Fall Leaf Lampshade

Hello everyone! I'm mr. no talent and this is my first "art" involved project. So I'm pretty sure that this lamp could have been something much more beautiful but it's something I made so I'm still a bit proud :)

It's a decorative lampshade made out of completely raw and natural materials.

This is also a birthday gift for my gf. Much romance.

I found this beautiful log while I was camping a few weeks ago. It'd been used as a home by an ant colony, I guess. But they were all gone by the time I get there, so I picked it up and brought it home.

Interior part was attached the exterior with a few links so It wasn't hard to remove it.

In order to keep the wood healthy and have a better, darker and rafined look, I used linseed oil.

I must say, drying process was a lot longer than I expected(around 3 weks and It still smelled oil a lot) I guess there are other ways to oil a wood, linseed is the best, they say but I'm pretty sure for this kind of projects, any oil for wood will do the job.

After three weeks I couldn't wait any longer and sprayed the varnish as a three layer all around the log. Of course it stoped smelling and kept beautfiul look.

I was quite lucky with the log. I'm not sure how those things called in english(the one I used for cable) but If I was unable to use it for cable, I would drill the log myself which would look much worse than this.

To put interior part on top of the log, I drilled 4 small holes and used silicone wax and some kind of cord as seen on the picture. Those small two holes in the middle are for screwing the top.

So, the interior part of the lamp is almost done. I changed the wiring and the bulbs later on for a better light. Because these were really low w. bulbs and I didn't like the gray cord around them.

I used photoshop to determine how big the lampshade should be for this log. So I went to a local store with exact dimensions for the frame. Then I painted it to yellow and also warnished for a better look.

I used an old curtain fabric for covering. Using double sided tape is really a good idea as shown all the lampshade making instructions on web. I also painted fabric to yellow but I forgat to take photo :)

Without her knowing why, we went to urban park with my gf, to collect leaves. I was expecting sycamore leaves but we failed to find even one. I was very suprised with that. I thought they'd be everywhere and specially in urban park :D So we collected whatever we could find.

To keep dried leaves as they are, I looked it up on the internet and came up with a solution. It was glycerine. It keeps leaves soft and vivid. There are different methods to use glycerine, I guess it also depends which kind of leaf you're using. But in the end, with minor color changes, I managed to achieve what I wanted.

So, when finally everything's ready, I used wood glue for leaves. It was really hard to keep all the parts of a leaf attached to the fabric. When it combined with my lack of talent, I almost gave up and though about buying a book instead, I'm glad I didn't :)

I also used wood glue to attach that part for cable for good. You see it as it's drying, It looked pretty cool like that :p

In the end, I took the switch out of box and replaced it somewhere in the cable, which is more functional. Also I used copper cords so they won't look bad.

And finally when everything is done, I also used spray varnish for leaves and covering which gave it a better look.

I might as well have used more leaves or more beautiful leaves for a better look but I'm not sure I could have handled that :D

I think the final product is satisfying.

You can ask anything about the processes, I'd be more than happy to give more details.

I hope you like it as well.

Take care!