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Reading about George Nakashima lately, I've become intrigued by the Japanese shoji technique. I've been thinking about maybe building something--a screen or a lamp shade perhaps. Then I realized that what would look really nice in our house was a shoji fixture on the ceiling light in our entryway. Has anyone ever seen such a thing or can suggest a design. Because it's a ceiling light the paper would have to extend not just along the sides but on the bottom--facing the floor. The shade or fixture would also have to be suspended in the middle, as the current glass fixture is. Any advice or suggestions?
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You can do a Google image search for “shoji lamp” and see if there’s anything that appeals to you. You should also do a search for “andon lamp” or “andon lantern” for ideas.
As far as hanging the lamp, many of the designs out there are for lamps that sit on a table. It would be easy to just invert that lamp and rig a method of suspending the lamp from the feet.
One other thing to consider in your design: if the sides of the lamp go down far enough past the bulb, you don’t necessarily have to paper the bottom side.
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giant Cypress: Japanese tool blog
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google jay van arsdale for the win. i have one of his shoji books and i believe he has a website and a shoji school (or did at one time).
I've got a shoji floor lamp on my build list too.
carl
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Not strictly shoji but the inspiration was there for these wall lghts I made
and without the paper
Made from 20 x 9 mm olive ash Domino jointed. You could easily make something using the same principles that is ceiling hung. If you want to avoid the support for the light fitting casting shadows, I suggest making the support from 6 mm perspex. This could be srewed into recesses in the top of the outer frame and would be plenty strong enough.
If anyone is interested in the wall lights, it may be worth adding that the bottom back rail of the shade sits on the lamp holder plate and is retained by rare earth magnets recessed into the back plate and rails. It's very effective and the shade just lifts off for bulb changing, cleaning etc.
Jim
