PAINTED LAMPSHADES

Last week a lady brought an old lampshade into the shop and asked if I'd paint roses on it. And, since I had a couple lamps that I'd recently bought at an auction which had really UGLY shades, thought I'd find shade replacements for them and paint all 3 at the same time.

After finding 2 new shades at a local retail store, I gathered my supplies and sat down to paint.

 Using acrylics, barely thinned with water, I free handed  the base colors in rose shapes all the way around each shade.  The paint WILL bleed no matter what.  No worry, we'll just say this is part of the 'look' we are going for.

After the base colors are put on, let dry for.......saaaay........15 minutes.  Then, with a liner brush, use a darker color to outline the design.  I've used a burgundy.  Dip a liner brush into water and pull out some of the dark color, making it into an inky consistency. 

 Then, loosely line all of the leaves and roses.  Add dots to the centers of the roses to look like pollen.  LOOK!!!  I'm painting so fast, my hand is a blur.

Then add some curls here and there to fill in the empty areas.

 And, here are the finished products.  All the patterns are free handed on, so each side is different.  No carbon copies here.

    I hope my customer is pleased.              What do you think???

                    And, those auction lamps now have new shades too.