The Second Life of a Paper Shade

A pieced this accordion fold, brown paper bag shade together, about 12 years ago.  The center piece is an old sketch from a figure drawing class, of a man with part of his skeleton showing.  You can see his ribs on the right.   I originally made two shades like this for my son's room--thinking he'd like the skeletons--he did, and the shades were used for years.  After not finding enough material in my stash to make a curtain, I got this paper shade out of the closet to see if it could be salvaged.  I printed my dancers and my roses in red, but now the poor half skeleton man looks like he's bleeding!  I replaced a few ribbons and taped up a few tears, and I think it just might hold up for a few more years.  It's up, and I like the way it looks in the morning light--I guess that's what counts since the rest of the day it's pulled up!

Now, you have to pay for brown paper bags.

I like that this shade lets in more light than a curtain and saves on having to use yards of material--very easy to open and close--I'm glad to be able to use this again and kind of surprised that a paper curtain could last so long!