This is Dorothy - and she is a caravan. But not an ordinary caravan (the picture below might give it away slightly, since most ordinary caravans have the tow bar at the front).



She belongs to my lovely friends Rob and Andy and when they got her she was a bit past her prime. Like all ladies she needed a bit of a spa treatment.

So they recovered her seats and painted her walls (originally she would have been cream inside).

She has a neat little folding kitchen.


And she sleeps 4 people.

The table drops down to make a double bed.

Vigorously use the crayon and the stencil to create a pattern. Put the stencil under the map and rub.

The picture below shows the sort of effect you get. You can make out the stencil pattern in the bottom right hand side of the map.


At this point I should tell you that the map above is not I used for these blue lampshades. In fact, for these lampshades, I used a white wax crayon and a different stencil. But you get the idea. (you can't see the wax with the white).



Then I use ink - in this case I was going for a vivid blue so I used Brusho inks.


Sprinkle the ink on and then spritz with water.

You want to be generous with the ink powder but not so much that you completely obliterate the map.

Here is the effect you are after and you can see the stencilling beneath.




You need to fix the ink. I use a spray fixative, in this case something I had bought from Hobbycraft.

I also had help! I was doing this in the garden on a lovely hot summers day.


Back to the map.



I buy my lampshade components from Needcraft (otherwise known as Dannells). You can buy complete kits if you are a beginner buy I now buy the individual component parts.

I chose the size of panel I wanted from my stock. This was not a particularly big map but large enough for two panels to turn into oval lampshades.

Then I selected embellishments. I have a number of different 'styles' of map lampshades - some are very heavily stitched but these I wanted to keep relatively simple.

I chose images from an old copy of 'Diary of an Edwardian Woman'. I have about 3 copies of this - I collect them from charity shops, snatching them up when I see them. The images are perfect for this sort of work and I really like the paper this book was printed on - it has a real 'watercolour paper' feel to it.


For these lampshades I selected bird related images, though with a couple of plants to add a bit of balance and interest.

I stick the paper onto the map, thinking about the construction of the final lampshade, and then stitch, in this case with a contrasting red thread. One thing to add is that I do iron the maps to press out creases and crumples. You want the paper as flat as possible when you construct the lampshade.

And finally, I assemble the lampshade.

As I mentioned above, I have done a similar tutorial on making lampshades before - and that included a video of how to actually assemble the shade. Pop over to this blog post to see the video and a slightly different take on map lampshades. 

Finally, why not have a go yourself.

Thanks for reading.

We were mooching around in search of sustenance when we came across this amazing building - Feskekörka.

A bit of history - this was originally the harbour side fish auction house and was architect designed with very distinctive arch windows (it looks a bit like a church) and internally an open structure without partitions and columns. 

Over time, the fish auction moved and the building has become a fish mongers and houses two fish restaurants. 


And various monsters from the deep were available to purchase.







We opted to have lunch in one of the two fish restaurants in the galleries at each end of the market. We went to Restaurang Gabriel. 




The other highlight of Gothenburg (and indeed the whole holiday) was the achingly cool scandi interiors.  We found this shop and took photos and dreamed of taking that tan sofa in the second photograph home.







A lovely day trip and a charming city.

Do you ever look at a photograph and feel completely inspired by the colours?

And then do you walk down the paint aisles at major DIY retailers and either feel completely overwhelmed or disillusioned?

Yes - me too.

But a little while ago, I think it was on Julie Fei Fan Balzer's blog, I discovered that there are apps out there that help you analyse the colours in photographs.

So I had a little play.

First of all, I used https://palettegenerator.com/ 


This first one was generated from an acrylic painting.

That feels about right, but I was surprised by the next one, generated from a photo I took in a flower shop in Malmo.


I thought there would be more pink and green - these are the colours that I 'see' when I look at the source photograph.

So I homed in on a smaller, brighter section of the photograph and tried a different palette generator. This one is https://www.canva.com/color-palette/ 



I did this twice, using two slightly different areas of the source photograph.

Again there is 'brick red' where I only see pink but I feel more trusting of the second site. The colours 'feel' better.

But I am still not getting pink.  And to me, there is a pop of very definite pink in the photograph.

Have you ever used one of these websites and if you have, do you have a favourite?  And I would be intrigued to know if anyone has taken a colour analysis like this to the next stage.

Thanks for stopping by and do let me know if you have experience of these colour analysis sites.