More Cleaning......

Yesterday I did more cleaning out and I found a lamp that I put together years ago. I thought that you might be interested in making something similar for a mini display.

It is a very simple thing to put together, but it is very nice to put a couple of minis on that you want to show off.

Here you see the basic lamp and parts for the shade. It was a "Christmas candle" type of lamp that I found at a garage sale. This one was pretty fancy because it came with the shade. I added a wooden plaque from the craft store. I had to sand, stain and finish it. Then I simply glued the candlestick to one corner.

When I was cleaning out, I found it and decided it needed a new shade. I carefully removed the paper form from the old shade. I traced around it onto card stock. Then with spray glue, I fastened the fabric of Tessie's choice to the new card stock form. I left about a half inch of excess fabric all around. I clipped the top curve and made notches in the bottom curve.

Then I ran glue around the edge of the top and wrapped the smaller ring with the paper shade. I glued the fabric around the frame and back onto the inside of the shade. Then I did the same with the bottom. I lined the seam up as I went and glued that also.

Since Tessie had to have black with spider webs, I did line the inside. If you did it with something lighter,you could probably skip that step.

Now for something to display on the plaque. I decided that Zar could use a breakfast tray for his bed.

Basically all it took was some scrap wood, some scrap needlepoint canvas, 1" wide and some mini trim. Oh and some stain or paint for the top. I used some "Golden Pecan" by Min wax.

I cut a top from 3/32" bass wood. It measured 2" X1 1/2". I rounded the corners. Then I wrapped a piece of 1" wide canvas around the top, gluing as I went. I overlapped on one side by about two mesh of the canvas. I then marked and cut an arch in the long sides. I didn't cut the short sides.

I wanted a magazine holder on either end. I cut a couple of pieces of bass that were the depth of the table and 1/4" wide. I rounded two of the corners on each one. I cut a piece of canvas long enough to go around the rounded side plus extra on each side to glue to the legs of the tray.

Here you can see how the bottom of the magazine holders were attached. The bottom is glued to the side and the sides are glued to fit over the first piece of canvas and trimmed even.

I dug through my stash and found a perfect braid to trim. you could use anything that you had for this. You could even braid your own with unraveled canvas if you wanted it to match exactly.

Tessie was standing by when I finished the tray. She plonked a hamburger and a cool drink on it and parked herself on the refinished lamp....."My lamp! My tray!"she proclaimed!

I am not going to give her an argument. She had her "Big Book of Evil Doings" stashed in the side pocket of the tray.

I will make another one for Zar. It didn't take that long and it will be easier than trying to fight Tessie for possession of the first one.

Back to work. See you tomorrow.