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As summer fades and autumn approaches, the back-to-school feeling is once again upon us. Whether you're just embarking on your lampshade-making journey or have already honed your craft, this is the perfect time of year to explore new techniques, experiment with fresh lampshade styles, or try out different materials and tools to improve your skills!
In today’s blog, we've rounded up our top 5 must-read lampshade making books, which are packed with techniques, tips, and creative inspiration to help you elevate your skills and bring your next lampshade project to life. Read on to learn more!
1. Handmade Lampshade by Natalia Price-Cabrera
Packed with essential information for anyone starting to make lampshades, as well as hints and tips for seasoned shade makers, Handmade Lampshades is full of practical step by step projects from straight forward rigid shades, to more skilled, yet still very accessible, soft shades.
Firstly the book is joy for the eye, containing beautifully styled bold, colourful lampshades, alongside the extremely clear and easy to follow step by step images which make each project easy to attempt.
The basic techniques, tools and fabric sections are very thorough, and again instructional give the reader the confidence to tackle the difficulty rated projects.
Read our full blog review of Handmade Lampshades here.
2. The Complete Guide to Making Lampshades by Jane Warren
The Complete Guide to Making Lampshades by Jane Warren is a two-part tome, that is a book shelf essential whatever your level of lampshade making.
Bringing together everything Jane has learnt from her 12 years of professional lampshade making, the book is divided into two parts – hard lampshade and soft lampshades. It includes an extensive range of projects including making an oversized lampshade to cutting a template for an on trend scalloped edge lampshade, and soft shade projects such as easy slip on and off loose cover lampshades and the more technical box pleated and swathed lampshade styles.
Each page is packed with hints, tips, images, step by step instructions, all written in Jane’s warm friendly tone, drawing on her experience and expertise. As a valued customer and contributor to our 5,000 strong Lampshade Making Facebook Group, we love how Jane has dotted throughout the book fellow lampshade makers and their processes and lampshades, for further inspiration.
As passionate advocates of the skills and craft of lampshade making, we are offering The Complete Guide to Making Lampshades at cost price to Dannells customers at just £13.99!
Read our Meet the Author interview with Jane Warren here.
3. Sewing Lampshades by Joanna Heptinstall
With a key focus on sewing a wide range of soft lampshades, Joanna Heptinstall shares her skills and knowledge from training as an upholsterer, as well as those she has learnt from starting out upcycling an old lampshade, to becoming a professional lampshade maker.
Featuring sewing by hand and by machine, Joanna covers an extensive range of soft lampshade making styles from fitted and lined lampshades, through to gathered and pleated shades.
As a beginner, we feel this book is a useful ‘skill building book’ and a natural step up from making hard lampshades and Joanna’s step by step instructions to make a tailored shade (binding a frame, making a cover, adding a lining) will give you the confidence to move through the other projects in the book.
Read our full review of Sewing Lampshades here.
4. 50 Thrifty DIY Shades by Adeline Lobut
Adele Lobut’s 50 Thrifty DIY Shades might be a step away from learning more traditional and professional lampshade making techniques, but it certainly offers plenty of inspiration for new and novel lampshade making ideas and projects.
From panelled lampshades made with beautiful, printed silk scarves to colourful contemporary washi tape shades, this book features lampshades made from every material you can imagine – paper, wool, beads, natural materials and even paint brushes!
Alongside the creative projects, the introductory information covers basic lampshade making techniques and some of the materials you’ll need, yet we feel that to attempt some of the projects in 50 Thrifty DIY Shades, reading one of the books mentioned above would help you master some of the more technical lampshade projects. This said this is packed with fun creative projects for ever level of maker!
Read our full blog review of 50 Thrifty DIY Shades here.
5. Lampshades by Katrin Cargill
And oldy, but a goody, Lampshades by Katrin Cargill is our vintage lampshade book pick and for good reason too!
Written in the mid 1990’s, Lampshades is very much focussed on the instructional elements of lampshade making, featuring 20 projects with clever pull out illustrated step by step pages and some are unusual styles and shapes, such as the ‘Laminated Checked Square’ lampshade, that we haven’t seen featured elsewhere. Each of the projects offers plenty of guidance, but some previous knowledge of soft shade making could be useful in places.
This said the ‘Equipment, Material and Techniques’ pages at the back of the book showcase illustrated skills such as, frame types, how to bind, hand sewing skills and pattern making along with useful equipment lists. We feel this book is a timeless lampshade making classic that offers the perfect mix of inspiration and achievable lampshade skill building and an worth seeking out from an online book seller.
Read our full review of Lampshades here.
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