We’ve had an email from Janey:

What can I make a lampshade out of? I’ve got the cable and fitting from an old lamp and want to make something cute for my home office.

While it’s not specifically recycled stuff, I saw a paper cutout lamp shade on Craft last week which I thought was a great gem of an idea that could easily be adapted for recycled paper or the like, and customised regarding what shapes are cut from the paper. I wonder if it would be safe enough to use a big old fizzy drink/soda bottle for the inner layer… I suspect not but I’m overly cautious regarding electricity – anyone know for sure?

There have been a number of “make it into a light shade” suggestion in reply to posts on Recycle This over the years and I’ll try to add some links to those in the comments below – but the one that most obviously springs to mind is using photo negatives.

Any other ideas? Anyone know any safety guidelines to minimise the risk of fire/melting?

We’ve had an email from Bonnie:

I hate throwing things away but just found I have SIX redundant lampshades/ceiling light shades in my attic! I need to do something with them but what? Most of them are plastic and fabric but there is a glass dome one too.

Presumably they’ve been dumped in the attic because they’ve been replaced/don’t fit with the decor any more – but how about trying to recover or modify them so you can use them next time you fancy a change? There were lots of lightshade-modification suggests when we featured photo negatives on the site last year – any other suggestions on how they could be revamped?

What about other reuses?

Depending on the shape/opacity of the glass one, it could be used as a mini-greenhouse or made into a quirky ornament with random things (whatever takes your fancy) inside. Other suggestions?

(Stock photo by L_Avi)