lunette-shade

Right after I posted “Are you a secret lighting designer?” about down-loadable lamp shade plans and cool, flame-proof materials to improvise with, I came across this really inspired, inexpensive, endlessly useful clip-on lamp shade for sale at tweek.  It’s just about perfect for hanging bulbs or wall fixtures. Still, I couldn’t help falling into an obsessive Google hunt to find the material it is made out of:  glass fiber paper seemed like a brilliant material to use in d-i-y shades.

lunette-clipon-shade2

Apparently glass fiber paper is normally used for air filter monitoring, but it’s qualities are definitely perfect for lamp shades and lighting in general: it has high temperature resistance, well past 500 degrees; it’s nicely translucent; and it’s tensile, that is, it can be flexed and bent, cut and sewn.

Then I went on the hunt to buy it retail. I surfed the internet for ages, one thing leading to another (filling my head with lots of esoteric, possibly-useful-sometime-in-the-future info). I went from wholesale suppliers in China who required bills of lading and gigantic quantities, to glass-blowing sites (there’s something called fiber paper that seemed possible, though I’m doubting it now) and finally to a laboratory supply site that had glass fiber filters in various usable sizes. The problem: you can only order in quantities of 100, EXCEPT for one rather limiting size: 14.2-inch round, which you can only buy 25 of, for $40.

My searches to find materials or information for the projects I have in my head have been known to follow exactly this path: stalling for a while with a question, and no answer. Yet.

I’m putting the word out: DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE TO BUY GLASS FIBER PAPER? . I plan to look for a walk-on laboratory supply store.

The answer, no doubt, will come.

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9 replies on “great clip-on lamp shade (+ the search for glass fiber paper)

  1. You can buy the glass fiber paper…as glass fiber FILTERS from an HVAC supplier. I am not sure if you have to buy like a hundred at a time, but I did see suppliers on the Web that sell the material in disc shapes as filters. Also, they come in different densities, which would allow more or less light to filter through…

  2. Correction/addition to my previous post:
    These discs are sold for air sampling…industrial hygenists use them for air sampling. At least two companies sell them: F and J specialty Products and Millipore.

  3. Thanks for this info Nina.I found a page on F & J Specialty’s website that shows you can get glass fiber paper in 8 x 10 sheets (or else most filters are small rounds) http://www.fjspecialty.com/filtpap.htm I called and the minimum order is a box of 100 sheets for $210. They said they sell mostly to the government and laboratories and thought a laboratory supply store might be a viable bet. Which leads us back to the 14-inch rounds I mentioned in the post.
    Thanks to you comment, we do know the term often used is. Glass Fiber Filter Paper, which helps. Onward!!

  4. You are not alone in this quest! When we ran out of paper for our Lunette’s last year, we searched high and low and started freaking out, thinking we would be able to keep making them. It took us a long time, but we found someone!

    We ordered our glass fiber paper from this company:

    TAP Plastics
    1859 Pacific Ave
    Stockton CA 95204
    209 937 9300

    Good luck and happy designing!

  5. Lori from Tweek Studio, thank you SO much for offering this information. It is an example of the kind of generosity that occurs often on the internet (and on this blog), in people sharing information and resources, even when it might conceivably be thought of as going to a “competitor” (in an old-model way of thinking). What is does, actually, is build good will, makes the Lunette’s seem even more beautiful, and empowers whoever wants to to play around with the material to see what they discover/come up with.I am blown away! Thanks again.
    (TAP Plastics website is at http://www.tapplastics.com/index.php?.

  6. You can go to any stained glass store and purchase fiber paper. It is the same paper they use in kilns to keep the glass from sticking to the shelf.

  7. You know, I saw fiber paper mentioned on stained glass and glass-blowing sites but didn’t know if it was the same stuff. Thanks for letting me know; that makes getting it in small quantities a whole lot easier.

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