What an inspiration the Victorians were. Literature influencers include Hardy, Dickens, Eliot and the Bronte sisters. Inventors include, Bells telephone, Crappers toilet, Edisons electric lighting. AND, in the world of textiles the Victorian era gave us Morris.
William Morris is considered by many to be the most influential textile designers in history. His floral patterns were inspired by nature and influenced many Victorian interior designers. Morris’s timeless designs are still used today and still influence an array of both traditional and more contemporary textile designers and makers.
Including lampshade makers …
This is the story of a lampshade with a Victorian influence. Victorian lampshades like other Victorian soft furnishing were elaborate, flamboyant and full of frills, ruffles, gathers and pleats. An abundance of colour, texture and complex design. Making a professional Victorian lampshade takes patience and time. You’ll need to have an array of lampshade making techniques in your tool kit. Including how to creating a pattern from a lampshade frame, classic tailoring, understanding how tension affects gathering and pleating fabric, making bias trimmings, adding drop down trimmings and constructing a balloon lining on a complex frame structure.
Every Victorian styles lampshade I have made has been completely unique. This is whats intrigues me about each new project, whether commissioned or for private use. However I wanted to come up with a model that could be used in a workshop situation. So this is it … the Victorian influenced lampshade that has inspired my Victorian lampshade workshops.
Frames of 6 or 8 panels work best for Victorian lampshades. Panels alternate between a pattern matched tailored panel and a panel worked with embellished gathers or pleats. Both the tailored panels and embellishes panels have oodles of design possibilities. However once decided upon it’s the consistency that gives the overall design the professional WOW factor.
In this lampshade workshop sample the tailored section is a blue and cream machine embroidered fuchsia pattern from a Colfax and Fowler remnant I had. The background fabric is linen in a soft grey/green. Little Green do a paint almost the same shade called Pearl. As this was only a remnant I have had to pattern match the opposite panels. At a quick glance all the panels appear balanced. However only the opposites are truly pattern matched.
The embellished panels are pleated in a James Hare dupion silk which matches the linen almost perfectly. There is a box pleat in the centre of the panel and then an additional 4 pleats on each side. At this point some makers choose to cover the stitching with elaborate gimp trimmings. I have chosen to give a more subtle finish and made a bias trim in the silk. At a quick glance the eye is taken from the bias to the blue in the fuchsia flowers so the bias goes almost unnoticed.
A victorian lampshade would not be complete without a decent amount of trimming. The trim I used is vintage. Removed from a charity shop lampshade find. I wanted the frame for another project. The fabric was a cheap synthetic but the trim was quite cute so I stashed it away for repurposing. The pearls highlight the white in the embroidered flowers beautifully. And the beads catch the light perfectly when the shade is switched on.
And, we’re done. Now I need to find a lamp base that suits. So it’s up into the loft I go …
To be successful making a Victorian inspired lampshade I would highly recommend that a student has already attended one of my Classic Tailored lampshade making workshops before attempting a Victorian lampshade. This will give a basic background to the techniques of, wrapping a frame, creating a pattern from a frame, some of the dynamics of stretching fabric on the straight or bias, making a bias trim and a balloon lining. I would also recommend a second workshop in either Knife pleating, All gathers or Pleated/Gathered. This will give an opportunity not only to consolidate some of the very basic techniques but also to explore how fabric works, and doesn’t work, with simple gathers and or pleats before attempting something more challenging.
