Those of us who scavenge for unique, vintage lamp bases know that an acceptable shade doesn't always come as part of the deal. It's useful, then, to have a few tricks up our sleeves for embellishing or creating our own lamp shades. These are three creative examples from folks who've taken the task in hand.

Craft: posted a How To yesterday for making a lamp shade out of a map, via Chez Larsson.

Seattle's Watson Kennedy had these lamps, with sheet music covered shades, illuminating their store displays.

Another Seattle store, Great Stuff, was selling this lamp with a shade made from a "reclaimed" paper wasp nest (and we've featured it before here.)