I've had this awesome idea in my head for a long time to create a lampshade out of buttons. So I have literally been saving buttons for the past three years, you know those extras that come with new clothes as a spare? I must be really thrifty with clothes shopping because when I went to my bowl of button collection, I literally have like 6 buttons saved up. You can clearly create a fabulous lampshade with 6 buttons...
Alas, plan A will have to wait. I did try to buy buttons in bulk at my local craft store but I found no buttons! My home collection of buttons was more extensive. How impressive. I suppose you have to go to a fabric store for things like that. Or maybe I missed the aisle that said "buttons." Regardless, I was forced to come up with a plan B. Luckily not that serious plan B...I jest. And, as you can see in the picture below, this lampshade that has a hole in it was driving me crazy. No lampshade is better than this lampshade. Oh and here's a cat in a lampshade. See, I already found a much better use for it!
Recently I've been making most of my own jewelry (stay with me, this has a point, I swear). I took a jewelry class 2 years ago and I have never felt like such a shining star. I was the golden child of jewelry making. This was, of course, a basic intro to jewelry making class so it's basically stringing beads together but I personally believe I have a knack for it.
So I pulled out my beading box and decided if I couldn't do buttons, why not give beads a shot?
This was a terrible idea. Okay, maybe not terrible. I'm totally into putting forth my best effort into these craft projects. But, most of the time I'm really happy and feel accomplished. Time well spent, pat on the back for me. This ended with one of those not-so-good feelings. Almost like a "well, I kind of like it, I can grow and force myself to like it.."
Let's get this over with, and tell me what you think please!
Materials:
Wire cutters, pliers, beads, jewelry wire, fishing line, tissue paper, modge podge
Step One:
Cut wire and wrap around one end of lamp. String random beads, and wrap wire around the other end to close. Repeat for however many rows you want!
Cut tissue paper to size. Modge podge onto the inside of the lamp for the "shade."
Step Three:
String beads onto fishing wire at various lengths. Tie around top of lamp frame.
Although this is easy, it takes FOREVER. And I'm unhappy because I think I need to use way more beads/wire lines/strings to get the look that I want. But I used up a ton of beads and my fingers hurt from wire wrapping, and the total time was probably 4 hours. For something that's so small scale, and probably not a permanent piece in my house, I just felt like this was wasting time. I like the concept, and hope to use it in the future on a piece that I love and want to keep around! I suppose all projects won't go as planned. But that's part of the learning and blogging process of discovering life, right??
No comments:
Post a Comment