Tutorial: 1:6 Scale Table Lamp

Requirements:
3mm dowel (or a bamboo skewer)
Something to use as a base (I used an upside down large flower bead)
Beads (size of your choice with 3mm hole)
A cardboard toilet roll inner
Scrap-booking card (not paper)
Elastic bands (optional)
Flame-less tea light
Foam-core scrap
PVC glue
Trims (ribbon and/or braid)

I wanted to make some lamps to go either side of my kidney shaped dressing table. At first I tried using wire with some beads I had in my stash to create a lamp base, without a great deal of success I might add, they ended up leaning like the Tower of Pisa. So I changed my thinking and began with something a little more stable . . . some 3mm dowel which I had previously purchased from Riot Art.

Then I found some hard plastic flowers in my odds and ends box, which were off a set of earrings from the Op-Shop. They only had a small hole, so  I asked hubby to drill it larger to insert the dowel.

Now I needed beads with holes large enough to take the dowel, so I ordered fifty 6x8mm brass spacers and ten 14x10mm faceted glass rondelles online from the Australian based Over the Rainbow as I knew I would receive them quickly.

Prior to this, I had purchased a set of 6 flame-less tea lights (and batteries) from Ikea, one of which you can see in the above photo. I find these are handy to have for various projects, another of which I have already shown you when I made my fireplace.

To make the lamp shade, I used the toilet roll inner to wrap a 13.75 x 7cm piece of scrap-booking card the outside, glued the seam and held it in place with elastic bands until it tried.

Then I selected some pink all purpose craft ribbon to match the base and some gold Ric Rac which would pick up the gold spacers, to trim the shade top and bottom.

This is quite fiddly and I didn't want glue everywhere, so I tipped a small amount of glue into a small bowl and used a toothpick to spread the glue where it was required . . . no drips and no mess!

After assembling the beads on the dowel, I cut two small a round pieces of foam-core, the same size as the tea light (just trace around the light), glued them together and made a small hole in the centre. This becomes a platform to sit the tea light on.

You could use a single piece of thicker foam-core if you have it, but I only had a thin piece of scrap.

I also needed to shave a little off the circle to fit it securely in the lampshade, so I did this a tiny bit at a time, checking after each shave until it fitted perfectly.

After trimming the dowel with my side cutters, I gently eased the dowel with the foam-core platform attached inside the lampshade about 1cm from the bottom, making sure it was secure with glue. I then switched the tea light on before placing it onto the foam-core platform . . . and there you have a working lamp. You can take the tea light out to switch off the lamp when you don't want it shining.

Incidentally, my collection of vintage micro miniature perfume bottles turned out to perfect 1:6 scale and came in handy for this display . . . the round one is 3.5ml Karl Lagerfeld Chloe Au De Toilette and the square one is 1.5ml Chanel No5.

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial, I certainly enjoyed making the lamps. :)

Have a great weekend everyone! 

Big hugs,

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