I've been looking for a lampshade that's the right size and type, and finally found one a few days ago. But it was white. Like, shiny clean brilliant white. It looked very funny on the old lamp, although it was otherwise quite nice.
So yesterday I thought, hmm, maybe I could dye the lampshade. It's linen. And I realized that I could stain it with tea.
I had just returned from lunch out, where I'd had an enormously sloppy, wonderful hamburger at a little diner near my town, and more to the point I'd just drunk approximately ten glasses of iced tea (I may be exaggerating slightly). But I brewed a fresh cup of hot tea, for science.
After I'd drunk about half the tea, I figured it had cooled enough that I could use the rest on the lampshade. First I dunked the tea bag in the tea and used it to paint the shade. It worked great, but for some reason tea bags are not meant to withstand such treatment and it started to tear immediately, leaving behind wet tea leaves. So I got a paper towel and dunked it in tea instead--but it didn't work at all.
Fortunately I'd been drinking tea all day, so I dug around in the trash and found two bags from earlier. I soaked them in tea, then used them to finish the lampshade.
It looked messy when I was done, but a much better color. I set it aside to dry overnight.
Today I spent some time carefully cleaning dried tea leaves from the linen. I could easily have made the shade darker by doing a second application, but I like it the way it is. It gives a good light.
Oh, and I also found a photo of my granddad as a kid, taken probably in the mid-1920s. Isn't it adorable?
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