Veneer for a lamp shade. Project complete. Pics.

[HoosierBuddy]

This project was a test to see if 1/16 maple veneer would be translucent enough to make a good lampshade. I have to say the answer is “not really”...but I still ended up with a useful lamp. The bulb is a 17w LED, so the shade doesn’t get hot. I don’t think an incandescent bulb would work for this lamp. All the wood is hard maple.

Phil

 

[rlitman]

1/16" is on the thick side. Have you tried sanding it down a bit?
The lamp looks great, but yeah, a 17W LED is a lot of light for such a small lamp.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

Yes, I sanded it down as much as I felt I could get away with.

I like the way the lamp turned out....just when I had it pictured in my mind...I was hoping the light would really come through the wood more than it actually does.

Part of it is the design of the LED which aims most of the light up.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YWJ2WM9/?tag=atomicindus08-20


Phil

 

[fourbyford]

Could you get a vintage style led that would spread the light more evenly?
(Edison style)

 

[fourbyford]

BTW, the lamp is awesome ! Nice job!!!

 

[paulsomlo]

I used handmade paper, transmits light very well, can be a bit fragile, but easy to work with.

 

[lardy1]

The lamp is beautiful. Very nice work.

Maybe you could tone down the lumens and use it for an accent light or a night light. I'd be very proud to display that if I were you.

 

[slowtwitch73]

You need to get some spray mount adhesive and mount the wood to a piece of glass (old printer/scanners can be good donors), and sand away with a long flat piece of wood as a sanding block. Run some tape on edges of glass to keep paper from hitting glass and act as a guide for thickness. The spray mount should let go easy enough.. warm it up a bit if not.

 

[Jayman17]

Another option if you're not thrilled with the maple would be to replace them with some mica pieces. This was used often on arts and crafts style lamps. I think it would look better than the maple and still compliment the style of your lamp. Nice lamp though...

Jay

 

[slowtwitch73]

https://store.hiromipaper.com/collections/paperwood

Or just buy some nice stuff..

 

[HoosierBuddy]

https://store.hiromipaper.com/collections/paperwood

Or just buy some nice stuff..

When it says "1 Ply" what does that translate to as far as thickness?

Phil

 

[slowtwitch73]

I think 0.0125 give or take.

 

[theoldwizard1]

I really like the base !

 

[southalabama]

Lamp looks cool

Perforations in the shade. Think punched tin look.

 

[PugetDude]

Nice job on the lamp. I have a friend who makes wooden lamp shades, he uses old-growth pine root burls because they are more translucent due to the high resin content. He gets most of his wood on the Oregon Coast.

 

[bugnut]

What an awesome lamp, just beautiful. Might you have room for 2 candelabra style led bulbs?

as an aside I once again thank the folks of GJ as I learned of paperwood....

 

[EdT]

As an experiment, you could try oiling the wood with some BLO or watco oil. I think that would make it more translucent and it would strengthen it a little bit. Certainly something to try on a piece of scrap first. As suggested above, you could glue it down to a piece of glass or plastic and sand it thinner on a light table, but leave it on the transparent substrate for support.