What about some kind of opaque material painted on a fine translucent cloth such as silk, used as the mask? It would not have to be glass. Just a hypothetical.
I dont know.
If you read N.D. Wilson's article, it took many, many attempts with multiple panes done repeatedly over weeks of time and then he seemed to find only a subset of those to be of any use.
My gut reaction is that a woven material would simply not be clear enough.
But that is only speculation, of course, as Mr Wilson did not use a woven material and does not seem to have considered the first step in making historical facsimilies - be sure to use available materials and processes from the time in consideration.
But I respect his effort here.
I dont want to see some iconic image revered as the last clothe Our Dear Lord wore on this Earth unless it is.
I also want to be certain as to its implications. Since the Mailard process pretty much proves He did die and and that the cloth was removed from Him after his death, it places the fact of an empty tomb on the Day of Pentecost on solid factual ground without only relying on Apostolic testimony.
Though that testimony, vetted by the sacrifice of their own lives, is more than sufficient, it has always bothered me that the more significant relics of Jesus life did not seem to have been kept. Now it seems that many artifacts have been verified by science and history and that is more comforting to me on a sentimental level.
While a large mask painting might be created on silk, the problem with N.D. Wilsons hypothesis is that is just doesn't match the image. Wilson's image is composed of UNBLEACHED linen while the non-image area is sun bleached. That is NOT the case on the Shroud. The color of the linen does not change from non-image to image area. The image exists on a very thin (160-400 nanometer) coating of strach fractions that exist on all of the Shroud fibers. This coating is left over from the fullering technique used on the hanks of linen yarn used to weave the Shroud. The only difference is that on the image area, some of those starch fractions have become carmelized through a chemical change called a Maillard Reaction. This coating can be removed by chemical means or by mere scraping. Under this thin coat, the linen in image areas is essentially identical to linen in non-image areas. Wlson's linen shows a distinct color change THROUGHOUT... from front to back.
The second problem with Wilson's hypothesis is that sun bleaching merely accelerates bleaching that will occur naturally as the material is exposed to light. Eventually, Wilson's sun bleach shroud image copies will fade into the background as exposure equalizes the bleaching. The Shroud has been on display over the centuries... sometimes outside in bright sunlight for days at a time... and no such image bleaching has occurred.
The third problem with Wilson's technique is that he has reported that he DID see a secondary face on the back of the cloth... but only after the front was exposed for a long period of time. If this is the case, he will find that the bleaching reaches all the way THROUGH the cloth... and through the fibers... and alter the colors inside the fibers as well. The Shroud has this secondary face image... but the color as I have previously mentioned exists ONLY on the surface coating of starch fractions.
Simply speaking, the image on the shroud is not related to bleaching of any kind.