35mm Slides Lamp Shade

I was fortunate enough to inherit a few small boxes of old 35mm slides from the 1960s and 70s from my grandpa and dad.  Luckily, my stash of slides also came with a small slide viewer that will light up one slide at a time to about the size of a small cell phone.  I went through each slide one by one with the slide viewer and discovered some beautiful slides of my family taken all around the country on various trips or at special events. I want to have the slides digitized. Problem is, the digitizing service is kind of pricey and I have a lot of slides.

In going through the collection, I found many photos that contained beautiful scenery and shots of American life (mountains, beaches, city areas, and apparently my parents liked to take a lot of pictures of the 4 cats they had in the late seventies).  However, there were often no people in the shots and pretty as some of the scenes were, I am clueless as to the location or particular trip it was taken on. So, in my attempt to parse down the number of slides for digitizing, I decided to separate out some of the ones without people or if I couldn’t recognize the location.

That left me with a dilemma – what to do with all those scenic views and pretty pictures I wasn’t preserving digitally.  Off to google I went to locate a use for vintage 35 mm slides.  Saw a couple good ideas, like the one here:

Curtains from old 35mm slides

I finally decided I would make some of the old slides into a lampshade for a small lamp as I’d seen several places including some sellers on etsy.

Here’s is my finished lamp in action.

I’m pleased with how it turned out, even if it was a learning experience (see below).

It really wasn’t too hard to make, other than an initial bad choice in lamp/lampshade selection on my part. Here’s what I used to make it:

·         Old 35mm slides (my lampshade took 48 slides for the lampshade, but I also had extra slides on hand)

·         12 mm jump rings (I used about 4 jump rings per slide)

·         A method for opening/closing the jump rings (e.g. gloves, pliers)

·         Lampshade frame (see notes below on selecting a good lampshade frame/type to use)

·         Base lamp

·         Small craft drill

·         Pencil

·         Measuring device capable of measuring very small distances/spaces

For my first attempt at this project (keywords here being “first attempt”), I purchased a low priced lamp from a certain purveyor of Swedish goods and it taught me an important lesson. I didn’t pay attention to the way the lampshade was structured.  For the slide lampshade, the top of the lampshade frame needs to be supported by the center piece/frame that attaches to the lamp itself, with a “loose” bottom piece/frame.  This is in contrast to the first lamp/lampshade type I purchased which had the bottom piece/frame attached to the center piece and the top piece/frame was loose and unconnected to the lampshade part that attaches to the lamp.  

The first lamp had a kind of paper lantern material for the lampshade that came with it.  I guess that would have been lightweight enough to support the bottom/center configuration of the lamp shade, but it did not translate well to slides. The first lamp also came with little metal rod inserts to hold up and connect the top portion of the loose frame, but since the slides I connected together ended up being a different length than the paper lampshade, the metal inserts were too long to support the top part.

So just exercise caution when selecting a lampshade.  The ones with a top support connected to the center frame/part that attaches to the lamp seem to be best. I also recommend finding a cylinder or square/rectangular shaped lampshade where the top and bottom part of the shade are equal areas as opposed to a “bell” shaped lampshade where the bottom part is bigger/wider than the top of the shade.

If you are like me and you don’t have any old lamps or lampshades lying around, you will need to purchase a small lamp. I imagine there are some good thrift store lamps out there, I just didn’t have the time or patience to search out a nice find. So for my (second) lamp, I picked up one for $13-$14 at Wal-mart.  I checked the lampshade configuration before buying this time.

Most likely the lampshade will need to be altered to get it ready to use for the slides .Basically the shade needs to be striped to its frame, minus any fabric or covering. This can be done by whatever means necessary (cutting, ripping, etc), just make sure not to damage the frame part itself. I know with both my lampshades, the fabric and paper parts of the lampshade were glued to the  frame.  When I took the fabric and paper parts off, it left a sticky residue on the frame that I had to clean off with soap and hot water.

Once the frame was ready, I needed to get the slides ready to be made into the lamp shade. To get the slides ready, I first wanted to measure and mark each slide for where I would be drilling holes. I opted to drill 8 holes in each slide.  This way, each slide would connect with another slide in 2 places/holes for each of the 4 sides of the slide. I’ve seen it done with only 1 hole in the center of each side connecting each set of slides, but thought the 2 holes per set of slides looked a little more secure. Here’s where I put the 8 holes on each slide. The top slide shows an example of the markings, while the second bottom slide has the holes drilled already.

To mark the holes in a consistent manner from slide to slide, I used a steel caliber to measure and mark the first hole on a slide about 4mm from the top and side edge (i.e. where 4mm down from the top of the slide and 4 mm in from the side meet). 

I then marked a hole 4mm above the first one. 

Repeat this for each of the 4 sides of each slide.  I was careful to make sure I was marking the pairs of holes on each slide in the same orientation from slide to slide.  For mine, the 4 holes on each side of a slide went vertically, or perpendicular, to the horizontal text on the slide. In other words, I oriented the holes to be on the right and left sides of the slide, as opposed to running the holes along the bottom and top.  It is probably a matter a taste and how the slides being used are oriented as to if the sides are used or bottoms/tops, just make sure to be consistent in marking and drilling them all one way.

Once I had marked a sufficient number of slides, I set out to drill the holes into them.  I used a small craft drill and a 3/32 inch drill bit (at least I think that is the size).

Just make sure to put something beneath the slides while you are drilling  that you don’t mind filling with holes.  I used a piece of scrap wood and a carpet piece .I didn’t want my holes to be too much bigger than the thickness of the jump rings I would be using.  This is because the light bleeds out the holes once the lamp is in operation and detracts from slides being illuminated. I also wanted the holes in my slides to be fairly close together, while maintaining the integrity of the cardboard part of the slide.

Once the holes were drilled, I could start connecting the slides together with my jump rings. I used 12mm jump rings for mine, but different sizes may be necessary depending on the distance between holes or how far in the holes are drilled on the slides.

To assemble the slides, open up some jump rings to prepare them to go into the holes drilled into the slide.  It always a good idea to open jump rings from side to side as opposed to opening them out. 

Opening them out distorts the circular shape and makes them more of a pain to close. I also used jump rings that were fairly easy to bend open and closed by hand.  While you want to make sure the jump rings are thick enough and secure enough to hold the slides, having them be easily bendable is a big saver of hassle considering how many jump rings end up being used (4 jump rings per slide X 48 slides = 192 jump rings). If you get some jump rings that are not easily bendable, it may take pliers to open and close them.

Start with two slides.  Insert a jump ring into the top left hole of the first slide.  Then put that same jump ring through the bottom left hole of the second slide and close the jump ring.  Next, put another jump ring through the top right hole on the first slide and the bottom right hole in the second slide. Close the jump ring.  You now have the first two slides of the lamp.  Use the side inner holes to connect slides to the left and right of the original slides.

Continue inserting jump rings and connecting slides until the slides assembled are the desired width and length for the lampshade is achieved.  I constructed mine as one long flat piece and didn’t join the two sides of the shade together until the very end.

After assembling my slides, I put the two edges together to make a cylinder.  I then put jump rings through the top holes of the top most layer of slides and used those to attach the entire lampshade to the top part of the lamp frame.

I also attached the loose circular bottom part of the frame in the same manner, just using the bottom holes of the lowest layer of slides.  I think this part could be optional, either if the lampshade doesn’t have a bottom frame piece or if one wanted to attach dangles (e.g. prisms, crystals) from the bottom slides as an accent.  I would just be sure to pay attention to how the holes are drilled in the bottom of the lowest layer of slides, either drilling in the middle of the bottom of the slide or not drilling the bottom most holes so extra light is not shining through unnecessarily.

Once the slides are secured to the lampshade frame, just attach the shade to the lamp and turn the lamp on.  I used a 40 watt incandescent  light bulb for the pictures I took.  I had a 60 watt equivalent compact fluorescent bulb in it at first, but that seemed too bright.

Anybody else out there got any creative uses for old slides?  I’ve still got a boxful!