(Be) // Half-Ass Crafts: Lamp Shade

I may be a creative person but I'm actually not that "crafty".  I tend to have great ideas and just jump right in without much planning.  In some mediums, this lack of planning does little to effect the quality of the outcome.  In others... I'm learning that planning is everything.  Crafting, home repairs, sewing, or construction in general all require plans, the proper supplies/tools, and research/knowledge as to what the hell you are doing. Otherwise, you end up with what I call "half-ass crafts". 

So we have this fantastic Mid-Century Arco lamp with a gold color acrylic dome shade that Brendan acquired from a friend.  In it's original state, it fit into a wooden floor piece that cradled the lamp and allowed it to suspended without touching the ground.  We never had the floor piece and have taken to using a hook in the ceiling and securing it to the wall.  It was in amazing condition until the day we moved into our current apartment when we dropped and broke the shade.  It cracked in a couple of different places, but with a little glue we were back in business. About two years later, I was cleaning and knocked it loose; breaking the shade yet again.  The existing cracks emerged and became noticeably worse while also adding a few more. It was beyond repair, so we took down the lamp.     

Trying to find a replacement shade has proven to be very difficult and would cost us a small fortune.  SO, I decided I was going to make "fixing up" the broken lamp shade my project yesterday.

I started by re-gluing all of the cracks.  To hide the newly glued cracks, I was going to decoupage it with some nice paper but decided to go with fabric instead (bad idea number #1- fabric on a round surface).  I went to the fabric store and bought a couple to feet of some fabric I thought would look good in our living room.  I then went on a hunt for Mod Podge (if I was "crafty", I would already own this).  Three stores later, I settled on a spray adhesive (bad idea number #2 - don't settle on your tools/get what you need.) I thought when I got home I would create some sort of pattern to follow, but Iwas hot and tired and just decided to wing it (bad idea number #3- self explanatory). 


Brendan came into the living room to find me trying to wrestle the fabric around the lamp shade quietly singing "I'm not crafty, I'm not your type...I'm not crafty, I'm not what you like"; a play on the Beastie Boys song but with a tone of pathetic self deprecation. He lovingly listened to me whine about how much I suck at things like this and got on the floor to offer me some help.  The two of us managed to get the fabric on and glued.  The end result:

 

Not BAD, but it certainly isn't anything I would say I am proud of.  I hope to do a better job in the future, but for now I will let this serve as a constant reminder that I could be "crafty" if I wanted to be.  I just need to have a PLAN, the proper tools/supplies, and enough "know how" to accomplish my goal. 


And unless you want to see glue globs, frayed fabric edges, fuzz, thread, and some random stands of my hair, I don't recommend looking on the inside.

Cheers to all you bloggin ladies who do it right the first time.  As for me, I will just focus on writing "full-ass" blogs about my"half-ass" crafts. :)

(Lov)e,

-k.