CANDLE – SHADES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18762, 16 July 1924, Page 13

CANDLE - SHADES.

Pretty candle-shades make the greatest difference to any room, and though |hey are rather a prohibitive price to buy in the shops, they are really quite easy to make at home.

There is no difficulty in getting the wire frames, for these can bo had in all shapes and sizes. Before covering them it is a good plan to bind them with ribbon so that the shade may be sewn on more firmly. Any bind of material can be pressed into service for the shades, from cretonne down to flimsy creations of lace and ribbon rosebuds. If yon have a little of your bedroom wallpaper left over, quite a good idea is to convert it into candleshades which will then match the scheme of the room most successfully. The seams may be pasted together, and finished with a line of coloured paint or else a narrow galon in gold, silver, or black. If you have any artistic tendencies, it is easy to paint or stencil paper candleshades. Make them of Japanese vellum, which needs two coats of transparent varnish on the cratsida and one or two on the inside to give it the necessary transparency. The design you want must be traced on to 'the shade with carbon paper. The carbon lines must be rubbed off before the painting, so outline them carefully first in Indian ink. If you axe to have a coloured background, be sare and make a smooth wash —applying it with a sponge is the best way of obtaining this. As the oil in the paper absorbs the colour to some extent, it is a good idea to use it a little deeper in shade than you actually want it to bo in the finished article. Instead of black paint use lamp black. For colour schemes, individual taste must be consulted —also the tones of the

room where the shades are to he. Black and white designs are always popular, and in these days of brilliant colouring, Japanese effects in reds, golds and black are sure of a welcome.

Remember that there is also an art in choosing your shades together with their sticks. A dainty affair of silk and embroidery would not look its best on a twisted oak candlestick, nor would a boldly coloured shade look less incongruous on a delicately moulded stick of brass or painted white wood.