This latest Project came about literally by accident!
We have two Lamps in our Bedroom that I had inherited from my Mother...
A picture was snapped of them inadvertently, back when our Headboard was made
about ten years ago...

The Glass Globes on top of the Lamps make them top-heavy, Debbie bumped into the night stand one night
causing the Lamp on top to fall over and the Globe to shatter...
I had another Globe from a large, free-standing Lamp that didn't match, but did fit on the base...
That one replaced it , until two weeks ago, when it too was shattered by our Cat
over-reacting to something he saw outside through the Window...
Prices for New or Antique Globes run from $80.00 to $150.00+ for high-end, hand-painted ones like the originals!
And there's no way another could be found to match the remaining original one...

So I thought, why not make a wooden one to replace it?
And if one is being made, why not make two, so the two Lamps have matching Shades??
The idea is a simple one, to make a couple of lightweight Wooden cylinders...
I don't own a Lathe, so the Cylinders had to be built rather than turned...
The Perimeter of the Shade will be made from thin wooden slats, which will then be glued and pinned
to a round framework...
A sliding Jig was made to turn out a lot of Slats quickly...

Numerous scrap 3/4" pieces were first cut to 8" long then fed into the jig...
I was able to cut 94 - 1/8" x 3/4" x 8" strips in a little more than twenty minutes...

This collection of "Tongue Depressors" then went to the sanding department...

After sanding about twenty of them, it was decided to round over one end, for decorative purposes...

The two "Rings" for each Frame to support these were cut out of what was available, one from 3/4" plywood,
and the other from left-over Particle Board Shelving,,,
The first Pair were marked and cut together on the Scroll Saw...

When the Thin Strips were cut, the scraps were only safely usable down to about an inch,
but those scraps too were saved and became the up-rights to hold the Rings...

Screwing that together was very simply accomplished by clamping yet another scrap firmly in the vise
and positioning a ring on it...

The Up-rights were clamped next, one by one...

The second Ring was added to the mix, and when the lines visually bisected the uprights,
were screwed onto them...

Rather than glue the Strips to the Framework one at a time, the thin strips were laid out
on a flat surface using a Framing Square... Then they were all taped together,
so they could just be rolled around the Frame...

And there's where we're at, one is glued and dried ready for wooden dowels to be added as pins to each slat,
while the other is still waiting to be glued...
It still has to have finish applied as well, but here's how it looks in operation...

These will work, and look fairly good doing it... I like how the Knot is slightly transparent!
If I'm ever tempted to do this again, I might go to the Medical Supply Store and 
get actual Tongue Depressors to avoid the sanding... But at the very least, I would round over the ends
first, before they were fed into the slicing jig... Definitely be easier to form the shape before rather than after... :)

25 March 2026