Petaluma artist’s handmade lampshades are in homes across the world, even a rock star has one

Diana K. Miller is a Petaluma artist who has been designing Victorian and Bohemian-style lampshades for 38 years. At full price, her artwork ranges from several hundred to a few thousand dollars, depending on labor and materials. Her high-end works of art found in homes and businesses across the country and as far away as England and Australia.

Miller participates in Sonoma County Art Trails, a free countywide art tour featuring over a hundred local artists. The event is planned for Sept. 30-Oct. 1 and Oct. 7-8.

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Petaluma artist Diana K. Miller knows how to light up a room — with her exquisite handcrafted silk lampshades that incorporate vintage textiles, shimmering bead fringe and immense creativity.

She’s been designing Victorian and Bohemian-style lampshades for 38 years. She’s part of a niche group of artisans who create the one-of-a-kind interior accents.“

There are very few people who do it,” she said. Hers are high-end works of art found in homes and businesses across the country and as far away as England and Australia.

“It’s so satisfying to me to create something to be lit up with all the textiles repurposed into an heirloom that can be passed down,” said Miller, 63. “They warm up a house.”

Clients from afar find Miller online but North Bay residents may know her from the annual Sonoma County Art Trails open studios tours presented by Sebastopol Center for the Arts. Miller clears out her living room for the fall event, turning her space into a showroom for her unique designs. She awards a small lamp and handcrafted shade to a lucky winner of a free raffle during each of the event’s two weekends.

To date, she’s created 1,890 lampshades, each signed and numbered.

“These days, they’re all named,” she said. “The names can be from the music I’m listening to while I’m making them, like ‘Heart of Gold’ and ‘Cinnamon Girl’ by Neil Young.”

Her lampshades for sconces, nightlights, floor lamps and table lamps, are designed in a rainbow of colors, from soft tones like champagne and fawn to rich, deeply saturated hues including pomegranate and tangerine.

Her Diana K. Miller Interiors website and other online sites like Facebook and Instagram provide a showroom for her works. While much is commissioned, she also lists finished lamps for sale, including some priced as markdowns. At full price, her artwork ranges from several hundred to a few thousand dollars, depending on labor and materials.

Her lampshades can take from eight to 10 hours to complete, or up to 40 hours, like one she designed for Canadian rock singer-songwriter Devin Townsend. She was commissioned to make a lampshade with a nautical theme for Townsend, whose latest album, “Lightwork,” has a cover design including octopuses.

Miller crafted a large tabletop lampshade shaped like an octopus, complete with metallic French lace; rich hues fading from blues, purples and pinks to limbs of blues and greens; an abundance of vintage German crystals and Czech beads hand strung into a detailed fringe; and big, beguiling hand-embroidered eyes with 3D eyelids.

“He was really happy with it,” she said. “That was a fun, fun job.”

Townsend’s nautical shade wasn’t Miller’s first. The mother of three and grandmother of seven crafted a jellyfish lampshade for one of her granddaughters whose bedroom has an under-the-sea theme.

Some commissions are especially sentimental. Miller has used wedding gowns and mother-of-the-bride dresses in some custom pieces, finding new life for cherished attire.

“You can repurpose it and have a beautiful thing that lights up your house,” she said.

She currently has seven commissions. Clients, she said, “just find me.”

Washington resident Gregory D. Goessman is among those who’ve commissioned Miller. He has 17 of her lampshades in his 1923 Craftsman bungalow. “Diana puts a hell of a lot of time and pride into these shades and that is clearly evident in the finished product,” he wrote in an email.

Goessman said Miller worked with him to achieve his specifications in color and design, going through “an elaborate process” to ensure each lampshade was just right. Miller updates her clients as their lampshades take shape. “It gives them an idea of how it will look,” she said.

Miller dyes her materials with dyes from Dharma Trading Company in Petaluma, often using an ombré technique where one color gradually fades into the next.

“Some people think of me as the queen of​​ ombré,” she said.

Miller has a full-time job as finance director for a homecare agency, but devotes as much of her free time as possible to her artwork.

“It’s hard, but I do work on them almost daily,” she said. “I don’t crank one out every day. Usually I make one every week or two.”

Her workshop extends throughout much of her home. A chest in her living room holds treasured textiles like vintage shawls, scarves and kimonos; antique decorative pillowcases and silk art panels; and unique appliques sourced from across the globe, some through online sites like Etsy, others from people in Europe who shop for her.

Sometimes friends and acquaintances surprise her with bags of supplies they’ve gathered for her.

“I love to work with vintage textiles and appliques of all kinds. I get so excited (finding them),” she said. “I hardly buy clothes anymore. I buy textiles.”

She admits she’s “splurged” on occasion when she comes across something she can’t resist, like 19th century French lace with real metal fibers and antique shawls that beautifully absorb dye. “I spend a lot of money on them,” she said, “but I have a point I don’t go over.”

Among her textiles is an antique Chinese cloth wall hanging of a dragon. She also has embellishments like vintage appliques from a Turkish robe and a French ecclesiastical stole with hand-embroidered silk flowers and silver metal needlework dating to the mid- to late-19th century.

Miller’s works sometimes feature meticulous fan pleating or twist fringe reminiscent of the 1920s and ’30s style.

Her garage houses numerous metal lampshade frames, from the classic tulip to crescents, hearts, umbrella-style and countless other shapes.

“I have hundreds of frames to choose from and I just got more in,” she said. “The more panels, the more variation. I can use more textiles.”

Miller purchases frames from manufacturers but also orders custom frames she designs to best highlight specific embellishments. She places items on an iPad and draws the frame shape around them. It’s one of many steps she takes to achieve her designs.

“The process is fun, the dyeing is fun. It’s fun to see how it comes to life,” she said. “It’s my passion. I love it so much.”

Her work includes restoring lampshades, like one that had been destroyed in a fire. Wearing a face mask and gloves and working outdoors, Miller stripped the burned textiles down to the frame, which she then cleaned with steel wool. From there, she transformed the piece. “It came out so pretty,” she said.

Georgia Moss has about 10 of Miller’s lampshades in her “eclectic” Washington home.

“She is one of the most energetic, creative, talented artists I have come across,” she emailed. “She will not back down from any challenging project. Her masterwork creates an heirloom piece every time.”

Moss said the lampshades are detailed works of art in daylight, but come to life when illuminated at night. They create an ambience, she said, that reflects “that cozy place called home.”

Miller noted that her work is steadily evolving. She discovered the artform in 1984 when she stopped by a crafts store in Aptos and spotted a handcrafted lampshade with a sign announcing an introductory class. She lived in the area at the time, took the class and quickly was hooked. Beyond that initial class, Miller’s design work is self-taught.

“I’ve always loved to craft and create things,” she said. She also is an oil painter, does wood burning to create charcuterie boards and makes mirror frames, garden pavers, tabletops and more using pique assiette, a style of mosaic work using pieces of broken china and ceramics.

Designing lampshades — including Gothic styles — allows Miller to use multiple talents. From her many materials, dyes, beads and embellishments, she envisions a cohesive design that’s sometimes inspired by nature, art, colors or the fabrics and embellishments themselves.

She also selects decorative finials to complete her designs and uses both vintage and reproduction lamps to display her shades.

“Sometimes I have to meditate on it, but it comes easy to me,” she said. Even while relaxed during a massage, her mind wanders to lampshade designs. “I honestly have colors that float into my mind’s eye when my eyes are closed.”

From sunsets to flowers blooming in the garden to paintings and photographs, “I look at things and think ‘lampshade’ all the time.”

Diana K. Miller is a Petaluma artist who has been designing Victorian and Bohemian-style lampshades for 38 years. At full price, her artwork ranges from several hundred to a few thousand dollars, depending on labor and materials. Her high-end works of art found in homes and businesses across the country and as far away as England and Australia.

Miller participates in Sonoma County Art Trails, a free countywide art tour featuring over a hundred local artists. The event is planned for Sept. 30-Oct. 1 and Oct. 7-8.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/dianakmillerinteriors

Instagram: www.instagram.com/dianakmillerinteriors

More information: dianakmillerinteriors.com