Gotta light?

Or gotta lamp or two?  A while back my friend Lesley from The Homeless Finch updated one of her treasures, Sylva, in the most spectacular fashion.  I immediately decided I had to be a copy cat and try that too.  Guess what?  I had an owl much like her Sylva that I did not like in her new white glory.  I also had a lamp I thought I'd try to update.  Both got the beautiful silver spray job, then I had one of  my short helpers haul them up for a bit of glaze.  There was an unfortunate incident in the process and the owl didn't make it.  These things happen so I just had the lamp to work with.  Here it is silvered up.

I love it now in it's fresh new color.  I also love how the glaze makes all those flutes and the beading really pop out there.  Thank you Lesley for sharing such a wonderful idea!!!  Now, of course it needed a new shade.  What to do, what to do?  I thought I might just go with something in burlap, but I ended up with a plain heirloom white shade.  I have coveted the Anthropologie shades for a long time.  All of them.  They're amazing.  I'm just not willing to pop for their full price though.  So I tried to do a knock off.  Here is what I came up with.

I used some ultra fine pigment pens and just tried to draw the flowers similar to the lampshade I loved.

The original lampshades have embroidered butterflys but I just chose to colorize mine with some paint markers.  This requires a pretty light touch as they like to "bleed" quickly. 

This is just what my new silver base needed don't you think?  Now, of course I had more than one lamp that I had picked up to restyle.  Here is the other lamp.

I have not repainted the base like I thought I might when I found it.  It has a neat patina with both a silver and gold mix on it.  What do you think, leave it alone, or slap some paint on her?  Well, in the meantime I also reworked her new shade with a little help from The Graphics Fairy. 

To get the spacing on these correct I actually printed off the free graphic and taped it inside.  With the lamp on I traced the outlines of the birds and branch, then pulled it off the lamp and free handed in the details.  Not perfect, but heh, I'm ok with how it turned out. 

I have to say these were fun, really quick little projects.  Lesley continually inspires me to run around gathering materials and recreate something she has come up with.  I just love that about her!
If you go to visit her now she is working on a Sweet Valentine's Day series of projects. Most of which are now in my que to do!

"http://thehomelessfinch.blogspot.com/search/label/TheSweetestDaysSeries/"

You just never know when someone will inspire you to try something new!
Have a great weekend!
Deb
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