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    • Jul 30

Tips for Making Metallic Lampshades

Updated: Jul 31


Adding a Stick It® Metallic Lampshade Material to your handmade lampshade inner is simpler than its luxurious, eye-catching finish suggests. However, having expert knowledge before starting any new lampshade project can be invaluable.


In today's post, we've gathered advice and essential tips from our fabulous Facebook Lampshade Makers Group, to help you with each step of creating a professional handmade lampshade using our exciting Stick It® Metallics Range for that extra shine! ✨



How to Use Stick It® Metallic Self Adhesive Lampshade Material

The key difference when making a lampshade using Stick It® Metallic Self Adhesive Lampshade Material is that essentially your lampshade become doubles sided, therefore there are a couple of extra steps in the early part of making your lampshade.

 

As all of our Stick It® Metallics Range are sold by the roll - 2 metre, 5 metre, 10 metre or 25 metre - rather than as a panel, the gridline make it easy to cut your own panel to fit the circumference of your chosen size of drum lampshade rings.

 

Use our pre-cut Double sided panel sizes as a guide to see how much Metallic Stick It® you need.

When adhering your fabric or paper to the Metallic Stick It®, rather than cutting around the panel as you would in one of our Lampshade Making Kits that has the kisscut integrated into the panel, you'll need to create a your own, to give you the perfect fabric margin to make a professional lampshade edge. This can be done using our Self Adhesive PVC Strip or by cutting a 1.5cm margin around the panel.


Explore our Stick It® Metallic Range

From our subtle textured Stick-It® Metallic Emboss, to the high shine of our  

Stick-It® Mirror Finish, there is a metallic lampshade liner to suit every handmade lampshade.

 

Stick-It® Brushed Metallic

With a lustrous colour and a burnished sheen, our Brushed Metal Stick It® has a smooth, brushed effect and brings a touch of industrial chic to any lampshade. Great for plain and patterned outer shades, we've seen this used to bring out the texture in a plain fabric.


Stick-It® Metallic Emboss

With a similar texture to orange peel, our Metallic Emboss Stick It®, has been manufactured to be completely ‘block out’, meaning that light cannot shine through it, allowing your outer lampshade covering to be unaltered. The textured element gives a warm, lustrous glow and helps direct light downwards making this the perfect product for a statement pendant light.



Stick-It® Mirror Finish

As it sounds, our Mirror Finish Stick It® is a beautifully reflective lampshade material, that has a high shine that you can literally see yourself in! Great for adding a luxurious and high end feel to your handmade lampshades, we’ve also included a smart built-in protective plastic film, which is easy to remove once the lampshade is completed, for a pristine finish



Stick-It® Spanish Metallics

The most muted metallic in our range, the subtle and very effective matt opaque Spanish Metallic Stick It® is perfect for an understated lampshade inner to compliment a bold coloured or patterned outer covering.




Choosing your Stick It® Metallic Lampshade Material

The look and feel of your outer lampshade covering will dictate which of our Stick It® Metallic Range you’ll opt for, and expert lampshade maker Elizabeth Pegg, of Silkworms and Cottontails offers this advice:

I have noticed that if the outer lampshade fabric is a loose weave, the Stick It® Silver Emboss will show through, which isn’t always the desired effect. My tip is to always check that your fabric is compatible with the liner. Make sure the ‘light on’ effect is as the customer wants, as each liner will give a different glow. 

Find Elizabeth on:



Tucking Under the Fabric Margin

With their shiny surfaces and textures our Stick It® Metallic Range can respond differently to our Stick It® Standard Range, during the final stage of finishing your professional handmade lampshade.


Although we recommend using our Rolled Edge Tool for tucking in your fabric margin, our professional makers use a wide range of tools, which are showcased in our Tips and Tricks to Achieve a Professionally Tucked in Lampshade Edge blog post, along with plenty of advice that's relevant to working with metallic lampshade liners.


Notably, because of the high gloss finish on our Stick It® Mirror Finish, it can be prone to scratching during manufacture, therefore to eliminate this we have added a protective plastic film,

which can then be removed once the lampshade is made, for a pristine finish.


We love this simple, yet smart tip from Olivia Issac of Liv’s Lamps, bases in Melbourne, Australia for tucking under the fabric margin, whilst protecting the Stick It® Metallic at the same time!

I suggest being super careful when rolling edges- use a cut off of Standard Stick It® along the seam when tucking so you don't scratch the brushed metallic surface - it marks easily.

Find Olivia on:

Instagram  @livslamps 

Facebook @livslamps



Similarly, Uzo Zuzu of  Sundown at Pemberley, based in Maryland, USA offer this advice about using our Stick-It®- Mirror Finish:

I peel back the edges before rolling and tucking. However, I noticed the Rolled Edge Tool can scratch the mirror lining, so I use a plastic butter knife to do the tucking in.

Find Uzo on:





We love this Facebook Video, of Uzo sharing how she makes stunning Hexagon Metallic lampshades, using her plastic butter knife tip!




Closing a Metallic Lampshade Seam

Whilst our off the shelf Double Sided Adhesive Tapes are the professional solution to adhering and closing lampshade seams, again due to the density, texture and often smooth surfaces of our Stick It® Metallic Range, our professional makers have found alternative methods for ensure a permanent seam seal, using glue, weights and seam rollers!

 

Lampshade seams are a hot topic on our Facebook Lampshade Makers Forum and Emma Rockman of Rock, Paper, Scissors suggested the following to another professional maker on how to secure metallic lampshade seams:

Use glue and weights or magnets to hold the seam down. You could also put a thin strip of matching stick it down the seam

Find Emma on:

 


Keith Woodward of That Shady Guy, uses what he calls ‘roller action’ – a soft Seam Roller – to close Stick It® Metallic lampshade liner seams after gluing:

Place a scrap of something between the roller and liner so you don’t mark it, and keep an eye on the glue not squidging out all over the liner.

Find Keith on

Instagram @_thatshadyguy_



Elizabeth Pegg, of Silkworms and Cottontails shares her tips on closing the seams on Stick It® Metallic Emboss:

I like the texture of the embossed metallic, particularly the champagne, which has a pale beige colour and it gives a nice glow. I use a little dab of Bostik Superglue Gel before I close the seam.

Find Elizabeth on:





Complete the Metallic Look

Going for gold…or silver, bronze or champagne definitely adds a luxe and expensive look to your lampshades, but why not complete the look with matching lampshade rings?

 

Ellen Scargill of Hillview Soft Furnishings says:

Spray your frame spoke the same colour as the metallic lining – it looks so much better!

Find Ellen on:



Sarah Denton of @thesteelbobbin, also a curtain, blind and lampshade maker, has this advice:

Take the spacer (Lampshade Reducer Adapter) out of the frame and separately spray. When spraying use multiple coats, don’t go heavy and put lots on at once!

Find Sarah on:

 



Spray Painting Frames is the ideal solution if you want to make oversized metallic lampshades, or match to the silver, bronze, or champagne as our professional makers suggest and our Metallic Spray Paints in gold and silver, are perfect for this.



When making drum lampshades that are 20cm, 30cm or 40cm in diameter using our Gold Brushed Metallic Stick It® or our Spanish Gold Stick It®, we’ve already done the hard work for you with our range of Gold Lampshade Circular Ringsets, which perfectly suit the gold tones of these metallic liners.



Finishing touches

If you’re professional maker these tips below are essential for ensure your customer notices your beautiful bespoke metallic lampshade and uses it safely!

 

To ensure maximum impact, Poppy Venables of bypoppyuk.co.uk says:

Use a micro fibre cloth to bring out the shine of the metallic lining once you’ve completed your lampshade

Find Poppy on:

Instagram @bypoppyuk

Facebook @bypoppyuk



Long-time lampshade, curtain and blind maker, Louise Watney of www.louisewatney.co.uk offers this advice for professional maker who retail metallic lampshades: 

Use super glue for adding wattage stickers as they don’t stick easily to the Metallic Emboss Stick-It®

Find Louise on:

Instagram @louisewatney



And finally, this tip from Uzo of Sundown at Pemberley to share with your customers:

Low wattage bulbs reveal the lining colours better than very bright lights. I would stick to 40 Watts or lower, they really enhance the lining colour.

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