Art Deco Hanji lamp ......

Last week one of my students came along to class with a lamp where the shade had been broken and wondered what we could do to make a new one for it. She wanted it to look Art Deco, black and white, not too big and something that threw out plenty of light, all of this using Hanji techniques.

There's nothing like a new challenge !!

ART DECO - 'It is an eclectic style that combines traditional craft motifs with Machine Age imagery and materials. The style is often characterized by rich colours, bold geometric shapes and lavish ornamentation ...... 'During its heyday, Art Deco represented luxury, glamour, exuberance and faith in social and technological progress.. - Wikipedia

This was never going to be a traditional Korean Hanji project but I was going to be able to use a lot of techniques that I'd recently learnt in Korea and I could also use Hanji paper .

After researching and pondering over photos of Art Deco designs for a few days I remembered that I'd just purchased some perspex sheeting in various thicknesses and thought this would be a good start rather than using cardboard which would block portions of light from the lamp on this small shade. I made a pattern of an uncomplicated shape and started cutting it out.

After ensuring that the shape fitted the frame well I glued it together with contact adhesive. I'd tried using instant glue but it didn't seem to work, but I'm sure there are probably better options than contact adhesive out there so I need to find them before tackling another project similar to this.

I then covered it both inside and out with a very fine white Hanji paper to give maximum output of light to the shade.

The corners were supported with triangular shapes and they were there to act as something the prongs that support the shade could sit on. I wasn't happy with the fact that they could move a bit so I made small U shaped guides out of plastic for the prongs to sit into and to prevent the shade from moving around.

Next step was to cut out the Art Deco design out of black paper, glued them on and finished it off with a few coats of varnish to protect the paper.

Art Deco Hanji lamp shade

Another successful project. I'd do a few things differently next time but overall I was pretty happy with the results.

Comments

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Online Hanji paper store, in English .....

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