MAKING LAMP SHADES

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 136, 5 March 1929, Page 17

MAKING LAMP SHADES

Making and decorating waxed parchment for use in the home is fascinating work that is also practical. Little wastepaper baskets, lamp shades, screens and shields for wall sconces are some of the useful and attractive articles that can be simply made, which add to the decoration of the home. Materials are inexpensive and the work needs no special qualifications other than an artistic eye. First of all buy some ordinary parchment paper. Then purchase a cheap' wastepaper basket or a wire lamp shade frame and cover it with the parchment ’ paper. Two or three rolls of ordinary: crepe paper should then be bought, and ; little, decorations cut out from it. One of the most effective decorations consists of a number of small circles about the size of a penny cut out of crepe paper of different colours. Next, the paper must be waxed or parchmentised. The whole article, including the paper decorations, must be eoated with transparent sealing wax of the light amber colour which has been dissolved in commercial alcohol. This solution is put on like paint. « The stick i of sealing-wav must be broken up into small pieces and covered with alcohol. A. small camel’s hair brush should be used

for applying this solption, which gives an air of transparency to the paper and improves immensely the appearance of the crepe paper decorations. i The edge of the article can then be finished off with a binding ot gold braid or any other suitable material; this gives a perfectly finished appearance which takes away the home-made air. A coating of rose-coloured sealing-wax or some other warm shade, applied to the inside of lamp shades or wall sconces, gives a rich, glowing light. There is no limit to the. number of designs which can be applied to these parchment articles, either by means of crepe paper or figures cut out of magazines and periodicals. Providing they are attractively coloured, the wax finish gives them the necessary artistic touch. Little shades of Japanese lanterns, studies of children in charming poses, and animals make excellent designs.—“ Christian Science Monitor.”

Polished copper articles such as stove orwnents, boxes, repo(is?e work, clocks, etc., which have become tarnished, can be restored to their original brilliancy by brushing the surface with a soft hair brush dipped in strong vinegar. The article should be washed thoroughly in water and dried with sawdust. Another method which obviates the use of vinegar employs in its place 1 soapy water in which some ordinary washing soda, i.e.', carbonate of soda, has been dissolved. — “English and Amateur Mechanics.”

A very fair paint for rough work may be made from two parts of iron oxide paint, and one part of -whiting, mixed to a paste with raw oil, and thinned with benzine and rosin oil, adding benzine driers. Dry ochre, Venetian red, silica, barytes. whiting, and iron oxide are all good and useful paint pigments, and are very cheap.