Cocktail Parasol Light Shade

Parasols shade you from the brightness of the sun which is big. So why not use tiny cocktail parasols to shade you from your room light which is small?

This cocktail parasol light shade is so simple to make. It's basically just sticking cocktail parasols to a paper lampshade with PVA glue. But it's a real centre-piece, it makes a room look fun, colourful and adds a really warm glowing feel to the space.

You will need:

- One pre-bought spherical paper light shade. They come in a few varieties, the one in the pictures is rice paper with bamboo ribs, but normal paper and steel ribs would work just fine.

- Cocktail parasols. You can buy these in bulk on-line quite cheaply. A standard pack of 144 is more than enough for a 16" (40cm) diameter shade.

- PVA glue. Read the instructions. You could water it down a little bit. Don't use just any glue because some do not dry clear like PVA.

- A plastic pot (perhaps an old margarine pot). This is for holding the glue in so you can just throw it away afterwards, no need to clean up and after all you don't want to get PVA stuck to your mum's favourite crockery do you? You could also use the bottom of a plastic milk carton. Cut a rectangle out of your pot to use as a spreader for spreading the glue.

Take the tiny elastic bands off the parasol and open it out.

Break and remove the cocktail stick near to the top.

Use your spreader to spread the glue on all the segments.

Push on the top so that the parasol punches through the shade. Use your finger to flatten out the parasol.

Just repeat and position parasols so that they are overlapping with the ones next to them. That creates a nice visual effect.

Don't worry about straight orderly rows; it won't matter too much.

Try to pick colours so that no two colours touching are ever the same.

Start at what will be the bottom of the lamp shade and work towards what will be the top. The end bit gets tricky to position parasols with the spaces which are left over so it's better if the bit you finish on is facing the ceiling where you can't see it.

In the middle the parasols might need a bit of help to punch through the shade. Put your hand into the shade to push on the surrounding paper as you punch.