Turned lamp base with wood and paper shade

For my entry in the Northern Woods show this year, I wanted to build on my segmented turning experience while branching out and taking on some new design and construction challenges. I also wanted to make an item that was completely useful vs. largely decorative. One of my sisters has been asking for a pair of lamps, so I started thinking about making a lamp base and a shade.

I didn’t fully design the shade before beginning; I wanted a truncated cone of a defined size, with visible framework. The top and bottom hoops are 1/16” cherry strips, laminated around a MDF form. I then cut the vertical ribs to fit epoxied them in place. Next, the arms were machined with band saw, router table + template and oscillating belt sander. They are expoxied to the ribs, but are just a tight fit on the central washer; no adhesive. The result is quite stiff and strong. Finish is two coats of blond shellac and a coat of wax.

Around the time I assembled the hoops to the ribs, I realized I had no idea how I was going to add panels for light diffusion. I ended up getting some thin styrene with PSA on one side to back the hand-laid Thai paper I chose. The styrene folds pretty cleanly, and I was able to get tight corners and tabs to glue to the ribs. The faces of the panels are glued directly to the hoops. I then added 1/32” thick cherry on the backs of the hoops to trim out and finish off the edges. I just trimmed the styrene flush with the ribs.

The base is a straight-forward segmented form in cherry. I didn’t even need to hollow it :). The finial is also turned from cherry.

Overall, I am very happy with the result.