take your old lamp shade and remove the boring fabric, leaving just the ring frame.

attach the hardware cloth around the top ring of the lamp shade skeleton with wire (you can use the wire the hardware cloth came wrapped in).

<--that's hardware cloth. :)

using the wire cutters, cut off the excess hardware cloth at the end of the top lamp shade ring. you then can decide how long you want your lamp to be and cut the wire off at that point. note: the longer the shade, the more straws you'll need.

wire the loose ends of the hardware cloth together, again using the wire the cloth came wrapped in and you have your straw lamp shade skeleton!

now for the straws. CUT THEM IN HALF. all of them. and don't worry about making them all perfect. the different lengths will make it look pretty cool. you will end up with a massive pile of bendy straw halves on your floor. that's a good thing. you'll need em.

after all your straws are halved, it's time to start attaching them to your shade. starting from the inside of the shade, fold each straw half in half and wrap around the hardware cloth. do this FOUR TIMES for EACH 1/2 inch opening. at times it may seem totally impossible. not gonna lie. but it's possible. sometimes it needs a little bit of elbow grease to jam them in there, especially when you're getting closer to getting finished.

do this over and over. and over. and over. and over and over and over and over. and over.

hang in there. keep inserting the straws. YOU CAN DO IT! :)

TA DA! all the 1/2 holes are filled with four straw halves. you did it!

now it's time to light it up. :) do this however you wanna. set a candle night light underneath and make it a table lamp. invest in a pendant light kit and hang it from your ceiling. i decided to attach mine to the old lamp the shade came on and added a little more color to make it a table lamp. get creative here. :) enjoy!