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Apr 19, 2022

Lampshade Inspiration - Going Large with Lampshades

The upshot of making a super-sized lampshade is not only the wow factor but the huge surface area that you need to cover to make up the shade. In today’s blog post we showcase three creatives who scale up their talents to make huge lampshades with a difference, using innovative techniques, community art and unusual materials.





Dominic Green - Statement and Style

Dominic Green’s story may start in a similar way to many lampshade makers – a desire to buy a lampshade that fitted his interior, which he then ended up making himself – but that’s essentially where the similarities stop.


Dominic’s passion for innovation and design led him to set up Shades by Dominic Green creating statement piece lampshades, in stunning fabrics, such as rich Italian velvets, luscious jumbo cords and Designers Guild chenilles, but with a few noticeable differences.


Using Dannells 60cm and 70cm ringsets, as the basis for his oversized statement lampshades, Dominic has created a bespoke system of attaching his fabric to the frame, using an edging that is then airbrushed, giving a beautiful sumptuous finish that’s available in a range of colours.


In addition, he’s also re-designed the diffuser from the bottom up, creating a delicate and unobtrusive eco-friendly 'floating' diffuser that is suspended on a unique and adjustable wire and magnet system. All three diffuser suspension wires are adjustable from the top centre area of the frame to allow height preference flexibility and with each diffuser carefully being made using a medium weight unbleached natural cotton or hand-made Japanese Washi paper, this allows a delicately diffused glow from the shade.


And Dominic’s stunning high-end shades not only give a literal glow but an environmental one too. As a result of his tireless work to develop new and innovative ways of making lampshades, he’s been able to make the components more environmentally friendly and has recently become a fully certified Carbon Neutral Business. Statement shade with a low environmental impact - that's the future.


Twitter: @Dominic_Green



Caroline Cleave - Message in a Lampshade

Nestled in Port Issac in Cornwall, artist and printmaker, Caroline Cleave captures her beautiful surroundings, whether it be coastal views, the stunning natural world or sea life that is just on her doorstep in her work. But it’s not only what she sees that’s at the heart of this. Collaborating with the community, in and around her home village, and the wider art movement in Cornwall are integral to her work, hence her involvement in a community film project ‘Behind the Postcard’, a creative response to Cornwall hosting the 2021 G7 Summit.


Using a Dannells 100cm circular ring set, Caroline supported the community to make a giant lampshade to sit on the harbour at Port Issac and told us a little more about how the lampshade was created:

The lampshade was created by the whole village of Port Isaac, young and old, each person was asked what they would like to say to the world leaders about our community. The answers were amazing and very touching. It was illuminated with solar lights which came on at dusk and shone out across our iconic harbour. The lampshade was decorated with black and white images which were stuck onto the lampshade making PVC, which then allowed the light to pass through and this symbolised how our small community supports each other throughout the year, through words and drawings. We wanted to shine this message out, through the film, Behind the Postcard, which was created to be shown to the world leaders at the G7 conference.
Thank you Dannells, for your great product. It withstood the winds and rain of the North Cornish coast and created lots of happy memories.

And thank you Caroline too. We're very proud to have been a small part of making this project happen.


Instagram: @carolinecleave



By Marie Lampshades - Wood combinations combinations

Professional lampshade maker, Marie of Bymarie, founded her business after studying Surface Pattern Design for Fashion & Interiors. Allowing her to express her love for pattern, all of the designs you see at Bymarie are lovingly hand-drawn and hand-painted by Marie, before being proudly printed onto quality fabric.


Marie’s super-sized shades lined with wood-effect linings immediately caught our eye, not only due to their scale but because of their strikingly modern aesthetic, which also has a natural look. Her first foray into working with wood-effect linings is as interesting as the lampshade themselves:

As part of a commission, ITV’s 'Good Morning Britain’ breakfast show contacted me and ordered two lampshades, each over a metre in diameter, with wood-effect exteriors to match their set design and these are still used on the set now! From here, I started using the wood effect not only for the exteriors but also for the interiors of the shades to offer my customers a different stylistic feel to their shades.

And Marie’s extra-wide lampshades, don’t stop there. Bymarie stocks a huge range of 100cm lampshades, with a choice of over 20 combinations of inners linings and outer fabrics, available in 4 different depths. And of course, Marie will happily make you a bespoke shade in a fabric and inner of your choices. Sitting at the heart of Bymarie is the principle that each and every single lampshade is custom made to order and professionally handmade, regardless of their size, shape or cost and with orders from far and wide, she loves making them too!

The customer response has been overwhelmingly positive. I love the fact that these wide shades not only allow dark rooms to really become flooded with light but also emphasise the linings, so depending on your choice you can really see the effect be it wood, metallic or a more muted colour palette. They are a real centre-piece and statement in a room; with lighting being so important, the wide shades really are a talking point - I even have one in my lounge.

Facebook: @bymarie.co.uk

Twitter: @UkBymarie



Explore our Large Lampshade Range

If you’re planning on ‘going large’ as our inspiring makers have, there are a couple of ways to achieve a large scale shade, either with a kit or using a ringset.


The largest in our range of Lampshade Making Kits is our 70cm kit, which contains everything you need to create a lampshade, using your own fabric.


To step up a size, our massive 100cm Circular Lampshade Ringset are used to manufacture oversized lampshades for industrial and commercial projects, hotels, exhibitions, and point of sale or they can simply be used for home lighting projects. The added advantage of our 1-metre ring sets is that they can connect to three UK and European Lampholders or Pendant Fittings, making sure that the light is dispersed equally around the lampshade.


Any of our Lampshade Ringsets will need to be used with a Lampshade Making PVC, and you can choose from our premium or standard ranges depending on the fabric, finish and fittings you are using for the shade.




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