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The straight empire lamp shade is constructed from Dupion silk, a fabric woven from two distinct threads — the warp and the weft — which produces a natural iridescence across its surface. The peacock colourway shifts between a greenish turquoise and a deeper blue depending on the angle of light, a quality inherent to Dupion's dual-thread weave. Naturally occurring slubs, where silk yarn twists more thickly at intervals, are present throughout the fabric as a characteristic of the hand-weaving process. The 30cm diameter suits a range of lamp base proportions.
This shade is made from the grandaddy of silk - Dupion. And to think it all started out with a friendly little worm spinning its stuff. Now, pay attention, there are a couple of things you need to understand about this silk - first is that it’s ordinarily woven from two distinct threads - the warp and the weft (for the weaving nerds amongst you) - and so the colour often has a lovely iridescence. We call this colour Peacock, but in truth from one angle it’s a greenish turquoise hue and from another it’s a deeper rich blue colour. Beautiful really, but we tell you this because still photography cannot always catch the true lustre of Dupion silk. The next point about this silk is that there are some imperfections - known as slubs - where two threads of silk yarn are twisted together a little more thickly than usual. Slubs happen, and should be celebrated as a reminder that silk is a natural, organic and beautiful fibre...not grumbled about! We hope you love and live happily ever after with your glorious Dupion silk shade. And if you made it this far...
