Swee Mei's lovely lampshades

Hello. It's Abi posting today. Aren't these the loveliest, prettiest lampshades? They're by Swee Mei; a new venture by designer Miranda Law. 

Miranda's lampshade venture was born of a desire to move away from work as a scenic artist and specialist painter – and, more simply, because she found herself needing a lampshade but couldn't find anything she liked.

Thanks to the wonders of instructional videos on Google she put her creative talents to good use and made one herself: “My first effort wasn't bad, not perfect, but definitely good enough to put on a lamp. The pleasure of transforming a flat piece of fabric into something three dimensional and big and useful, in a relatively short space of time, I found to be quite addictive.

'Savannah' shade, £39.99

My next few efforts weren't perfect either, for various reasons, hence lots of Frankenshades around my house but once I'd mastered the craft I realised I might be on to something.”

'Cockateel' shade, in pink, £34.99; 'Paperweight' shade, £29.99

Miranda is of Chinese heritage and her asian roots helped to inspire this range of pendant, table and stand lampshades. She hunts down the fabulous fabrics from designers such as Kaffe Fasset (above right) and Nobu Fujiyama for Kona Bay in Japan: “I find myself drawn to Eastern designs, both traditional and contemporary. That said, it tends to be Japanese designers who catch my eye. "I'm using some wonderful fabrics by Etsuko Furuya (above left), one of Japan's foremost textile designers. She has an amazing way with colour and her designs have a magical quality to them, all woodland creatures and dewdrops on cobwebs.

"I tend to buy my fabrics in quite small quantities so there will never be too many lampshades of that design available. I scour the Internet looking for fabrics and if I find something that I love will go to almost any lengths to get it”

The name Swee Mei comes from her daughter Sadie's Chinese name: “My mother is Chinese and her middle name is Swee Ching, meaning Pretty Teacup (!). I'm Swee Kim, Pretty Gold and my daughter Sadie is Swee Mei, meaning Jasmine.”

'Paradise' lampshade, £39.99

"My favourites are the bird prints – the cockatiel fabric in pink (see the Furuya, further up) is just so bright and adorable, while this classic hibiscus and chrysanthemum shade would cast a fabulously moody light in any corner."

Prices range from £29.99 to £89.99 depending on size and Miranda is happy to make shades to a specific size. See more at her Folksy shop.