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It is a partnership affair. Mrs. Lee makes the shades, using the prairie art-crafts media, and Mr. Lee makes the standards and wires them.

It all grew out of their intense interest in wild life. Also their ability to recognize beauty in the common things about them, and to utilize that material as an art media. Almost everyone can see beauty in the wild flowers. But not so many note the beauty and the art value in the roadside weeds, prairie and swamp grasses, reed and love grass, crested wheat or wild oats. And few, seeing the iridescent, gorgeously-colored feathers of the ringneck cock, the bronzy green collared mallards, the blue-gray polka-dotted guineas or the Wyandotte chickens with their black and white checkerboard necks would ever think of using them for art work. But it is just such commonplace materials that Mrs. Lee is using for her feather-weed painting to produce lovely lamp shades as well as colorful pictures.

AS A little girl Mrs. Lee was a hunting companion to her father. She was entranced by the beauty of the Chinese pheasants he shot. In an effort to preserve their beauty, she started to make trays by arranging these feathers in geometric patterns under glass. Experimenting further, she discovered that from a variety of feathers from the different game birds and domestic fowls, she could make colorful floral arrangements. But by themselves they are rather stiff looking. Appreciating the beauty in the roadside weeds and grasses, she conceived the idea of using some of them to add grace and laciness to her feather designs.

To keep the weeds and grasses from shattering and to hold the feathers in place, she put the composition under glass and framed it. She built up quite a business in feather-weed painted pictures—a slice of the prairie under glass.

The production of the lamp shades now is an extension of that art. However, it involves different materials, including plastics.

But such shades are not too difficult to make, so that the amateur in arts and crafts can produce them, with patience.

First though, you must understand that Mrs. Lee's art materials—feathers and weeds—cannot be bought in a shop. They have to be gathered by hand and stock piled seasonally when available. These materials include the wild June grass, reed and love grass, wild oats, crested wheat, wild dill, swamp sprangle-top, lavender and others. Living in other parts of the United States you may not find these particular weeds and grasses, but you may find others equally suitable for this work. The test of a material's usability is that it must lie flat, and that it will not break or shatter.

These weeds and grasses are at the peak of their beauty only a short time. Hence they must be watched and gathered during that period. For instance, June grass, one of the most adaptable, and one of the earliest, is most fit for use only during a ten-day period. Swamp sprangle-top grows in the swamps and must be harvested from a boat like wild rice. Reed grass is a ditch lover and may be found there, while wild dill and poppies may be grown in the garden for easy cropping.

WHATEVER KIND of weed or grass, they are all processed alike for stock piling. They are pressed—and Mrs. Lee says mail order catalogues are excellent for this work as the leaves are so absorbent. It takes about a week to dry the materials thoroughly, the length of time depending partly upon the humidity of the atmosphere and the amount of moisture in the plant when harvested. Then they are bleached in the sun so that they will take the paint well. One can lay them on a rack in the backyard, placing glass over them so that they will not blow away. The glass, too, hurries the bleaching because of the concentration of the rays. Mrs. Lee, because of the large quantity for her production now uses a section of their ranch green house for the bleaching. Here again the length of time varies as some are deeper in color than others, and then in a moist year, all are a somewhat deeper green. But two weeks on the racks will bleach even the deepest green out of them.

Mrs. Lee then paints them, using any good oil paint in red, green, yellow, blue or any of the pastels. This can be done with a brush, as Mrs. Lee formerly did. But now she dips them in the paint and runs them through an old wringer. They are then dried, packed loosely in layers in cartons, labeled and stored in a vermin proof closet, each kind in its own box.

Because of the up and down seasons, Mrs. Lee tries to stock pile a two-year supply so that she will not run short in case of a dry season or a late spring frost.

Her feathers are also stock piled. Using mostly feathers of game birds, she collects them during the hunting season in the fall. One going into this art work on a small scale would perhaps have a sufficient supply from a few birds. But Mrs. Lee sends her representative to a game processing plant where he is allowed to hackle the desired feathers before the bird goes down the assembly line. He also visits the produce house to get feathers of the domestic fowls such as guineas, ducks, geese, turkeys and chickens, particularly the black and white Wyandottes which make attractive butterflies. With her feathers and weeds on hand, she is then ready for the art or craft work.

MRS. LEE first makes what she calls her "master" design. That is the exact floral pattern she will follow and she may make a dozen shades using the same design. This design is on paper identical in size and shape to the shade. She will then work with this picture before her, as an artist uses a bouquet or vase of fresh flowers for his model.

As the background, leaves and stems of her feather flowers will be painted in, she first makes a stencil of oiled paper cutting out the leaves, stems and butterflies, if the latter are to be painted in.

She then cuts her two-gauge Lumarith plastic, which comes in seven different colors in sheets twenty-one by fifty inches costing about $1.75 a sheet. The shade follows the rounded contour of the frame and it must fit snugly when completed. Mrs. Lee allows a one-eighth turn over at the top and bottom of the frame.

After she has cut the plastic according to the shade pattern, she places it on the wide easel. It is stiff as cardboard so that it stands up easily. She then fits on her stencil and with an airbrush—an automatic paint spray that can be regulated to make either the thinnest hairline or spray a broad background—paints and shades in the leaves, stems and whatever else is to be painted. An ordinary small brush may be used, but the airbrush makes more delicate lines, and it goes rapidly for background. An airbrush is easy to handle and no one would have any trouble learning to use it.

WHEN THE paint is dry, Mrs. Lee is then ready to assemble her design. First she makes her feather flowers. She may make a dozen or two at a time. She selects the color of feathers that she wishes to predominate, for the feathers of the cock pheasant may range in color from bright orange through daintily-patterned browns to iridescent purples. She uses the feather tips for the flower petals cutting them to length according to the size of the flowers. For the center of the flower she glues on a clipped poppy seed head. She uses wild dill for the stamens. The latter she dips in chalk dust or a bit of metallic powder to make them look like stamens loaded with pollen.

With the feather flowers and an assortment of weeds and grasses before her, Mrs. Lee is ready to put the design on the plastic. She first, lightly with pencil, sketches in the design so that she can follow it. Then she fits the flowers into the design, applying a little heat with a small soldering iron to melt the plastic just enough to make it react like glue to hold the flower in place. When the flowers are all on, she then adds the June grass, clipped wild oats or what not of the weeds and grasses to make the flower picture look real. The butterfly may be made from a couple of clipped feather tips. The body and antennae are outlined in with pen and India ink. She then uses the airbrush to take care of any background that was not completed earlier.

The shade is then ready to be put on the copper wire frame which has been slightly heated in an oven just warm enough to heat the plastic where it touches so that it is gummed just enough to stick to the wire. Where the ends come together on the side, a narrow strip of plastic binding tape is used to cover, but the seam scarcely shows. The top and bottom rings of the frame are then heated with the soldering iron so that the plastic when turned over sticks to the rings as if glued. The copper wire frames cost from fifty cents to $1 each in wholesale lots according to the size.

Mrs. Lee then covers the shade with transparent fifteen-gauge Lumarith cut from the same pattern. It has the seam on the side and the same type of turnover at the top and the bottom. It acts like a glass on a picture. It holds the bit of prairie in place so that it will not shatter. The shade is then completed.

Mrs. Lee makes these in all sizes. Then, too, she has originated a TV lamp and shade. Placed on the TV set it gives a soft glow yet does not interfere with reception. The frame is made using number eight copper wire bent into the shape of a shield. The wire extends three-quarters inch beyond the shield to anchor it into the base. The prairie design is then applied as already described, and covered in the same way with the transparent plastic. However, the edge is treated differently. A plastic lacing is used. It is darker in color, contrasting with whatever color is used for the shade. The positions of the holes for the lacing are carefully measured. But before punching the plastic, it is warmed slightly so that it will not crack or split.

The shade completed, it is then ready for the standard and base. Driftwood is usually employed for the standard. Oak or cedar is used for the base. Both are finished by applying several coats of wax, robbing thoroughly before the next application. The lamp is wired so that the bulb is centrally located.

MR. LEE makes the standards of the lamps and does the mounting. Beachcombing along the banks of the Shoyenne River, which fringes the yard of their ranch home, he has picked up charred and sun bleached tree burls, gnarled roots or knees of driftwood. Recognizing their arts and craft possibilities, he concluded that they would make good lamp standards, a perfect compliment to the slice of the prairie on the shades.

Selecting a piece from his pile of driftwood, one whose contour and size seem to be naturally adapted to a certain sized shade, he cleans it thoroughly. He does this by digging out all the foreign particles with a knife, such as soil and loose bits of rotted wood. It is then put on the polisher to complete the work. For the finishing, he may just oil and wax it, polishing carefully, or he may give it a couple of coats of shellac and then when dry, wax. Or he may metalize the standard, using various metallic powders such as gold, silver, bronze, copper or brass. Some of these he antiques by using an oil paint, rubbing it in thoroughly and then waxing. The lamp shade pretty much determines the finish.

The edges of the bases are grooved or corrugated in furrows or scrolls for decorative purposes.

Mr. Lee then does the wiring. For this he needs pliers, drill, small screw driver, electric cording and the copper light fixture, which costs about twenty-five cents wholesale. He drills a one-half-inch hole through the driftwood and midway into the base. Then through the base he drills at right angles to connect with the hole from the top. Through this he passes the electric cord, which is then attached in the light fixture. The latter fits over the rounded off end of the driftwood standard and is attached by small copper screws—two on either side.

These lamps, made completely from prairie products, have caught the public fancy, and they sell from $10 to $40 each with the TV lamps going for $10. The light shining through the colored plastic not only brings out the slice of prairie design in realistic detail, but as the light shines through the plastic, it diffuses it in such a way that it gives the colors a rich opalescent beauty that one does not get from silk or papier mache materials.

MRS. LEE had previously used the feather-weed art media in the production of pictures. She used them for gifts to relatives and friends. Others seeing them, wanted to buy some and before she realized it, she was marketing "Prairie Pictures"—the trade name she selected.

In addition to the sales in her home and those through friends, she placed some in the local drugstore and a gift shop at a twenty-five per cent commission. The demand grew, and she found that she herself could not produce them rapidly enough. So she turned the large basement of her home into a workshop and started to train girls to help her with the assembling of the pictures, painting in the background and in stockpiling the feathers and weeds.

With a force of helpers, Mrs. Lee produced a hundred of such pictures a week, and the nearby markets could not absorb them. But while she was developing this capacity production, she was also opening up new markets. At first she hired a salesman who also handled another product, to find markets in more remote areas throughout the Midwest. That was so successful that she added another and still another until she had three working for her. Some dealers handled them on the twenty-five per cent commission, others bought them at her price and sold them at his own. They were particularly popular with the tourists and with the hunters during the fall. They sold from $3.50 to $15 according to the elaborateness of the design and the size. Once a market was established, it was just a matter of replenishing the stock periodically.

Her husband now has taken over the sales work and covers the Midwest area at least twice a year to visit each dealer to book for more stock, which will be shipped later, or to open up new markets in towns and cities where they have not had a dealer before. It is their policy to place the pictures and lamps in only one store in a town or small city.

When displayed by Mr. Lee as he made his round last spring with the pictures, the lamps met with immediate approval from the dealers, and they placed them in stock. These are sold at the same commission as the pictures. At present Mrs. Lee is concentrating on the lamp shade production.

FEW, PERHAPS, would care to get into such extensive production as have the Lees. But on a smaller scale—one-man or one-woman production—such an activity can be developed into a brisk business with the local and nearby markets absorbing the production. Also, one usually has relatives or friends in more or less distant areas, and through them one may be able to locate new markets for such unusual products, especially if made from materials not akin to those found in their area.

If one lives in another region where he doesn't have access to game bird feathers, he can substitute those from the domestic fowls—chickens, ducks, geese, guineas and turkeys. And the same thing is true of the weeds and grasses. Those of that area may be equally as practical. The test of the latter is that they must lie flat when pressed, and not shatter when framed.

If you feel that you are incapable of originating your own floral designs, Mrs. Lee suggests following some of those found in magazines or floral prints one can buy cheaply in groups. She says: "They will make just as pretty pictures. Once you get into assembling the flowers, you will soon find yourself adding a touch here and there, and it will not be long before you are originating the entire design."

The cost of supplies is almost nil, except the time involved in gathering and processing the feathers and weeds for stockpiling. Only the simplest tools are needed.

If interested, start out making a picture or a lamp shade for the home. Display it to good advantage. Call attention to it when you have company. And if the product is as good as it should be, you may right there create a demand. If you do, your next step will be to place some of them with the gift shop dealer or in the local drugstore. Then go on from there according to the extent of your production.