How to Make a Spinning Lamp Shade Design

Let your imagination spin on a lampshade.

Creating your own spinning lamp shade design lets you create a custom light display for your child, your favorite photos or for a favorite piece of artwork. Rotating lamps might have reached their popularity in the 1950s, but the craft is still alive today. Creating your own custom spinning lamp shade lets you express your artistic side in a useful object that could very well become a treasured family keepsake.

Things You'll Need

• Spinning lamp and lampshade template
• Craft paper
• Craft knife
• Cutting mat
• Artwork, photograph or print

Instructions

Create the Lampshade

1. Remove the plastic sheet with the existing lampshade design from the lampshade. Pay close attention to how the cylindrical template is joined together at the edges. Detach the edges and flatten the template onto a piece of craft paper.

2. Trace the template onto the craft paper, being sure to detail any notches or slits that were used in joining the template into its cylindrical shape.

3. Cut out the tracing with a craft knife on a cutting mat so that the result is a stencil the exact size of the lampshade insert.

4. Place the stencil over various pieces of arwork or photographs until you have found a pleasing combination.

5. Take your chosen design pieces to a professional copy store and have them copied in full color onto a transparency.

6. Using the stencil, cut the transparency to the correct size and shape of the lampshade insert. Recreate the notches and slits needed to attach the edges of the insert together. Attach the edges to form the cylinder shape, and place the new lampshade insert inside the lampshade.

Tips & Warnings

• If you decide to use black and white images, still have them copied onto the transparency in color. It will bring out shades of gray that a black and white photocopy will not.

References

• Craft Jenny: Project Idea - Replacing Images in a Revolving Lamp
• TV Lamps: Motion Lamps