It's time to shift gears in preparation for the steampunk festival in June, so today I will share my recent project entitled "Nevermore".
Current Project - A Little Bit of Edgar Allan Poe
Making a steampunk lamp with fabric is not an easy task. Most steampunk artifacts are metal so this one took some serious creativity. I found some amazing American Raven appliques and used them as the inspiration for the lamp.
The Making Process
Imagine me jumping up and down with glee when I found this lamp base, just sitting there on Ebay! The claw, clutching a glass orb. What could be better for my "Nevermore" creation? Nothing. Nothing could have been better. I shined it up, had it rewired and picked out a frame.
For this lamp, I decided to go with a Cameo frame that I had already made into a shade that I didn't like. I tore off everything but the white liner, and started the design process. You can see here a few designs that I decided against.
There was quite a bit of material left over form a previous lamp I made from a gorgeous blood-red silk Indian Sari. I wanted this shade to be as red and black as I could possibly make it. On my last trip to Paris, I bought some amazing black silk devore (burn-out velvet) that was perfect for this creation. Given the "bird" motif, I decided to stay off of the beading ledge and instead trim the shade with real feathers--I even put some on the appliques! I had some very cool brass wings, some tiny locks and keys and other little steampunk goodies to sew onto the shade. I ended up using a black antique lace doily (which I begrudgingly cut in half), and some dotted silk mesh.
Dax felt it was important that I pulled the puckers out of the lining, so here she is supervising my work. She cracks me up! I was very lucky to have my phone sitting right next to me so I could capture this insane moment.
The Finished Lamp
Here's a few shots of the finished lamp. Looking pretty!
More angles. Woot!
Have a great week!
Happy #NeedleworkMonday, everyone!
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