It's been a long time since I posted anything - not because I haven't been making stuff, I just haven't got round to it. I've mainly been working on smaller bits and pieces.
A trip to the beach..
In July I took my two youngest daughters to Queensland to visit my eldest daughter for her birthday. She lives about 860kms from me, fortunately my parents live half way there and I was able to stop over at their house to break the trip up a bit. After spending a week in Queenland, we headed back down to my parents'. The day before we were due to come home I took my daughters to the beach, where they collected hundreds of shells, as kids do. When we got back to Mum and Dad's, I rinsed off the shells and spread them out to dry in the sun.
Going home..or not..
The next day we planned to visit a friend, then head off home after lunch. That plan came unstuck when my car bottomed out on my friend's eroded gravel driveway. I didn't think it seemed bad at the time, but when I drove back into town the car was making a horrible sound. I wasn't willing to set off on a 400km trip with two kids in the car with that happening, but as it was a Saturday afternoon I'd have to wait until Monday to get a mechanic to look under it.
Maybe I should make something out of these shells..
I sat at my parents wondering how to fill my time. I didn't want to drive my car anywhere incase I damaged it further, so I couldn't visit anyone or take the girls anywhere. As I was sorting my shells I said to my dad "Maybe I should make something out of these shells..". Dad sprang into action and soon we were making a lamp. In his shed he found a couple of bits of wood to make a base and soon had a hole drilled down the centre for the wiring. Conveniently he had the innards of an old lamp in his shed too. Within no time he'd finished the base and the rest was up to me.
I fiddled around trying to work out a design with all the different shell's I'd collected, but nothing looked right. I knew from the start the lamp was going to look tacky, so I thought "why not go with it. I decided to cover it in all the same sort of shell, a shell that I personally found boring. They looked much better than having a mixture did.
Going home..
That was as far as I got with the lamp at Mum and Dad's. On the Monday morning we took the car to the mechanics and they put the car up on the thingy and discovered a huge rock jammed up underneath my car. Thankfully that was all it was - no damage done, it cost me $20 and I was on my way home again.
Once home I had access to everything I needed to finish the lamp, starting with tins of spray paint. Originally I was going to paint it gold or silver, but I went with the first colours I found - White undercoat with Bronze top coat. I'd also found a lamp shade of mine which was in need of repair. I removed the cover from it and painted it bronze too. Now the only thing left to do was cover the shade.
Covering the shade..
It took me a long time to work out how to cover the shade. Initially I thought of crocheting a lacy shade cover - then I decided I didn't want to spend all that time crocheting and then find it looked revolting. That led me to the thought that I could buy some 2nd hand doilies that someone else had made and use them. Brilliant idea except for the fact that I timed this with the 2014 Doily Drought - I couldn't find any anywhere!
Back to the drawing board.. I sat the lamp on my desk and stared at it often. Over the next few weeks I came to really like it. Instead of the trashy-bling gold or silver would have given it, the bronze paint had made it seem more rustic. The shells, the gathered wood scraps and the bronze made me think of shipwrecks and pirate treasure, that sort of thing. An image of people shipwrecked on a beach, making use of what they can find to build what they need, perhaps even finding some pirate treasure along the way.. and what would they use for the lamp shade cover? A piece of ship's sail of course, stitched together with threads pulled from the same fabric! Finally I had an idea..
So I headed off to the fabric shop and bought some calico and matching thread - I wanted to use something a little sturdier than pulled threads. Using the cover I had removed from the shade as a template, I made a cover out of four pieces of calico, roughly hand stitched together with frayed edges facing out. I then stitched the cover to the bronze frame, deliberately leaving the metal rings visible. The lamp was finally finished!
I'm really pleased with the end result, it's a tacky little lamp with a lot of memories involved. I've ended up keeping it for myself - though I'm not sure anyone else would want it anyway!
