Bread Bag Tag Lampshade
by Kristin Corlett
This is my bag tag lampshade!
What started this whole idea of a lampshade was this photo on Pinterest. I was completely drawn in. I needed to make it. I had to! I have scoured the internet and the only thing I have found is that this was from the Concordia student design show 2006. Just this photo, no instructions on how to make it, nothing. In fact I don't even know if it is a lampshade. Looks like I'm going to have to do it myself.
This is the Pinterest photo -- I found it on flickr
I think if there had been a How-To for making the lampshade I might have started this project about 4 or 5 years earlier. Since I had to start from scratch I spent a lot of time thinking about what would work. How much time you ask? Years. I have been teased by many that I was never going to do anything with all those tags. I want to do a lot of projects and never do them, so I can see why this one would also be a lost cause.
But... it wasn't!
I had several unsuccessful attempts to get holes punched through the bag tags. The tags are strangely brittle when a hole is punched into it and they end up splitting or breaking. I tried heating them up so that the punch might not split the plastic, but that didn't work either. I finally decided that a wood burning tool was going to be the ticket to small holes and no breakage. Turns out I was right! I spent only a few days on the project seen here. Once I got going I was on fire!
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| The little bits and pieces left over |
Here is how I made my bread bag tag lampshade, which by the way, most of those tags are from friends and family that have helped me collect them. It gives me so much JOY to know that people collect these for me. If only that they think of me as they toss that tag into the drawer or ziploc bag. Thank you to all who have contributed to my very long term project.
Tags can be sourced in a few ways - friends and family can save the tags for you and send them to you every so often. You can find some being sold on Etsy and right at this moment there are a few rolls of blue tags for sale on eBay. I have been told that if you ask some restaurants that use a lot of bread or veggies that come with those tags, they might save them for you. (Think diner/breakfast places) I had a friend in a restaurant that would gather them when she worked, but she only gave me white tags. You may have other ways to gather the tags and I welcome your suggestions in the comments.
The Pinterest photo that I was using as my inspiration, had the bag tags definitely attached to white lampshade. You couldn't see through to the other side of the shade, so it had to be laying against something. I also realized that the shade had to be the same dimensions at the top and bottom if I wanted to do a pattern. I also wanted the shade to be round or oval so that the tags would easily go around, instead of trying to conform to a hard edge, like a 90 degree angle. So I found a 9" round linen shade and it turned out to be perfect.
Assembling the Tags
I had several misses when it came to punching holes in the tags, but my success came from a wood burning tool. The tags splintered when I tried punching holes in them so I knew I needed something hot. A basic woodburning tool had a long thin attachment that I thought would be perfect and it was. Thankfully the tags I used for this project were big enough for my fingers to hold the tag and put holes into the sides without burning my hands and fingers. The plastic cooled fast enough that when I flipped the tag around to do the other side, it wasn't hot anymore.
In order to keep my fingers and hands from being all cut up and sore, I used two different tools to open and close the jump rings. I already had a pair of needle nose pliers so I used those and I purchased a pair of pliers that had a hollowed out area for the rings to fit into and make it easy to clamp them shut. Sometimes I pushed too hard and closed the rings into a tiny spiral, but after a few tries, I found the perfect pressure to use to get them to just touch together.
Finding a Pattern
I followed the pattern that was the Pinterest inspiration, but not the colors, as I didn't have all those colors. I used the colors that I had the most of and then tried not to repeat the same color way again as I went around.
My lampshade is 2 of the same color with a one tag shift as it proceeds down the lampshade. It creates a nice diagonal line. I thought about doing mostly white (since that's the color I have the most of) with the colored pieces randomly placed in the design, but I really wanted this first one to be as precise as possible. I think my next project will be mostly white, so I can continue to play with the bread bag tags and not have to worry about running out of the colors I need.
Order of Operation
1. Separate the tags into colors. Further separate to size and shape, although I didn't do that. It would be helpful though to know exactly how many of the shape/color you have available for your shade.
Decide how you want your tags to line up. There are tabs that protrude out and corresponding places that go in to accommodate those tabs. I discovered when looking through my tags that most had writing on a specific side, so I chose to have the writing be on the backside. There were enough pieces that had the writing on the front side to make the shade look interesting. So that's how I decided which way to face the tags.
3. Heat up burning tool and make it just hot enough to go through the tag but not smoke. Carefully push the heated element through the tag in six different areas. Two at the top, two in the middle and two at the bottom. I did one side first, then flipped it around and did the other. I poked the wood burning tool through the backside of the tag so that the front facing side would be without scratches or blemishes from the tool or from scraping the wax off.
I used the pliers with the rounded shape to take the plastic off of the tags after the burner went through it. The little plastic bits popped right off. I usually did three or four tags at a time.
5. Continue.
For my 9" diameter lampshade I ended up with 28 tags across by 6 rows in length. I haven't done the last several rows on my lampshade as I ran out of a couple of colors, but if I do end up completing the shade, I figure it will end up being 9 rows.
6. The holes on the very top row will be the only ones that are actually secured to the lampshade. They are secured by pushing through an open jump ring (as open as you can) through the shade right underneath the top wire of the lampshade. Secure one of the tags and push the jump ring closed with pliers. Continue all the way around the lampshade.
7. I had to change out a couple of rows to make the diagonal pattern I had come together perfectly. Since I purchased the lampshade after I had the tags together, I really didn't know how many I needed. Now I'd get the lampshade first so I would not have to redo a bunch. However, the two ends came together perfectly and there is no hitch in the pattern or colors. It looks like one continuous pattern.
8. Put shade on lamp, plug it in and behold your own bread bag tag lamp shade!
1 comment:
Awesome project. I love to see these everyday things repurposed into something beautiful. I have a bunch of those saved myself but not enough for a project like this. Maybe I'll have to tap into my friends and family. Great directions too!
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