Flowered Light by Nathalie Doolaard
Sculptural crochet artist Nathalie Doolaard has been generous enough to offer us her free tutorial for creating a crochet art lamp.
Materials
- Table Lamp. You will be working around an existing lamp. You can use one that is made from paper, fabric or glass.
- Crochet Thread or Yarn; your choice of fiber and weight
- Crochet Hook to fit thread/ yarn size chosen
- Self-Adhesive Foil
- Nylon Wire
Basic Crochet Lamp DIY
First determine whether you want a base layer before you add your crochet. Flowered Light, as shown above, was built up in three parts, beginning with a layer to dim the light of the original lamp. You can use a self-adhesive unpatterned plastic foil for this layer.
When you are ready to crochet, select a crochet stitch or pattern repeat that appeals to you. It should be a crochet circle pattern that you can work in the round. Crochet the circle to a size that is slightly bigger than the bottom of the lamp. Once you have reached the correct size, you will crochet in rows. Rows are created by not increasing or decreasing in these additional rounds. Crochet as many rounds as necessary to reach the height that you want. Your work should be slightly taller than the lamp itself.
Once you have the crochet part complete, you can slip the base of the lamp inside. You can use thin nylon wire to attach the crochet to the piece so that it all holds up. Note that nylon wire can be difficult to work with; an alternative is to crochet your own second piece with thread or fingering weight yarn and use it for a similar attachment method.
So far you have created the crochet base that is going around the lamp. The final part is to crochet pieces to attach to the crochet for additional designs. You can crochet flat and sculptural flowers for a design that is similar to Flowered Light.
Design Suggestions
Some ideas for designing your crochet lamp include:
- Create a plain crochet layer and then add brightly colored flowers. Or do the opposite!
- Try using alternative materials for your crochet flowers – plastic, metal / wire, embroidery yarn and raffia are just a few examples.
- In addition to, or instead of crochet flowers, you could use a variety of other motifs including leaves, snowflakes, hearts and stars.
Silverlight crochet lamp by Nathalie Doolaard
In Silverlight, the effect of one repeated crochet design is shown. In this design, six crochet squares of nylon wire and silver sewing yarn were used.
Finishing (summary)
- Wrap the self-adhesive foil around the table lamp.
- Pull the second (crocheted) part over the foil and attach the bottom with nylon wire or sewing yarn.
- Attach flowers (or other motifs) with nylon wire.
- Pull the additional height over the top of your lamp and baste the last crochet row with nylon wire or a thread of the yarn you’ve used for the crochet background.
- Cut a round piece of foil that fits the diameter of your tablelamp and place it on top, under the basted crochet work.
- Gently pull and tie the baste threads together. This way, it’ll be possible to replace the LED lightbulb in time as needed.
Do’s and don’ts
- Nylon wire is perfect to attach flowers to the background layer.
- Don’t use glue. Glue might create visible stains, especially when the light is on.
- Always use a LED lightbulb for safety; this lightbulb stays cool as opposed to producing the dangerous heat of a regular bulb.
Learn how to make a crochet wire lampshade.