Every year at the North River Arts Festival (where this year they yarn bombed a bunch of trees and telephone poles) there is a silent auction fundraiser. A theme and/or object is assigned and local artists donate their time and talents to create an item for the auction with all proceeds going to the North River Arts Society.
Last year the theme was painted furniture. My mom painted and donated this awesome buffet:
They contacted her again regarding this year's theme: lampshades. The email also encouraged folks to invite any of your artsy/crafty friends to participate as well. Wouldn't you know it, she invited me. Go figure ☺.
I've been wanting to alter a lampshade for a while now so I jumped at the chance to get my feet wet. I picked up my shade, gathered (pinned) ideas and...waited until 2 days before it was "due" to get to work.
Typical me.
I thought I wanted to something with vintage book pages, old photographs and shabby chic junque but that's not at all the direction I ended up taking.
Here's the transformation...
Once I made the decision to rip off the fabric, painting, collaging, and adding handmade flowers were all off the table as decorative options.
It was looking a little ratty so...
When it was dry I brought it down to my studio and started experimenting with my favorite colors of ribbon.
Hmmm, I kind of liked it. Simple but interesting with a bit of a twist--ok, with a bunch of knots.
After some tweaking...
Oooh, baby ball fringe...
When I visited the Arts Festival on Saturday, of course I had to check out the Lampshade Silent Auction.
There were lots of fun creations on display.
My favorite was this one though, it was already bid up to $75!
Yes, that's the lampshade my mom donated. She collaged the shade with scrapbook paper and embellished with paper rosettes, faux pearl strands and glitter tape. Awesome job once again Bubbe!
Finally, here's my lampshade on display.
I was psyched to see that there were multiple--ok 2-- bids on it. The first one was from my mom (she had been at the Opening Gala the night before) but the second one was from a stranger for $40...yahoo! I have no idea what the final price was but I'm just so happy that it sold and that I was able to contribute to a wonderful cause.
Win-win.
Thanks for stopping by,
