Upcycle Project – Table Lamp

I’ve been meaning to write a post about this lamp for a while now as it’s probably the one thing I get most compliments and questions about when people visit my home.  I was going to share how I upcycled the lamp from being a plain lamp to having a dinosaur fringe but it seems that, at the time I didn’t take as many photos as I should have.  The good thing is that I can still talk you through the process!

Items You Will Need

• Lamp with shade
• Dinosaur Figures
• Pony beads
• Jump rings
• Headpins
• Eye Pins
• Round nosed jewellery pliers
• Flat nosed jewellery pliers
• Darning Needle*
• Lighter*

*unless you own a dremel or other drill with a super fine drill bit….

Steps

1. Using a dremel or other drill with a super fine drill bit, drill holes through all of the dinosaurs.  (If you don’t own a dremel or other drill, then you can heat up a darning needle with a lighter and use this to create a hole through each dinosaur…PLEASE be careful if using this method)
2. Thread headpin through the created hole with the flat part to the underside of the dinosaur.
3. Using the round nose pliers, create a loop at the top of the dinosaur with the excess headpin metal.
4. Attach an eyepin to the created loop using a jump ring.
5. Thread on a couple of pony beads before using the round nose pliers to create another loop at the end of the eye pin.
6. Work out where you want the dinosaurs to hang on the lampshade and mark faintly in pencil where you want the holes to go that you will attach the dinosaur to.
7. Using the flat nosed pliers, open up a jump ring and attach to the bottom of the lampshade.  I made sure that my jump ring went over the wire at the base of the shade.
8. Before closing the jump ring, add the dinosaur bead loop to the ring then close.
9. Repeat for all dinosaurs.
10. Stand back and admire your work!