Sharon Golding Designs

 It has long been my desire to make a lampshade for a lamp that was gifted to me and I have at last accomplished this. With no real idea of how to go about it, I ordered some lampshade backing which is stiff kind of polythene stuff on which to mount your fabric. The fabric was an easy choice as I have mountains of the stuff from my sewing obsession period!  Having chosen a pretty blue-ish country pattern, I set about making templates of the wire sections to be covered. I used stiff card and simply pressed it against a section of the wire skeleton shade.  As there are two distinct sizes on my shade, I had to make two templates. Here are the two completed templates.  I used these to draw around to make both the fabric sections and also the backing mounts.  After drawing four of each template on to my backing mounts and four of each on to the fabric, I cut out the sections.  I think cut out the pieces. The polythene backing came with a sticky side so I was abl...

 Hello again, So many people have told me that they can’t paint and they wish they could.  My answer is Yes you can paint you just need to start.  So I’ve decided to show all you beginners and doubters how to do it.  It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3.... 3 paints, 3 brushes and 3 steps.  Just follow my lead. For the purpose of this demonstration I will use acrylic paints, but I will be using them like oils.  That is virtually straight from the tube with minimum water.  It’s easier using acrylics because you only need water to mix and they dry quicker than oils (sometimes too quickly!). To prepare the basics you will need are:- 3 paints:  Ultramarine Blue; Alizarin Crimson and Raw Sienna   (We will also be using Titanium White And  our Hero colour, Cadmium Yellow - use sparingly, this is the colour that will give our painting oomph!) 3 brushes: Large, Medium and small 3 steps: Draw; Block in; Refine. Two jars of water... one for mixing and one for ...