Oz Window, Part 2

Over the past week, Bill has completed cutting and fitting all the pieces for the Oz window. He has also finished all the painting and firing, so it's ready to start assembling. Above, you can see the window laying on a light table - the window is wider than the table, so the entire image isn't lit. The shadow running down the center of the window is a support bar in the table.

In the photo to the right, Bill is hand painting the face of the Hungry Tiger. When painting and firing on glass, the glass chosen must first be tested by firing a sample piece in the kiln to make sure the color and transparency does not change. You can see in the photo that Bill has blocked in the areas he wants to paint, then has to go back in to add color, texture and shading with the glass paints. This process takes a lot of skill and patience. The photo below shows the completed face.

So what has Irwin been doing all this time? Well, he was soldering the Renoir By the Sea window and then he has been working on a small lamp for a local client - more on those projects in later postings!

Wisteria Window

A recently completed window project was a larger Wisteria window for a local client. The design of the window was loosely based on the Wisteria windows which graced the breakfast room of Louis Comfort Tiffany's home in Long Island, New York. The original windows were part of a traveling exhibition a few years ago, and are now permanently installed in the Morse Museum in Winter Park, Fl.

Our window was created to be installed over the front door to our client's home. The roof had a significant overhang to shelter the front stoop, so the colors of the window were kept light and airy. The photo to the right shows the completed window before installation on the light table at the studio.

Oz Window

As Irwin completes the soldering on the Renoir window (see posting from June 28, 2010), Bill has been starting a large "Oz" stained glass window. This window is based on the Oz Parade, shown on the left, a mural painted by John R. Neill in the 1930's.

John R. Neill was an illustrator who is best remembered for illustrating 35 titles in the Oz book series beginning in 1904 and continuing until his death in 1943. Mr. Neill also wrote 3 books in the "official" series. He did not illustrate the first Oz book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, which was published in 1900. It is hard to find a person today that is not familiar with the 1939 movie starring Judy Garland, and the original Oz books are still widely collected. There is even an International Wizard of Oz Club which celebrates all things Oz!

The original mural painting may or may not still exist, but there are a number of watercolor sketches for the painting in different collections. Bill has always enjoyed the parade of colorful characters shown in the sketches, and wanted to create his own Oz Mural in glass.

Above, you can see the working cartoon for the window. The cartoon is the basic pattern or blueprint used for cutting the glass and layout. The cartoon has been given a general coloring, but the final details are not seen in this pattern. Bill has decided to brighten up the glass color selections in the finished window, but the idea is to keep it as Neill-like as possible!

12" Acorn Lamp

Last week, we completed a 12" Acorn shade for a New York City client. Tiffany Studios created Acorn shades in many sizes including 10", 12", 14", 16" and larger. We are pleased to offer all of these sizes for our clients today.

The Acorn shade was originally called a Vine pattern, but today everyone refers to this design as an acorn. The shade we created is more vine-like in coloration with a lush green background and darker green acorns (or leaves).

The base chosen by our client for this shade is our reproduction Chinese base. The design for this base matches the Chinese desk set pieces created by Tiffany Studios.

Upon receiving the lamp, our client wrote, "It surpasses my expectations. The glass is wonderful as is the base. It was well worth waiting for."