I arrive at class tonight with all thirty pieces copper-foiled so, as promised, I get to begin soldering. It is unbelievably fun, melting and dripping that stuff all over the place. I solder together three sets of the two small green and orange pieces that make up the lampshade skirt and will be able to finish the remaining seven sets next week.
Greg then helps me assemble and tape together the main pieces of the shade, and together we raise it up and tack solder all the pieces together. He is so calm about the whole thing that I only realise later that what we were doing was the most precarious and delicate part of the lampshade-making operation, the very thing Dave had warned me about.
I spend the rest of the class carefully peeling off the bits of blue tape and tack-soldering more of the joints between each piece to strengthen them. The whole thing feels pretty sturdy now. Next week, I will turn it upside down and solder the inside of the shade. Sometime before then, I also need to buy a four or five-legged spider crossbar, which I believe is the first of the few lamp fittings I will need to acquire.
It's all getting terribly exciting, and seeing it come together all of a sudden tonight was so super thrilling. It's the last class next week. Greg says I will "come very close" to finishing my shade. I mean to take that as a challenge!
