Get a nice warm glow inside: Julie Aschkenasy enters a strange world of furry lampshades - and knitted chandeliers

PATRICK QUIGLY has a passion for lampshades. His lighting shop in Covent Garden, London, is striking for its colourful eccentricity. Look in the window and enormous fake-fur shades grab your attention. Inside, shades ranging from the humorous and offbeat to the plain sensible are displayed on every conceivable surface.

'I was worried about having a brick through my window when I started,' Mr Quigly says of his fake-fur shades, 'but I don't even wear leather myself.'

The shop contains plenty of conservative shades as well as flamboyant ones. 'People look at the wonderful things but 90 per cent of them go for safe styles,' he says. His 'safe' designs include a stand-alone cylinder light in neutral parchment that gives a subtle warm glow. It costs pounds 49.

Mr Quigly has 15 years' experience supplying shops such as Mr Light, Liberty and The Conran Shop. 'I used to make coolie shades for Mr Light and they just took off. And calico shades with paint splashed over them. I guess I've made about 10,000 shades. That's a lot of glue inhaled]'

He also provides a bespoke service for which you can choose from many permutations and even provide your own material. A Kananga wall-cone light covered with fake fur or crushed velvet costs from pounds 49. Cotton muslin lamps cost from pounds 29, and recycled Nepalese paper shades pounds 12; these fold into flat packs and are handy for gifts, as are Mr Quigly's Japanese table lamps. Made of manila card or hand-made paper in red, yellow or white, they are bestsellers at pounds 29. Silk lanterns by Peter Wylly in vibrant shades including red, rust, green and cream are pounds 55- pounds 65. Fake-fur chandeliers cost from pounds 350 upwards.

AS IF to prove that knitting isn't boring, designer Dan Maier has created an extraordinarily elegant range of knitted cotton harlequin- shaped chandeliers. 'I had some lighting ideas at college seven years ago,' she explains, 'but the idea for this range came from props I did for a Wallis window-display job last year. It seemed a natural development to create a range of colours and shapes more accessible to the domestic market.'

She has been selling to shops since March and is already wary about giving away production secrets. 'I use a team of knitters but can't say more.' Her customers come from all quarters. 'I did a shade for a child's bedroom - a Man U fanatic. Obviously it had red and white panels and we engraved players' names on discs, too. Just outrageous.'

Her 'All in One Natural' is an ivory shade in the same harlequin shape with a simple look that would fit a more sophisticated, expensively furnished room. Prices range from pounds 69 for an 18in 'All in One Natural' to the 'Pineapple Pearl', her piece de resistance - an elaborate, layered confection with points descending in size, each tipped with a pearl bead - at pounds 200.

Patrick Quigly Lampshades & Lighting, 7/9 Earlham Street, London WC2 (071-240 8001). Other stockists include The Conran Shop, 81 Fulham Road, London SW3 (071-589 7401); Liberty, Regent Street, London W1 (071-734 1234); Purves & Purves, 80-81 Tottenham Court Road, London W1 (071-580 8223); Furniture Union at Frasers, Glasgow, 45 Buchanan Street, Glasgow (041-221 3880).

Stockists of Dan Maier's lampshades include: Harvey Nichols, Knightsbridge, London SW1 (071-235 5000); The Furniture Union, 46 Beak Street, London W1 (071-287 34240); Gallery Singleton, 40 Theobalds Road, London WC1 (071-831 6928); Frasers, 45 Buchanan Street, Glasgow (041-221 3880); or direct from Dan Maier, Extraordinary Design, on 081- 808 3969.

(Photograph omitted)