DIY lampshade

I have this awful habit of buying great vintage lamp bases and putting them in a closet because I can’t find any decent lampshades. I needed a quick project to work on with jean and I was looking at a few DIY projects about heating/shrinking plastic bags to make various objects. most of the items happen to be bags for some reason. I have too many purses already, and I’m not going to add to the collection unless it’s another ultra soft leather handbag. I knew I wanted to try melting some plastic bags and I also need some lampshades, you’ve got chocolate on my peanut butter, etc.

all you need for this project is plastic bags (use colorful bags if you want to avoid a dull greyish result), wax paper, something to fasten the lampshade together (glue, staples, or thread) and an iron. I live in squalor and don’t own an iron so I used a hot pan. having an iron will give you an advantage, many f-bombs were dropped during the reheating of my pan, jean can attest for this.

put wax paper down on a hard surface that can stand some considerable heat, layer a few plastic bags on top, and cover with another sheet of wax paper. according to this instructable you need to heat the bags up to about 110°F or 7/10 on their iron setting. the result is a thin but sturdy sheet of plastic. I burnt my bags so there are holes in the resulting plastic, but jean tried to make me feel better by telling me that a lampshade with some holes in it would be pretty sweet. turns out she’s right.

melted plastic bags

the lamp I decided to use for this project is quite small so I was able to simply staple the plastic together to form a cylander. the resulting lampshade was a bit bland so I glued a layer of pink lace over it. you could even hang some crystals from the bottom if you’d like, but I think I’m happy with my lamp shade just as it is.