I think 1 inch is way too thick. People have problems "wetting" or getting thin fiberglass sheets thoroughly soaked with epoxy, so I wouldnt bet on the 1 inch working. As others have said, the thin sheet route would be better. You could prolly even pigment the epoxy and get a nice layered effect if you wanted-but thats getting ahead of things. You could test compression by just wetting it with water and see how much it compresses, I would think.

You would want a long set epoxy. One option is glaze coat, which you can get a lowes, its good stuff and really handy. But there are professional epoxies that might be better suited that are designed to have their set times altered by controlling the ratio of epoxy to hardener. They might be thinner and better absorbed, too, glaze coat itsnt really designed to be used with cloth like that. Marine epoxies are supposed to be good.

I was thinking of doing something similar at one point. I ended up on a model RC plane forum. Those guys know alot about epoxies and using them with cloth to build structures, since thats how some of them make their planes. I dotn know if it thats specialized subset of model plane building or not, but I didnt have trouble running across it on the internet, if you're inclined to look. There was alot of info there--almost too much, in fact. It would have taken me a few hours reading to catch up and understand what they were talking about, and I really didnt feel like doing that at the time.