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Welcome to a world of lampshade making, where the Duplex Ring takes centre stage! Commonly found in classic lampshade designs, such as our Conical and Empire Lampshade Making Kits, Duplex Rings offer incredible versatility for making lampshades of various styles and shapes.
In this post, we’ll explore the uses and benefits of Duplex Rings and share three contemporary lampshade tutorials using Duplex Rings to inspire your next project!
What are Duplex rings?
A Duplex Ring is a double ring hence the name duplex, with the wider ring of the two sitting at the top of the lampshade, leaving the small ring sitting below and free for use with a shade carrier system or spider.
The top ring represents the diameter of the top of the lampshade you will make. The smaller and lower of the two rings are a standard size, measuring 110 mm in diameter and is positioned approximately 4.5 to 5 cm below the top ring.
Our smallest individual ring in our Duplex Ring range starts is a neat 12.5cm diameter top ring, and they increase in 5cm increments between 15cm and 50cm diameters, finishing with our larger sizes of 60cm and 70cm.
Made from high quality heavy gauge wire (3.25mm thickness up to 40cm diameter, 4mm above 40 cm diameter) to give your handmade lampshades strength and durability, each ring is sprayed with a white epoxy coating for rust prevention.
Connecting to a Shade Carrier or Spider Fitting
Being positioned at the top of your DIY lampshade the aperture of the 110cm bottom ring sits neatly over a shade carrier on a table lamp or easily hooks onto a spider fitting on a pendant lamp. Find out more in our blog post Shade Carrier Systems Explained or by watching our demonstrator Sam explain both fittings in our YouTube Video below.
Benefits of Using a Duplex Ring
Using a Duplex Ring in combination with Shade Carrier firstly allows you to remove the lampshade for easy cleaning of the shade itself and the shade carrier, and is a system often used in hospitality settings for these reasons.
Secondly, using a Duplex Ring and Shade Carrier means you can control the height of your shade in relation to you base, with our variety of shade carriers, which range from 4” through to 12” high. Duplex rings are included as standard in our range of Conical and Empire Lampshade Making Kits.
In addition, if you’d like to change your lampshade base, but keep your handmade lampshade, then by picking a different height of Shade Carrier you can create a whole new look!
Duplex Ring Lampshade Tutorials
The Duplex Ring is the perfect vehicle for creative lampshade styles and shapes, and since we've began to sell these individually, they're economical too.
Here's our pick of three stunning Lampshade Making Tutorials for Duplex Rings...
Pleated Paper Lampshade Tutorial
Using a combination of our smallest 12.5cm duplex ring and our Less Rigid Stick-It Self-Adhesive Lampshade Material, this on trend pleated lampshade might take precision measuring but it's a super satisfying make!
With a twist on our original Pleated Paper Lampshade tutorial, we’ve opted for only a duplex ring at the top, as the pleated Less Rigid Stick-It Self-Adhesive Lampshade Material can easily hold its own weight, therefore we have omitted the hole punching stage and bottom ring.
Extreme Conical Lampshade Tutorial
Taking the trend for conical lampshades one step further, our Duplex Rings and Lampshade Designer and Pattern Forming Tool and are integral to creating Extreme Conical Lampshade – lampshade with a narrow top and wide brim.
We had fun creating this version earlier in the Spring, using a 12.5cm Duplex Ring and a 50cm Plain Ring to create this oversized statement lampshade that packs a punch, at a fraction of the price we could buy it!
Scalloped Edge Lampshade Tutorial
Scallops are everywhere – from bedding, to furniture, to tiling and rugs and launching our Scalloped Edge Lampshade Panels in early 2024, means you can join this ubiquitous interiors trend with handmade lampshade or two!
With just a handful of supplies - a 12.5cm, 15cm or 20cm Duplex Ring, the corresponding self adhesive Scalloped Edge Lampshade Panel and our 9mm Tesa Double Side Tape - simply choose your covering and follow our step by step tutorials to make this in either paper or fabric with a bias bound edge.
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