This is the bright collection of yarn-wrapped pendant lights I made for my home. I had a lot of fun putting them together and they now occupy what used to be an empty wall in our home’s entrance. They light it up with a warm, colourful glow.
This isn’t so much a tutorial as a discussion of how to craft a successful yarn-wrapped pendant light (or desk lamp). If you’re looking for exact measurements and step-by-step instructions, you won’t find them here. What you will find is an honest reflection/candid discussion on the process of creating with different materials. You’ll find an offering of rules of thumb (refrains, let’s say) based on my experience of testing Unfettered Co‘s fibers and brand new pendant light frames
When embarking on research and development for pendant light frames, we quickly discovered that:
a) They don’t really exist
b) Why they don’t really exist
Pendant light frames may look simple to create. But I assure you, they’re not. They need to have structural integrity that spot welding doesn’t really yield. Their steel metal frame needs to be sturdy enough to be tightly wrapped with fibre and not cave in or warp. And, at the same time, their welds need to be a fraction of the size of what usually passes as a weld. This is to say nothing of the complex yet necessarily replicable angles that are required for a 3D scaffolding that will show through in a finished creation. So, to say the least, these light frames present an interesting problem in metal design and fabrication.
Luckily, we really love tackling problems with clever metal design work!
While developing our collection of pendant light frames, we did a lot of back-and-forth testing. Loren would create a frame, and I would wrap it with fibre so that we could understand the weaknesses of the frame (it’s hard to determine the weak points of a metal frame until you attempt to finish and illuminate it with fibre wrapped around its exterior). It’s only then that the blemishes show through. They shine through, in fact. They taunt you. We returned to the drawing board more times than I’d like to admit.
This process was made challenging not only by the metal components of the frame, though. The fibrous element of yarn-wrapped lights is deceivingly complex. It looks easy. But I think we can often mistake a repetitive process for an “easy” one. Ease and repetition are not the same thing.
Here’s what I’ve learned about wrapping fiber around a lampshade. I’m sharing these discoveries with you in the hopes that you can learn from my errors and end up feeling particularly pleased with your finished light.
There’s a reason why yarn-wrapped pendant lights you’ll find in places on Etsy, Instagram, Pinterest, and beyond are never lit up in listing photos…
I don’t recommend working with a double stranded or triple stranded cotton cord.
And I don’t recommend working with a fiber that’s wider than 1.5mm (unless you’re seeking to achieve more of a ‘rattan’ aesthetic for your light)
The finer your wrapping material, the more refined (and less streaky) your lamp’s surface will look. You need to be able to snug each of your strands tightly to one another. This is what will grant your pendant light/desk lamp a smooth and even surface. It’s important to remember that this surface is one that you will contemplate daily: both in the light and in the dark. As such, you want to create an object that looks complete in pure daylight, and with light shining (more or less aggressively) through it.
In the course of research and development on fiber-wrapped pendant lights, I discovered that lighting is the “tell.” I witnessed far too many businesses selling their handmade wrapped lights (or, in some cases, supplies for creating them) online and NEVER demonstrating what they look like when lit up at night. This is sus. And yet, I know why it happens. The moment of lighting is the achilles heel of the design; it’s the moment when errors become most apparent, and I suspect that’s exactly why if lighting is shown in these wrapped pendant lights, it’s not coming from a lightbulb. It’s either photoshopped in as a warm, orby glow. Or it’s not risked at all. Don’t take my word for this. See for yourself. Do a count of how many pendant lights you see actually lit up (i.e. not with fake light photoshopped in).
Hollow Braided Cotton vs. ‘So Fine You’re Mine Merino’
I can personally vouch for the efficacy of Hollow Braided Recycled Cotton and ‘So Fine You’re Mine Merino Wool’ as effective wrapping fibers for pendant lights. They yield different aesthetics and have different strengths. Let me unpack…
Hollow Braided Recycled Cotton
This is one of my personal favourite cottons to work with because of its hybrid properties. It serves as a beautiful, soft cotton yarn for needle work like crochet and knitting. But it also serves knotting needs nicely if you’re creating smaller macrame pieces or details to compose within a larger tapestry.
It’s vegan
It’s plant-based
And it’s recycled
So, in matters of sustainability, Hollow Braided Recycled Cotton is a winner. Its key property for wrapping lampshades is that the hollow braided nature of the fiber offers compression. It’s not round. But it’s also not flat. However, when pulled tightly across a frame, it does flatten which grants a faithfully smooth surface. It doesn’t pill or shed fuzzy little bits. And the braided composition of its tiny fibers are not visually intrusive. You really have to look closely to even see that it’s braided at all. At about 1.5mm in thickness, our Hollow Braided Recycled Cotton is an ideal size for coverage, but also for snuggling up to (and covering) welds on the joints of lampshade frames.
This is our Hollow Braided Recycled Cotton’s texture on the roll shown closely.
Here is a pendant light wrapped with Hollow Braided Recycled Cotton. You can see, up close, what a perfect wrapping medium it provides.
So Fine You’re Mine Merino Wool
I love this superfine merino. It’s squishy, vibrant, and spectacularly soft. After making one light with it, I was hooked. In part, it’s because I’m a sucker for working with increasingly skinny fibers And, in part, it’s because I was really drawn to the surfaces it helped me to compose. In the daytime, the lamps I wrapped with So Fine You’re Mine Merino almost looked carpeted they were so tight. It helped me to create a fibrous surface with almost no fissures and cracks. At night, it illuminated like stained glass might: by lighting and differentiating different colours like glass does. I was enamoured by the possibility of using a fuzzy, soft fiber to create something more akin to smooth, hard glass.
I did carefully shave my lanterns when I finished wrapping them, which was way more of a delight than shaving my legs 😉 Shave your lanterns, ladies!
But, in seriousness, this merino has a slight “fuzz factor” that is part of its charm. Because creating precise stripes, however, I wanted to have really clean lines and especially tidy black outlines. So shaving helped me to achieve that, and was a perfectly absurd little outdoor exercise.
The Knots Will Break Your Heart
I need you to know this before you embark on wrapping a pendant light so please repeat after me THE KNOTS WILL BREAK YOUR HEART. THE KNOTS WILL BREAK YOUR HEART. THE KNOTS WILL BREAK YOUR HEART.
Ok, so knot placement is critical . If you take one thing from this cautionary tale/not-quite tutorial, let it be that.
The way you connect one strand of fiber to the next in a wrapped pendant light is with a regular ole’ knot. Or maybe a regular ole double knot. It’s very simple: end one piece, then tie it to the beginning of the next and carry on with your wrapping.
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, so let me give you a visual of what happens when you are willy nilly with placing your knots. I learned this the hard way.
See those little black blobs in there?
See the little black blobs in this one too? You don’t realize these will show through until you light your frame….at the very end. This is the tragicomedy of a wrapped pendant light.
They look like little black bugs. Alien ass larvae hatching in your beautiful lamp. From a distance, you can’t see them. But, up close, they’re very much there. Ew.
Ok, so what this means is that there are certain no-fly zones for knots on your wrapped light. This will take some planning and faffing and finagling, but you’re up to this challenge. Here’s the rule of thumb:
Make sure that your knots sit within two inches of the very top or bottom of your frame
They can’t be in the middle of your light because that is where more light will shine through. If you strategically place your knots inside your lamp in the top/bottom of your frame where fibers are more compressed, or in crevices where two parts of your frame join, then they will not be visible when light shines through. The knots in the image above are correctly-placed. Their ends could be more tightly clipped and trimmed, though. Just sayin’.
Your whole light hinges on the efficacy of your knots
Think about it: you’re knotting each strand to the next, so that–in effect–you will have fashioned a continuous strand of fiber by the time your lamp is finished. This is like when cartoon prisoners tie their bedsheets together for escape. In the same way that a poorly tied, loose knot would really throw a monkey wrench in any prison escape plan, so too will a poorly tied knot in your lampshade. Same same, but different.
See the amount of force Loren is exerting when tightening his knots?! Good man. Be forceful when you knot your strands together.
So do not forget to uber secure your knots. Hollow Braided Recycled Cotton holds a knot with relative ease. That’s one of its superpowers. So Fine You’re Mine Merino, however, is more slippery. If working with it, tie a double knot, then tighten. Does that knot slide? Get the slide out before tying another double knot right on top (remember that you’ll also be cutting your ends quite short for discretion).
You can wrap in one of two ways
It’s possible (and certainly less labour intensive) to wrap your light around the outside of the framework. If you’re working with stripes and colour blocking, however, just be aware that this wrapping strategy can only yield a continuous stripe pattern. See below for an example.
These lights have been wrapped continuously (notice how the first one has a welding blob that gets in the way of fiber being snuggled up to it? This frame was part of our development and we learned to avoid similar blobs in the future. Not all heroes wear capes:
Another continuous stripe pattern with wrapping that starts at the top of the frame and goes all the way around the middle ring, then outside the bottom ring of the frame before back up to the top again. Also notice how much more precise and polished this powder pink frame happens to be! We worked at it.
If you’re aiming to achieve the effect of discontinuous stripes and blocks of colour, you’ll want to wrap your light section by section and weave between each strand against your frame. See below.
See how I’m weaving the top section I’m working on by passing my shuttle (and yarn) in between each strand that’s wrapped around the section of frame below? That’s the way to make discontinuous stripes or to make a colour transition.
You REALLY have to use elbow grease to scrunch your fibres closely together
The conical shape of the top/bottom sections of pendant light frames dictates that you’ve got to fully compress your fibres when wrapping around the conical sections. If you do this well, then you’ll have fewer gaps in the middle (and straighter) section of your light. When I say elbow grease, I mean push those fibers together like your life depended on it. If you’re wrapping section by section for the effect of discontinuous stripes, then there should be no more than a 1″ gap between your wrapped fibers and the frame’s section divider. 1″ max of wiggle room:
No more than 1″! I wrapped this lamp by going all the way across the top first, and then repeated the process with the bottom half. That meant I had to be on point with my 1″ gaps between section of fiber and frame.
If you leave more than an inch of space, here’s what happens. This is another cautionary tale. You see how on the blue lampshade against the floor there’s frame peeking through the bottom hoop? That is a visual deterrent that takes away from the surface’s smoothness. That’s what happens when you leave more than a 1″ gap.
Use a shuttle; just trust me on this
I was a shuttle resistor. I hate to use an unnecessary tool, especially one that feels (at first) like it hinders my physical movement. Even with the most perfectly designed shuttle, you have a tool in your hands that acts as an extension of your body and you lose the simplicity of a fully tactile approach. The shuttle acts as a prosthetic of sorts.
Wrapping a shuttle is easy and kind of fun.
Here’s the truth: it does take slightly longer to make each individual wrap and weave with a shuttle. However, that extra time is NOTHING in comparison to the time you’ll lose trying to untangle the knots that form at the ends of your strands of fiber. I’m not just trying to upsell you on our “Easy Glide Shuttle Set”! Although, I do want you to know that I did have plenty of fun writing their description (hey, maybe this is the one listing description people will actually read!). Ok, but back to the point at hand. If you don’t use a shuttle to wrap your pendant light, you will literally have to unknot the ends of your fibers at least once with every wrap. That’s a lot of time lost in stubbornness when you could instead be using that time to build physical skill and muscle memory with a shuttle. The building that muscle memory will aid you with your future fiber endeavours; whereas, untangling knots…not so much. One exercise seems far more generative than the other.
The lighter your wrapping colour, the more cohesive your light’s surface will appear
I dislike having to admit to this because I’ve created an entire collection of yarn-wrapped pendant lights purposely styled with bold, saturated, primary, in-your-face-bright shades. For some reason, I’ve been feeling like I need to leave neutrals back in 2023 and be braver with the colours I create with. But I will say that there’s a very strong possibility that when it comes to lighting, lights/earthies/subtle colours/naturals might do a better job of housing lumens cohesively.
Furry companions will hunt you down as you wrap a pendant light
Why companion species take such avid interest in this process is somewhat beyond me–but they do. My cat took advantage of every opportunity she could to use the pendant light frame as a bed. She loved it, and now I’m inclined to make her a yarn-wrapped bed.
This is Lemmy. She looooooooves pendant lights.
When I wasn’t watching, my dogs snuggled up against the lights too. It was a whole thing.
This is Gerda. She was perpetually in maximum snuggle mode with partially-finished pendant lights
Hanging (or docking) accessories make life better when it come to yarn-wrapped lights
What I love most about our lampshade frames is that we designed them with creative accompanying solutions for hanging and staging. The reality of lighting dictates that you do need to work with an ugly electrical cord. Bonus points for macrame-ing around your cord! That will add with its beautification.
We created a discrete Pendant Light Arm to help you cope with
a) hanging your light from a wall (say, you don’t have a ceiling that’s the right height for a pendant light)
b) helping you with cord-tidying. You can wrap your cord (even if macrame’d) around the angled arm of this wall hook and it means you’ll have less excess cord to contend with.
This is Loren assembling our “Terraformer” Grow Light frame (you can see it’s hung from our Pendant Light Hook too). Gotta love a man who faffs with plants ; Just look at him joojing!
We also designed an innovative little solution for those people who don’t want to hang their yarn-wrapped lamps at all. We call this the “Landing Pad” and it’s a custom dock that gives the lamp a lift (so that its cord can come underneath concisely) and also so that the fibers you’ve spend days carefully wrapping won’t ever fray or amass dirt.
See that cute lil’ dock?!
Here it is one more time, just in case you missed it
Well, hope you’ve learned a thing or two about what not to do when wrapping a pendant light. And hope you’ve also gotten a sense of the transparency, work ethic, and love we put into everything we offer at Unfettered co. Have fun illuminating your space!
