Lamp of the Week: 16" Cyclamen

 

The 16" Cyclamen shade is a rarely seen Tiffany Studios shade pattern. The flowers for this shade were made from "gold pink" glass that was created by Schlitz Studios in the 1980's. Gold can produce beautiful pinks (and purples) that have a distinctive fuchsia tone, which is perfect for cyclamen flowers. The delicate blooms hover peacefully against a blue sky above a blanket of dappled foliage. The shade is shown on the slender Grooved base (26" tall). This piece was created in 2019 and is in a home in Massachusetts. 

A Busy Week in the Studio

With several active projects at different stages, we have spent this past week multitasking. The week began with Irwin Terry completing the soldering on a shade while Bill Campbell continued the layout of an 18" Wisteria shade. Bill took time mid-week to do some patina work and Irwin moved over to cutting the wisteria pieces that Bill had laid out.

In anticipation of our visit to the bronze foundry this coming Monday, Irwin spent several mornings pouring waxes for lamp bases. The waxes need time to cool in their molds during the day so Irwin pours waxes in the morning and removes them late afternoon. Later in the week, Bill prepared the waxes for the foundry by removing flashing and filling minor surface air bubbles with wax. We will be picking up raw bronze castings at the foundry, so the coming week will be a mix of work on the bases while continuing work on the Wisteria shade.

 

Lamp of the Week: 14" Daffodil

Daffodils were Louis Comfort Tiffany's favorite flower, so it comes as no surprise that Tiffany Studios produced daffodil lamps in numerous sizes and shapes. The 14" Daffodil is the smallest of the various daffodil shade designs we create. Springtime greens in the leaves are accented by the green ripple glass in the border rows. Sunny yellow flowers play against a pale blue sky creating an overall light and airy tone to the shade. The shade, created in 2014 and now in a private local collection, is shown on the Mushroom base (16" tall).

24" Snowball

This past week we completed the 24" Snowball shade. This design is often mistakenly referred to as a hydrangea, but the original Tiffany Studios price lists identify the design as a snowball. Hydrangea flowers are more conical in shape while snowball flowers are round. Snowball bushes can reach heights and widths of 8 to 20 feet, so this large flowering bush makes a perfect subject for the generous proportions of a 24" shade.

Covered in flowers and foliage, this masterful design invites the lamp artist to pull out all the stops when selecting glass. Irwin Terry chose to restrict the tones of the shade to green and white, composing a symphony of subtle variations in color and texture. Streaky, ring mottled, rippled, fracture/streamer, and drapery glasses playfully interact with one another. Much of the unusual rippled and fracture/streamer glass in this shade was created in the 1980's and 90's by Schlitz Studios and the Lins Glass Foundry. These rare glasses have been expertly blended with glasses from Youghogheny, Uroborus, Oceana and Bullseye.

The 24" Snowball is shown on the impressive Sr. Floor Smooth base (72" tall). This lamp is currently available for purchase from our studio showroom.

Lamp of the Week: 14" Dragonfly

The 14" Dragonfly is a compact shade with a large personality. For this example, green dragonflies hover over a jeweled pond of heavily rippled blue/green glass tinged with yellow and white. The ripple glass chosen for this shade was created by Schlitz Studios in the late 1980's/early 90's (Schlitz closed in the mid 90's). We created this lamp as a showroom piece in 2015 and this glass waited patiently in our glass library for over 20 years until it was selected for this lamp. The shade is shown on the Mushroom base (16" tall) and it is now in a local collection.