Restoring a fiberglass lampshade. Part 2.

I hope you had a nice weekend. I bet you've been very curious about the current state of my lampshade, right...?

Where we left-off in part one of this series, I now have clean fiberglass sheets and the lampshade rings. My rings were rusty and dirty, so I rubbed them down with steel wool. This removed the rust and loose bits to prep them for spray painting.

I painted mine with a silver hammered metal spray paint that I already had. The color and finish of the paint doesn't really matter too much, since the rings are so thin and they'll be on the inside of the shade, but I thought a simple metal color would be good, instead of a dark brown or black. Gold would have been a nice choice, too. I let the rings dry for a few days and I was ready to re-lace!

Here's what I used:

• Plastic lacing. I bought this inexpensive lacing at the craft store for less than $2 each. I bought two rolls but only needed one.
• E6000 glue. I did a bit of research to determine which adhesive would be best for fiberglass and really couldn't find anything. E6000 has a strong, long lasting, flexible bond so I decided to use it. I read reports that it may yellow with time, but my fiberglass already has a yellowish tinge to it, so that's fine with me.
• Toothpick - for applying the glue to the fiberglass. Much more precise than squeezing that big metal tube.
• Foil - for spreading out the glue before-hand and catching drips.
• Thin rubber gloves (not shown). These will prevent lots of little tiny fiberglass slivers in your fingers.
• Lampshade parts

I started with the large shade. Cut a piece of lacing about 1.5 times longer than the length of your fiberglass sheet. With the fiberglass sheet facing down on your surface, thread the lacing through the punched hole at the end and knot it around one of the large rings. Keeping the sheet flat on your surface, do a whip stitch with the lacing through the first 3 or 4 holes. keeping your stitches loose.


This was the trickiest part: at some point the sheeting will need to be stood up on it's side. Have someone hold it up for you while you get the stitches going, or (do like I did) and prop it up on a box. Once about half of the sheet is connected to the ring, it will stand up easier in its drum shape and the stitches will go faster.
 

Once you get to the end, lightly tie the lacing around the ring, after going through the first hole again. Then, starting from the beginning, go back and pull the lacing tight through each stitch, making sure the lacing isn't twisted. When the lacing is tight, tie it off with a double knot.


Repeat with the other ring. To glue the seam, use the toothpick to spread a thin layer of E600 in between the two overlapping ends. Just use a little bit. Rest the shade on it's side and place a weight on top of it to keep the seams together. This stone bookend worked perfectly. Let the glue dry.



If you have a double-decker shade, repeat the lacing process with the remaining rings. Use clips on the shade as the glue dries since you can't rest it on its side.



Go get yourself a margarita.

When the glue has dried, remove the clips, make sure the knots are tight, and trim the lacing. That's it!

No dents. Those are just shadows.

Stay tuned for Part 3 of this series where I'll replace a glass pendant shade with this one.