Repairing Moss Spun Fiberglass Lamp Shades

A couple days ago I shared our collection of Moss lamps. The reason why a lot of these didn’t survive is because of the delicate spun fiberglass shades. Often times the shades would unravel. So, what do you do if you find a Moss lamp but the shade resembles a messy birds nest and is not too far gone? There is a cheap and easy solution….Elmer’s glue and water.

1. Clean the lamp shades of any debris
2. Dilute the glue in some water. There isn’t a science to this. Just get it to a consistency that will allow you to paint the mixture.
3. Paint the shade with the glue mixture
4. Allow to fully dry before placing shades back on the lamp

Tips:

• My shades still had their original shape. If your shades are floppy you’ll want to do the same process but over a mold that has the shape you want. I had a shade that became floppy but originally had straight edges. I created a form out of wood for the shade to sit on before I started painting so I could get the straight edges.
• If you have thin areas or small holes in your shades, before step 2 trim off some of stray fiberglass and use it to patch the areas during step 2.

Here are some before and after pictures.

Before

After