Beaming Book Bauble Lamp Shade

I wanted a way to reuse the contents of old books that featured beautiful typesetting and that would have been thrown away otherwise.

The layered pages of script give an interesting effect when lit from within and used as a lamp shade.

A warm white LED bulb in the Beaming Book Bauble results in a homey, comfy atmosphere.

You'll need:

• Most importantly: old, unused book pages that have an interesting look
• Inflatable balloon to give the lamp shade some structure while under construction
• Wallpaper paste & a paintbrush
• A cardboard box or another way to keep the inflated balloon stationary while working on it
• A small table lamp that will go into the lamp shade

Of course, the more interesting the used book pages are, the more interesting the finished lamp will be. I used old books written in "Fraktur", which is no longer used, but has a unique look to it. If the page has illustrations or images that might also look good.

1. Prepare the wallpaper paste according to the instructions. The weakest concentration will work just fine.
2. Make sure to cover your work surface, wallpaper paste gets everywhere
3. Inflate the balloon to the desired size of your lamp shade, make sure it is high enough so that your table lamp fits under it
4. Attach the balloon, so that it can be worked on and doesn't move too much. We clamped the tied end into a cardboard box, which worked alright
5. Retrieve the individual book pages and make some cuts into the sides, so that they can wrap around the round shape of the balloon easier
6. Cover the pages with wallpaper paste and stick them on the balloon, overlapping each other slightly. Use the brush with some additional wallpaper paste to smooth everything out.
7. Try to have a somewhat straight bottom to the lamp shade so that it will stand up fairly straight at the end

Make sure to not use too many pages and to not create a thick layer of pages! The thicker the layer of pages is, the less light comes through the lamp shade, which make it look dull. In fact, two layers are enough and also provide enough stability. Less really is more here!

• Let the lamp shade rest until it is fully dry and the wallpaper paste has completely hardened
• Remove from the mount and pop the balloon, it should come out quite easy if everything is really dry
• Make sure the lamp shade sits fairly straight, trim the edges until it looks good

Place the lamp shade over your table lamp.

We used an LED bulb with low wattage, which does not produce any significant heat (clearly important when dealing with paper lamp shades). A warm white bulb worked well.

Find a good place for the lamp and wait until it's dark out. That's when the lamp really shines!