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    • Aug 13

Meet the Maker - Gilhoolie Bespoke Lampshades

After catching the lampshade-making bug from a course, Julie Gardner of Gilhoolie Bespoke Lampshades has combined her new found passion with her free machine embroidery skills and her love of botanicals and the natural world. The result? Intricate and unique bespoke lampshades for her clients.


In today's Meet the Maker, we learn more about how she's become a workshop tutor herself and how she's developed her thriving bespoke lampshade making service, alongside her other creative pursuits!


Hi there Julie! 

 

How are you today and what’s on your workbench?

Hi! I’m actually teaching a lampshade workshop today, from my garden studio. But after that I will be making two lampshades for a private client - one new drum and one tapered square lampshade that needs recovering in new PVC and fabric. Bit of a challenge but I’ll start with a paper template and adjust it as I need to.


How do you start the design process and where do you get your design inspiration from for your free machine embroidery lampshades? 

I love making the machine embroidery lampshades. It’s quite a long process though! I go through with the client what kind of theme they’d like and what they definitely want included. Then I come up with some drawings and a final design, laying out how it will flow across the panel. I choose some coloured fabric remnants from my stash and then run the design past the client before I get started on making. It’s always a bit nerve wracking at the end when I make it up into a lampshade as you can’t make any mistakes!


How would you describe your style?

I love flowers so anything botanical will usually be included in a design, but I have made embroidered lampshades incorporating seagulls, dogs, crabs and rabbits, so anything goes!

 

We love the name Gilhoolie. Where does this come from? 

It just rhymes with Julie really - my friends came up with it when I was at uni. When I started making lampshades, I wanted a business name that was a bit quirky and different. I have recently started calling myself an artist too (I do printmaking) so I have an Instagram account for Julie Gardner Art as well - it felt right to use my real name for that venture!

 

When and why did you start making lampshades? 

I started making lampshades 14 years ago. I was being made redundant from a boring office job and saw someone who screen printed their own fabric and then made lampshades and I had a light bulb moment. I went to an evening workshop in London and remember travelling home on the tube clutching a drum lampshade, I loved it!


What’s your favourite part of the lampshade making process? 

It’s always exciting to roll up a panel into a cylinder and see a lampshade take shape. I see my workshop attendees get the same delight when they get to this point too.

 

How has your lampshade making developed and changed over the years? 

I started off making them for an Etsy shop and going to craft fairs but never did very well. I realised everyone wants their own fabric, not one that I have chosen. So, I decided to offer a bespoke service; making lampshades for clients and interior designers. I make them for people all over the UK now.


Can you talk us through the creative process of making a free machine embroidery lampshade? 

Once I have my design laid out and have chosen some coloured fabric remnants the fun begins! I use bondaweb to stick the pieces of fabric to the main piece of linen and draw my stitch lines on top roughly with a pen that disappears when ironed. When everything is stuck down, I stitch along the lines on my sewing machine. I use an embroidery foot and drop the teeth on the sewing machine so that it doesn’t stitch in a straight line. You just have to relax and go with it, it’s quite freeing! I love the sketchy effect you get from machine embroidery; it can’t be perfect and that’s part of its charm.


We understand that you enjoy teaching workshops. Can you tell us a bit more about what you teach?  

I usually teach how to make a 30cm drum lampshade but sometimes people want to do something a bit different (copper lining, oval lampshades, recovering their own lampshade etc.) It always ends with a cuppa and homemade cake. I also teach machine embroidery and hope to teach lino printing in the future.


Any tips for new lampshade makers in business?

When I first started, I wrote a blog and tried to do it a couple of times a week. I think that still helps with the SEO on my website so it’s a good thing to do when you’re just starting out. It keeps you motivated too. It’s best to have several jobs (I work in a shop too) so that you don’t just rely on the lampshade orders.

 

How do you fit in your shade making with your other work and creative commitments?

I try to keep to my 2-3 week lead time for lampshades and to be honest I only spend a couple of days a week making them as I have other commitments too. I work in a shop one day a week and attend a printmaking course on another day. It’s good to get out and be with people rather than always in my studio on my own!

 

When are you at your most productive? 

Around late morning/lunch time, after I’ve walked the dog and done any chores and replied to emails etc.

 

And your favourite sustenance when you’re working? 

My go-to snack is an oat cake with peanut butter and some grapes. Oh, and a cup of tea of course!

 

Can we take a peek at your workspace, and can you tell us a little about it?

For the first ten or so years I made my lampshades at the kitchen table and had to put everything away at the end of each day. We built my studio in the garden during lockdown and I love it, it’s my happy place. And I don’t have to clear up at the end of the day (although I usually do!) Everything has a place - ring sets are hung on the walls and the many rolls of PVC are in one corner and I also have an old cabinet I painted for storing all my fabric remnants. A shelf above the window is perfect for storing lampshades once they are made. I do my printmaking out there too, so I have to keep it clean and tidy.


Where would you like to be in 10 years time?

Good question! I’d like to be doing more of the same really as I’m very happy. More art would be great, and possibly printing my own fabric for lampshades. I have some lino prints going into galleries later this year, so I want to develop that side too.


What have you learned that’s been invaluable to your creative process?

I have learnt a lot over the years - to turn down work if I’m too busy, to stick to my lead time so that I can do other things in between lampshades and to not stress too much if things go wrong but to learn from my mistakes and just start again if I have to. Oh, and my top tip is to check a PVC panel fits a frame before you attach the fabric and cut - a couple of times I’ve been super frustrated when I’ve gone to roll it up into a lampshade and it’s the wrong size! I have to remind myself to slow down and check everything twice as I go along. Enjoy it, you could be sat in an office analysing data all day (that’s what I used to do!)


Shop Julie's intricate nature inspired machine embroidered lampshades on her website, or use Julie's bespoke lampshade making service and skills to create your own lampshade or join her for a lampshade making workshop.


Facebook: @gilhoolie



Follow Julie's printing journey on Instagram @juliegardnerart and via her website, and shop her work on Etsy.





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