DIY Steampunk Lampshade

Cut the cloth coverings on the lampshade into large sections and carefully strip them from the shade. Leave them as intact as possible; you will be putting them back on later.

Lay out the cloth coverings on sheets of newspaper. Spray-paint the cloth with brass spray paint. Let dry and add a second coat. Let this dry too.

Fill a small, disposable container with water. Spray some black spray paint into the cup until the surface of the water is coated with floating black paint. Dip a paintbrush into the top of the cup and spread the mixture of water and spray paint onto the cloth covering. This will create a splotchy, watery effect that imitates the look of smears of black machine oil.

Wrap and weave the copper wire around the wire frame to give the lampshade extra body and a more dense framework. Space the wire every inch or so, horizontally, but leave the shape of the wrapping fairly irregular.

Put the fabric pieces back in place on the lampshade. Attach them with glue to the bottom of the shade and let this dry before stretching them up to the top and gluing in place there. Glue them to the underside of the wire with craft glue or hot glue.

Arrange the clock parts, nuts, skeleton keys and other period hardware inside the sections of the lampshade formed by the wire. Glue the hardware pieces in place using epoxy. For best results, work by arranging the hardware inside a portion of the lampshade, mixing a small quantity of epoxy (about a bottlecap full) and using that to fasten down those pieces before moving on to another section. Glue the pieces to the wire frame and to each other rather than gluing them to the cloth behind.