Material Explorations
I love silicone rubber. I came up with the idea for silicone trivets before Williams Sonoma. 
Maybe this time I’ll market my idea.
Silicone rubber sandwiched between two pieces of fiber glass weave. I threw a few flower petals in there for color. Silicone is heat resistant and flexible and translucent but stretchy. Fiber glass is as flexible as cloth and is strong in tension, but like cloth it doesn’t hold its shape.
I combined the two materials to make a flexible but strong translucent material. The silicone has the added benefit of being able to encase objects within it, giving the option of adding color or opacity to sections.
I have come up with an application: a lampshade. I need a lamp under my loft bed that doesn’t take up a lot of horizontal space (to keep it away from my head).
This lampshade wraps directly around the bulb, taking up only vertical space, and because the bulb does not have an on/off switch, the silicone protects my fingers when I twist the bulb to turn it on and off.
Bonus!