![mid century lamp shade in need of repair](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM4C2w5MxEIpHtlyJ9TgUCLihZPxA_yTus4QELDmjA5k-nYELa9OA2UIQLPNS2V6fsbxssXd9RFWftq1JCPzpnw4E6Qt5jniERaAYntzsMp2f39LkWkgTfYIQJr2XbOcAO2AcH5pqybd37/s320/20161004_120051.jpg)
I
was gone all weekend on a trip, so I decided to take today off to catch
up on my lost weekend, and to do some work as well. I found this old
lamp shade for maybe $2 bucks at a yard sale here in Minot earlier this
spring during the spring city-wide yard sale weekend. I saw it sitting
there, my wife asked about it, and I don't recall the exact figure - but
it was something between 50 cents and 2 bucks. We scarfed it up, and it
immediately went into a box in the garage as a future project when we
got home that afternoon (I have quite a few pending projects). As found,
it was kind of a mess (as you can see from the first photo to the
right). The leather lacing holding the fiberglass cloth on rings was
dry, ripped, and torn away in places. The fiberglass cloth itself was
torn and punctured, *really* grungy, and the lowermost metal hoop was
dangling open, broken. Its condition was not good, but I thought I'd
pretty easily be able to salvage it - I've never repaired one of these
before, but how hard could it be? So this afternoon, I drove off to the
local craft supply place and picked up a 25 yard roll of leather lacing
from the bead department, and I was ready to give it a go.
![fiberglass lamp shade disassembled](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_fKd4FSRjcqDH5ymKCkdlleYNKVUc2arBc7Hkyzfljm1sVmujdY-lm7Qq94QuazbAh1PiR0fxtv1Y5G4NA6mZpOTRzvqbMGlp7ccuXR3giu6ZHIC8GVPjOC0jOJ_V-hOMlOSOmVq12WNU/s320/20161004_121418.jpg)
The
first thing I needed to do was to completely disassemble the lamp shade
- which wasn't at all difficult given the shade's condition. It came
apart quite easily by cutting through the remaining laces, and carefully
removing the two strips of fiberglass material from the metal hoops.
The fiberglass wasn't in as bad a shape as I had originally thought, but
now I could clearly see exactly how dirty the shade was. So into the kitchen it went for a detergent scrub with a plastic bristle
brush. I scrubbed it pretty lightly, but I did also give it a couple of
squirts of blue cleaner spray where the stains were particularly
stubborn. After a few minutes work, it was as clean as it was ever going
to be again - still yellowed, but now much of that would be simply from
age.
![fiberglass lampshade hoop repair](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOYEwuCA2DZKi9wk0c_krsWLqSAJoQpPA6zclszlt7uUTkRHwajzRpYjJ1-dRH1N-c7DoV1MFnmkhiSAqgxJQHnuV4d065ztdSs33T2VuxN0sQDgL4YtKWz-WA1gC4P5CRRdn9HUvPLLbh/s320/20161004_134946.jpg)
Next,
it was time to address that broken ring problem. I don't have a welder,
and I don't think I know anyone with a welder, either - and the ring is
steel - so I wasn't sure what to do. I do have a lot of electronics
supplies though because I like to repair old vacuum tube stereo
electronics. Including a pretty nice soldering station, and lots of
solid core wire of various gauges. What I came up with was to lightly
sand the hoop to ensure that solder would stick, flux it, and then very
tightly coil a length of 22 gauge solid core copper wire around the
break in the hoop. I dabbed just a bit of solder on one end of the wire
and tacked it to the hoop first to make this a bit easier. Here is what
it looked like before I gave the entire area a good coat of solder.
Problem solved - and plenty robust enough for a lamp shade which will be
handled gently in any case.
![re-stringing mid century lamp shade](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSaTGxseOxSFdszClTpJ27h-YtrjEcX3oynX_VM2UYqOJuAiTkZjqRKMB-9CjQ3r1eYRZZBmRkx9ZuVs0Mh6VPR9YYF2Q4EyesWE69GNWf_oHtRiU4k9M5I8EPu3VeNTLfCH4BAa5JVcNd/s320/20161004_123953.jpg)
Now
it's time to get the fiberglass back on. I started with the double hoop
for the bottom part of the top piece of this two-part shade. I tied a
knot on the ring near one of the connectors to the other ring, and
started feeding the flat leather lace through the holes. If you ever
decide to re-do one of these shades, you definitely want to make sure
that the good side of whatever lace you end up using is orientated
toward the outside of the shade, and also to follow the original pattern
of the lace (which was pretty easy in my case, as I could see the very
pale places that the old lacing had been on a yellowed background. Here
is what the shade looked like when I was just getting started
restringing the lacing.
![tiered fiberglass lamp shade re-assembly](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6oIwTsgYT2oD1YfIvnVaYyBgiHmOtNZERflvSCpcclyO0BGvfvBJwZLwgthAU3E9AKE54MjWc2xHaSxaP41hqqWK5UG40LqaQ2mzpLlQ5gFyoUse1VYhHwmm1YsM5gapuleGiNc7giSPE/s320/20161004_131905.jpg)
The
actual re-lacing was the most tedious part of the whole project. You
really have to make sure that as the lacing is threaded through the
holes all the way around the hoop that it is flat, and that the lacing
is as tight as possible. I gave up on this approach after the first loop
was 'finished' when an inspection revealed that there was quite a bit
of slack in the lacing in some places. What I did after that was to lace
the loop onto the fiberglass more loosly (in other words, don't worry
about how tight the lacing is at first), and then when it was on and
nice and flat, I would secure the end with a kitchen bag clamp (like for
potato chips). I then started working my way around the loop from the
tied end, taking out slack and tightening up the lacing all the way
around as I went. When I got to the end, I just tied the two ends
together with a double knot. This approach worked like a charm. Here's
the top strung up - just about to get started on the bottom.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxgI8Mk4mBXzcUNAfbd1ACdojuhpuCuT6phsZxKoWhaosP30Tq5BvRNmKhnqVCSOOUXEFqIZ0fQdvt-02LL2UOlLwt_mmCKpjpWlfC5-_BpoAF7GY2HBiDDD42BjsGoJ_fPmdu0RWkmQe3/s320/20161004_141844.jpg)
The
bottom went a bit more quickly even though it's larger - just because I
had figured out the method. I started threading the lacing through two,
and then three holes at a time. This really helped to get the process
moving rapidly. Here is what the bottom looked like as I was just about
finished tightening up the lacing on the first ring. You can see my
kitchen bag clamp holding the lacing from moving around as I was working
the lace around the lamp shade. The other thing that the clamp really
helped with was to hold the lose fiberglass material up when starting to
loop the lacing through the eyelets. If you don't have some means of
holding the fiberglass cloth to the loop, it just want to fall over and
annoy you. Trust me.
![mid century tiered fiberglass shade complete](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiUtl294nPFpP4_MbtHNpbTbghRcGenqwuAUSlLroNoTz9N4DbiYIfGzrURQ2ETVUGF7Cy40pWCIQ8Vb2t5ymsbdOM6taeU120IoGqclgbuQgH24ZDo49cCTXNSz1fI7K6ic7LEBz3wj3d/s320/20161004_144338.jpg)
Here
is what the shade looked like when I was finished. It came out really
nicely. Notice that the overlap of both the top and bottom parts of the
shade line up on one side - this is important when you're starting to
lace the leather through the eyelets - the shade would look pretty bad
if both of the seams didn't line up and go in the back when mounted to a
lamp base. As you can see from this picture, the light really
accentuates the overlap. It would look strange with the overlap offset
around the shade. I think now, I would be willing to source my own
fiberglass cloth and make my own lamp shades, something I've been
reticent to try until now.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIVAQ1E1OGdFKzSzzzcaVUWKccGL6hPNa_eNJPLV5GVg98nhtKk9cT6jENJhyBMDvDdutZjLd0oImzfEReU-af1B6DrjNS_XfvT_ZUbD4dgi_VOY2A9mN0fZXfMUa_Z4128cGqpHgrir45/s320/20161004_144839.jpg)
I
do not have a lamp base for this shade to go on, but it's going to go
into a box and into storage for the time being - these nice big real
vintage double fiberglass shades go for some pretty hefty bucks - if
you've ever looked for one for a vintage lamp base, you know just how
pricey they can be. this one cost me a total of $14 bucks. $2 for the
shade, and $12 for 25 yards of leather lacing. Altogether, I think this
project took me about two hours to complete. By far the repair work to
the hoop, and the lacing took the longest to get done. Here is what it
looks like on my green lucite lamp base. I really dig the swirling
fibers that are impregnated in the fiberglass cloth of this shade. The
nice light color and non-painted cloth will match well with whatever
lamp I decide to put this shade on down the road as well.
Nice job. Thanks for the tips, getting ready to re-lace two square shades.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHelpful read. Just picked up a similar lamp and need to replace, but wasn’t sure where to go for the twine.
ReplyDeleteWhere would one find the fiberglass shade fabric? I found a fun mid century lamp that was perfect, until I got it home. Somehow the shade got broken ( we are not going to talk how it happened or who might have caused it....) 🙄. Anyway after reading your post, I think it sounds doable - if I can get the "fabric"
ReplyDeleteThere are a couple of companies that build authentic replacements so you may be able to buy it from them. If you Google fiberglass lampshade, they will come up.
DeleteDitto to the above comment! I have a ring but no fiberglass... Is it still possible to find fiberglass like this? Or any ideas on alternatives? I appreciate the help!
ReplyDeletedo you know where to buy fiberglass cloth?
ReplyDeleteDo you know where I can find a lamp shade like that?
ReplyDeleteSo helpful!! I had a lampshade just like this that I fixed up after reading. The fiberglass irritates my skin a bit so I think I would wear gloves next time I clean one!!
ReplyDeleteLooking for cleaning your fiberglass shower? Get expert reviews about best fiberglass shower cleaners to get ease in the cleaning process.
ReplyDeleteGreat, step-by-step instructions - THANK YOU !!!!
ReplyDeleteGreat job!!
ReplyDelete