The Dogwood Ball Lamp is a unique combination of shade and base. The tall and slender base supporting a delicate orb has the feeling of a graceful Art Nouveau fantasy. The 10" round shade is held aloft by a special six-pronged crutch on the Artichoke Trumpet base (total lamp height 30.5").
This unique lamp is currently available for purchase from our studio showroom.
Bold red flowers group together at the top of the shade, blending into tones of pink and white as the clusters descend. The background is a light milky white glass with fracture/streamer. This special glass was made more over 25 years ago.
The 18" Tyler features a swirling ribbon sweeping across the upper portion of a geometric shade. The exotic interplay between geometric and organic is accentuated by the shade's turban shape. This shade was paired with the Decorated Trumpet base (21" tall) and has been sold.
It was a busy week at Century Studios. In addition to working on our lamp projects, we received two crates of glass from the Youghiogheny Opalescent Glass Co. on Wednesday. We do not have a loading dock at the studio, so the crates were delivered to the the sidewalk outside our front door. Fortunately, it was a beautiful day with late summer sunshine and moderate temperatures.
As each sheet of glass was carefully removed from the crates they were carried into our studio showroom.
The stunning sheets of glass were then carried to the light table to be examined before finding their way into our glass racks. These inspiring sheets of glass will soon be incorporated into upcoming projects along with the other sheets in our glass library.
STUDIO HOURS
Century Studios will be closed September 14 through September 21. Beginning September 22 we will have erratic studio hours for the following two weeks.
Photos by Dustin Nelson
The never fading beauty of the flowers covering the 25" Rose Bush are a symbol of love, admiration and grace. This recently completed shade is installed as a chandelier fixture over a large dining table in a private Midwestern home.
Lush flowers cavort and tumble across this generously proportioned shade. Bill Campbell chose a lively mix of reds for the roses, and each bloom is composed of several different glasses that have been expertly blended together to give depth to each bloom. Sturdy stems and lush foliage give a fullness to the design. The multicolored background includes blue, light amber, and peach, adding fullness to the look of the shade.
Hybrid tea roses are not a common motif in Tiffany lamps, with Louis Tiffany and his designers preferring wild roses. This lamp design shows the grandeur and beauty of the rose in all its glory.
The 16" Poppy has a simple elegance that makes it the perfect lamp for any room in the house. Rising from an undulating band of leaves, the bold poppy flowers dance across the upper portion of the shade. Metal filigree adds depth to the flower centers. The veining on the leaves is achieved through placing the filigree on the inside of the shade, behind the semi-transparent green glass.
A cheerful yellow glass was chosen for the background of the shade which sets off the orange poppy flowers. Ripple glass in the lower border rows gives additional visual interest to the piece. The shade is mated with the Lummis base (19" tall). This base design has a modern look that was inspired by the seed pod of a lotus plant.
This lamp is currently available for purchase from our studio showroom.
We have completed several projects recently. This 10" Geometric on a Ruffle base (overall lamp height 17") was created with a dramatic shift from white to green. The ripple glass in the upper and lower borders adds visual interest to the shade.
The 12" Apple Blossom shade is an accent lamp with a light and friendly personality. The pink and white flowers are set against a green and yellow background. The shade is shown on the Zodiac base (16" tall).
The mottled green and yellow glass chosen for this 16" Acorn shade was from a line of glass called Circa 1900, which no longer being produced. The Arts & Crafts feel of the shade is enhanced by the delicately intricate Cereus base (17" tall).
All three lamps shown have been sold and are in private collections.
Tiffany Studios created a variety of fixtures using chain mail. At Century Studios we recreate the distinctive Chain Mail Lantern. Each square of the curtain of chain mail is carefully crafted by hand, a process that Irwin Terry refers to as "weaving in metal and glass". Chain mail can be made made using any color of glass. We chose n emerald green ripple glass for this example.
The 18" Flowering Lotus is one of Tiffany Studios' most ornate lamp designs.
The integrated shade and base work together to create an illuminated sculpture that starts at the table with a profusion of cast bronze lily pads.
The 10 Light Lily Pad base (27.5" tall) has a vertical thrust of ten individual light stems that rise up to form a column that supports the shade. Each stem ends in a light socket that illuminates the shade at multiple levels.
The upward trajectory of the bronze stems continues into the design of the shade as the glass flower stems split into a cascade that splays forth from the top of the shade like a waterfall. The stems and water at the top of the shade must be painstakingly cut, fit, foiled and soldered with precision as many of the upper pieces are slivers of glass that are narrower than the thickness of the glass. A series of eight vent holes were designed into the shade to allow the heat from the lights to dissipate.
The lower half of the shade is covered in lotus flowers and leaves. For this shade we selected an exuberant mix of pink glasses for the flowers themselves. The colorful stems are set against a watery background of blues and purples.
This lamp was created for a client in Georgia and has been sold.
The 14" Dragonfly packs a lot of punch into a compact shade.
As a counterpoint to elaborate floral designs, Tiffany Studios created geometric shades in a dizzying array of shapes and sizes. At Century Studios we continue this tradition, enjoying the possibilities available with this versatile style of lamp. For this 10" Geometric shade we chose a glass with a light mix of white, pink and blue that sweetly blends together giving a mother of pearl glow. The shade is paired with the delicate Queen Anne's Lace base (overall lamp height 17"). This lamp is currently on display in our studio showroom and is available for purchase. (Note - Since posting this lamp it has been sold and is no longer available.)
Century Studios was founded on June 1, 1986 by Irwin Terry and Bill Campbell. Over the past forty years Century Studios has steadfastly built a reputation for creating exceptional reproduction Tiffany lamps.
Irwin Terry in 1986 at a local antiques show, gaining inspiration next to what was being sold as an original Tiffany Studios 28" Magnolia floor lamp.
After three years of working from our home we moved our studio to the downtown Minneapolis warehouse district in 1989. This was the home to our studio for twenty years. These photos of our storefront and studio showroom are from around 2007.
Visitors to Century Studios stepped into our showroom and were invited to wander through the doorway at the back to learn how we made the lamps on display. We still invite visitors to view our works in progress and are happy to answer questions about our works.
Irwin Terry and Bill Campbell in the Minneapolis studio from the late 1980's. Below is another studio workroom shot from the mid 1990's showing our glass racks behind us.
Here is our St. Paul, Minnesota studio showroom in June 2009, just after we moved in.
We would like to extend a sincere thank you to all of our clients who have made it possible for us to spend our lives doing what we love. Even as we celebrate our milestone 40 years in business, we still look forward to each day at the studio and to creating new works. As always, our studio is open for visitors to stop in and see finished pieces and works in progress!
Introduced in 1901, the Cobweb lamp was produced as an oil lamp even though Tiffany Studios was creating electrified lamps and fixtures at that time. Fewer than ten original examples are known today, and several of the later Cobweb lamps were made with electrical fittings as oil lamps were going out of style. The Cobweb lamp was included in the 1906 Studios' price list at $500.00 and was discontinued before Tiffany Studios published their 1910 price guide.
Heavy bronze straps representing the trunk of a flowering tree ascend from the table top, splitting into openwork metal branches that support the shade with an irregular rim. The branch work continues into the shade with heavy sculptural leading.
Between the trunks, the base is covered with fine pictorial glass mosaic representing Narcissus flowers. Bill Campbell painstakingly cut, fit, affixed, and grouted the glass mosaic to the bronze lamp base.
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