Stained Glass Lamp Shade

I have a tough time throwing material scraps away. Looking at a box of glass scraps left over from previous projects and a lamp without a shade, I set to working putting the pieces of this puzzle together.

First I tested two sizes of a lamp shade, small and large, by cutting out cardboard, taping it together and attaching it to the lamp to visually figure out the right proportion of lamp vs. shade. Later the cardboard also purposed as the template. I went with the smaller size, but luckily the larger template works perfect for another lamp that needs a shade in the future.

If you do have one, I found that you can reinforce the edges with tinned copper wire.Over several nights I arranged and rearranged glass pieces trying to find pieces that fit without extra cutting. It required a few more evenings of wrapping the glass edges with copper foil and a few more of soldering. Rainbow Stained Glass had the 4 arm spider to affix the shade to the lamp. The only trouble I ran into was weak spots in the piece’s arrangement. You don’t want to have a straight line going completely across the panel where it will be likely to fold in half.