Lamp Mk III.I

 Abject failure in my first attempt at lampshade making with the 80gsm, woven fibreglass. 

As previously reported, two layers of resin over the one sheet of fibreglass resulted in a transparent sheet. Adding a 2nd layer of fibreglass, sticking it down to the nearly cured resin made it suitably opaque, but it didn't stick anywhere near sufficiently. The two (or even 3) layers need to be applied one after the other between resin layers. Also, the cut ends of the sheets fray like mad.

Nonetheless, I proceeded with trying to shape the fibreglass/resin sheet around the silicone former, but with no success at all. It was simply too stiff and kept folding and creasing in the wrong places, despite the liberal application of heat with the gas gun. It was like trying to put gentle folds into a sheet of cardboard.

It has to be placed on the former while still curing and pliable. Yes, I could have tried applying heat all over the sheet before placing it on the former but, no sooner have you left one area to heat another, the first area has cooled back to rigidity - it's impossible to heat the whole 55cm square sheet evenly.

Here's a comparative photo (right to left) of the MkI, MkII and Mk III.

There's definite improvement and I now have the right overall shape and height. The attention now needs to focus on precision in placing the 4 corners evenly on inside folds, which is a factor of marking the exact centre of the resined cloth sheet and correct placement over the silicone former before shaping.

The Mk IV is now under way.