Contains affiliate links. All opinions are honest, as always.
Are you always looking for ways to make your home more personal? I am! And to that end, and to have some me-time, I’ve been to (another) brilliant origami workshop with Esther from Origami-Est. I’ve been to many of her workshops before, and thoroughly enjoyed them all. But this one was probably my biggest origami challenge yet: I made a giant origami lampshade for our bedroom. I posted lots of work in progress photos on my Instagram on the day but this is the first time I’ve shown the finished lampshade. I’m really pleased with it! Read on to see what happens at an Origami-Est workshop, and see how my giant origami lampshade graduallly took shape.
Where the Origami-Est Workshop was Held
This origami workshop was at Southwood Living, Hayley Southwood’s amazing house and lifestyle concept near Milton Keynes. It’s always a treat going to visit the house – I get to go most months as I’m part of Hayley’s Southwood Social Hub, which is an amazing network of women entrepreneurs.
What Happens at an Origami-Est Workshop
Esther is a fantastic and patient teacher. She explains things so well and nice and slowly, making sure everyone is following OK. Her workshops attract loyal followers, and I was pleased that I already knew most of the lovely ladies at the workshop from previous sessions! It was great to catch up, and there is always a really warm and welcoming atmosphere.
Esther gets us to pick our paper first and this is always the hardest part for me as they are all gorgeous. I chose this white paper with black sprinkles, after a bit of debate with myself. This is part way through the make, you can see I’ve folded it into diamonds, ready to fold into a concertina.
How To Make a Giant Origami Lampshade
To make a giant origami lampshade, you need four large sheets of paper, so this workshop is quite a long one. Esther showed us how to make the correct folds, and we followed along.
After a LOT of folding, we all ended up with four of these sections, that kind of look like bridges.
You can see some of the other papers in the background, they all looked amazing.
Next we had to slot and glue them together, as neatly as possible.
Here I am, deep in concentration!
Hanging my Giant Origami Lampshade
To hang a giant origami lampshade, you’ll need a support and Ava took some pictures of me hanging it in our bedroom.
It’s so large, it’s quite challenging to put up, but now it’s up, it’s never coming down!
It’s a real statement piece, and will form the theme for our eco-friendly bedroom makeover, which you can read about here.
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And this is how my giant origami lampshade looks when the light is on.
Esther has some lampshade instructions in her fab book Paper Home, which you can find here.
But for a giant origami lampshade like mine, I do recommend going to a workshop if you can. I highly recommend going to one of Origami-Est’s origami workshops – it’s such fun and you get such a sense of achievement looking at what you’ve made.
If you want to fold something amazing yourself, you can find her origami workshops here. You don’t need any special skills.
Check out my review of her previous origami workshops here, here and here. (I really am a superfan – I’ve also made Christmas crackers and stars!)
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