Podgy Pigeon: The Life of a Creator of Beautiful Lampshades

Guest Blogger #631, Entry #1505, August 23, 2012

I’m always intrigued by artisans who have taken their passion and turned it into a business! The other day I posted an article on making your own lampshade. On Twitter I had a retweet from Podgy Pigeon’s Harriet Walsh saying she creates lampshades as well! I went to the Podgy Pigeon on Etsy page and was thrilled with her beautiful lampshades. I asked her to share her story with Stagetecture readers on how she got started! —– 

It all started when, as a very excited 23 year old, I moved into my first house with my boyfriend. A small detached cottage in Devon, with an interesting choice of carpet, but it was home, my home, and I wanted to put my mark on it. Tom and I had decided when we moved in that as far as possible, we were going to buy second hand or vintage furniture. Essentially, we didn’t want our home to be a clone of the homeware department in Tesco.

Relocating without a job to go to meant I had a lot of time in-between job hunts to search out the perfect little things to make our house a home. Then, I hit a stumbling block. Our lounge has a lot of ceiling lighting, so lampshades were going to be in order. However I didn’t want those paper balls that rip and get dusty so easily, and I resented going to Sainsburys and buying dull cream shades.

Here I must confess something: I have what may be classed as a slight obsession with ceilings. They are, in my mind, an incredibly underutilised space.  All that cream plaster just crying out for a bit of love, colour and interest. I started to research lampshades and found very slim pickings when it came to something a bit different! It was then I decided to have a go myself at making my lounge that bit brighter (anything to take away from the aforementioned ‘interesting’ carpet!)

The range of fabrics available now means that whatever you want you can pretty much have. There are a few restrictions to bear in mind if you do fancy having a go yourself: Upholstery fabric is just a no, it’s far too heavy and won’t let any light through! Embroidered fabrics are difficult to work with and the finished product will often look messy, often with frayed edges sticking out. Your best bet is light cottons silks and linens, natural fibres essentially, anything with too much manmade fibre won’t stick as well to your backing paper and while not impossible, will again give a less satisfactory end result. I work with a gorgeous Japanese range of fabrics called Echino, the designs and use of colours drew me in instantly. They were, and still are, like no other fabric I’ve seen!

I think what makes me so excited about lampshades is that they are traditionally considered functional and very dull, however with one shade you can transform an otherwise drab room to something quirky and individual. When one of my customers described her lampshade as ‘like a piece of hanging artwork’ I don’t think I’ve ever felt such a sense of accomplishment.

Making and creating as much as possible for my new home has been a really interesting process and as a result I have been fortunate enough to be able to sell my lampshades to others through Podgy Pigeon, which you can find on Facebook, Twitter and buy from Etsy. I would encourage anyone who is looking for something a bit different to have a go yourself as you are able to make exactly what you want for a fraction of the cost. Of course, if you don’t fancy it, I’d be more than happy to do it on your behalf!

Harriet Walsh is the owner of Podgy Pigeon creative lighting, find her on Facebook and Twitter. Examples of her work can also be seen for sale on Etsy.

For more home decor ideas on Stagetecture, click here.