Studio Hours

Century Studios will be closed

Sunday December 24

through

Monday January 1

28" Magnolia, Part 3 The Completed Shade

After weeks of diligent work we completed the 28" Magnolia shade for our client in North Carolina.

The glass for the shade is a carefully selected blend of white and amber tones. The larger flowers showcase hand folded drapery glass that was made in the 1980's and early 90's by Schlitz Studios. Tiffany Studios only selectively used hand folded drapery glass in Magnolia shades, so to enhance the three dimensional qualities of the flowers Bill Campbell chose a variety of textured glasses for the petals.

The design of the 28" Magnolia represents a magnificent tree in full bloom. The color of each flower was chosen to create the intricate highlights and shadows you would experience when looking at a magnolia tree.

The background shifts from light amber/yellow at the top down to a deeper amber tone on the lower half of the shade. The completed shade has a warm, inviting personality. Our client will display the shade on a large floor lamp base.

Lamp of the Week: 22" Poinsettia

The 22" Poinsettia (commonly called the Double Poinsettia) combines large expressive flowers blooming within a formal trellis. A variety of reds tinged with blue, purple, and yellow were chosen to give the flowers a fanciful, sun dappled appearance. The light blue background glass at the top of the shade deepens to purple mixed with amber at the bottom of the shade. Defining the design and unifying these colors is the trellis with its hints of blue, amber, and green. Created as a showroom piece in 2015 the shade is shown on the Perforated base (24" tall) and is now in a private collection. The fanciful "pigtail" cap gives the visual profile of the lamp added interest.

 

28" Magnolia - Part 2

The work on the 28" Magnolia shade continued at a steady pace. Once all the pieces were laid out, cut and fit to the pattern we began the process of wrapping the edge of each piece in copper foil. Bill Campbell is seen foiling a glass piece. The rolls of copper foil in the red holder have many different widths because thickness of the hand rolled art glass can vary wildly.

Irwin Terry waxed the form with our house made tacky wax. The beeswax based mixture is heated and brushed onto the surface of the Fiberglas form.

Once all the pieces of the lamp were foiled, Irwin began the process of transferring each piece onto the waxed lamp form. 

After mounting the form onto our custom built shade holder, the shade was now ready to be soldered. Our shade holder allows Irwin to easily pivot and spin the shade as he solders. The soldering iron heats the solder to 800 degrees so care must be taken to not touch the surface of the shade as it is being worked on.

Once the exterior of the shade was completely soldered, the lamp form was heated to melt the wax and the shade was removed so that the interior could be soldered. All large shades are reinforced by the application of copper wires that are soldered on the interior of the shade. For this shade six wires were installed to follow the leadlines from the top ring to the bottom rim of the shade. These wires are not seen when the shade is illuminated, but add stability to the piece.

Studio Hours

 

Century Studios will be closing at 2:30 Thursday December 7

We will be closed on Friday Dec 8 and Saturday Dec 9

We will resume regular business hours on Tuesday December 12

 

28" Magnolia, Part 1

Along with the Wisteria and Dragonfly shades, the 28" Magnolia is instantly recognizable as a Tiffany Studios signature lamp design. This generously proportioned shade is inspired by the large Saucer Magnolia tree which blooms before leafing out. 

Commissioned by a client in North Carolina, this shade features an intriguing variety of exceptional glasses. Bill Campbell chose the glass for this shade with an eye for blending both color and texture.

Our client requested that the shade have no pink or blue and minimal green tones. Playing against an amber background and dark tree branches, large saucer shaped flowers are a blended mix of whites. Digging deep into our library of hand made art glass Bill selected a variety of ring mottles, streaky, rippled texture, and hand folded drapery glasses to bring the distinctive flowers to life.

Irwin Terry is shown holding the Fiberglas lamp form on which the shade will be soldered together. We need to block out 4 to 5 weeks of production time to create one of these shades.