I'm making a hanging lamp, consisting of rusty chain wrapped in copper wire, each link acting as a vertabrae and the ribs formed from various rsuted junk from local train tracks. I want to make the shade of papier mache, most likely by inflating a baloon inside of the completed ribcage till it is flush against the inside, and then pushing and smoothing to fit the papier mache in between the baloon and the structure. I'm new to this so I was wondering if anybody had any hints in terms of how to go about it, and how it works in terms of lampshades? I'll probably use either toilet paper or rice paper since I don't want any text to show and I won't be painting over it.

Here are some of my questions:

What should my concerns be in terms of fire protection?
Has anybody mixed watercolor into the glue to get colored/semi-transparent papier mache?
Is this totally unrealistic, and if so, any alternative ideas? (the basic structure is already done)


Thanks
Sam