaky orange for the main part and a streaky red for the bottom row. Opaque glass is always best for lampshades too so you don't see the bulb and the light is diffused much more evenly.

I grind the edges of every piece (to take off the sharp edges and prepare them for copper foiling) wash and dry them all and place back on the pattern. Not putting them back on the pattern would prove to be something of a nightmare when it's comes to constructing the whole piece. Self-adhesive copper foil tape is wrapped around the edges and burnished.

Every piece is then tin soldered (given an initial covering in solder) and pinned onto the form. I then tack solder the pieces together which starts to hold every piece together and this allows me to remove the pins. Then more soldering is done to the joins and to start to add strength. Very carefully the lampshade turned upside down and is taken off the form (carefully because they are usually floppy) and propped up on some homemade stands specifically made for this size and shape. I then solder all the inside joins constantly turning the shade around as all the soldering has to be done on the level. Back to the outside - I add a bead of solder along every join - this adds more strength to the lampshade. The bottom edge pieces are then added and the whole thing goes for a shower! The shower washes off all the flux ready for the black patina. And with a final polish, it ends up looking like this:

And by night:

And how many pieces are there? Erm... About 270 I think... I may have got a little lost!