I always seem to see so many beautiful party lights when I shop at Target. The prices are good too, but I just don't have a nice way to get power to them, so I bought some solar powered ones. Of course now I want to make the little shades for them. I found a project for making them with mica, but that is just too $$$$ I need to make 60 shades. I'm thinking of using metal screen, wire and beads. Does anyone have or know of any plans for this? I just need to have a good way to make the basic shade.
Hey Anna, I feel the same way about the high price of decorative party lights. I like your idea using wire mesh and beads, it sounds very pretty. This is a photo that I grabbed off the web a long while back and stuck into a photo file I call "inspiration" :-D I haven't done this yet . . . but . . . one o' these days . . . oh yeah, one o' these days.
Oooh those are lovely! I think I am going to use screen and aluminum cans...I might try to cut it into flower shapes. I saw some I really liked : I was thinking of using soda can aluminum for the outer part and then screen for the inner.... I could have bought these the other day but I just didn't have a good way of getting power to them...
I don't have a picture of it, but I saw a very neat idea where people painted small baby food type jars. They put a hole in the top for the light to come thru, and then painted the jars with a see-thru type paint. Some jars were solid, others were decorated with many themes (I liked the stained glass looking ones). Maybe this will spur you on to some ideas...?
That is a good idea too! I just love stained glass! Maybe they used gallery glass for the paint? I think I'll have to do some of those next! I guess now I need to find the right thing for the outer petals....I am thinking aluminum cans...cut open with flower shapes cut out. Then I can spray them with paint. If I could find some lightweight copper it would be even nicer...I wouldn't even have to paint it.
I saw a fellow at a fair one time who was making waterfalls and butterflies out of very thin sheets of copper. He used a soldering gun and made designs in the copper by just scoring it with a sort of chisel and hammer - not cutting through the copper. He said you could find it at Home Depot, but I never have. They were stunning and would be really easy to work with for your shades. Otherwise, check out Jurgens Inc for lacquer glass stains. It's what I use to paint my glass sculptures and it stays transparent. They work beautifully.
Or teeny-tiny flowerpots from the craft store, could make a nice "theme" used with the flowerpot windchimes and such that I see oh-so-clever people post here.
Thanks Mary and kjalady! Now I have lots of ideas to try. The flower pots are a cute idea! I've looked for copper sheet too. The only one I can ever find has tar on the back...blech. I needed it for electroforming my beads. I also wanted some to experiment with....I love copper! I've made a flower pattern and started cutting out "flowers" from aluminum cans. This weekend I will buy some metal screen. I made a pattern for the screen that is different from the aluminum. I need to find some rubber grommets and a large hole punch. I need the lights to arrive before I do that though. I am going to spray the aluminum flowers a deep pink or purple. I will spray the screen gold unless I can find some that color.
Thank you! I promise to post pics if they come out. I need to find a nice color of spray paint for the petals. Not sure if I should use a matte or metallic....
I think I'd go with metallic paint Anna as you can get some lovely colours nowadays. The 'kingfisher blue' and the 'pillar box' red over here are amazing but I think I like the gold, silver, bronze and copper ones best of all.
I am going to use metal screen for the inner petals and they will definitely be a gold or copper to catch the light. I was looking on the spray paint site and saw they have a lot of neat finishes, pearl, iridescent, and glitter. It will be hard to choose. I do like that pillar box red. It might have the added benefit of attracting the hummingbirds. The feeder is nearby.....
OK...I thought I'd show pictures of what I've done in case anyone else is interested.... I made 2 flower petal patterns-slightly different. I cut the outer petals out of an aluminum can..the inner petals out of screen. I sprayed the screen petals with metallic gold and the outer petals with a claret wine satin. I've glued them together....I used gorilla glue here, but I won't be using it on the others...probably a 2 part expoxy instead. I plant to put a hole in the center and then attach rubber grommits. This will enable them to slip over the lights.
Yes, they will look much better then...right now they do seem to look like aluminum can with screen attached. The glue was kind of nasty...I don't want one that will show...I might try the clear silcone since that worked so well for my other projects....
