28" Easter Lily - Part 1

We have been working on our latest Century Studios' original lamp design, a 28" Easter Lily shade. The process of designing a new shade design always takes a while, and Bill Campbell began by drawing the flowers and creating the composition on a blank form. Once the drawing is complete in pencil, the lines are inked to finalize the design. The design is then copied from the three dimensional form, each repeat is inked in place on the form, and the flat cartoon is numbered. The entire design process takes quite a bit of time to execute. Once we make copies of the working patterns, Bill gave the cartoon a basic coloring so that he was able to begin the glass layout.

Selecting glass for a complex shade like this one is a painstaking process. Each area is carefully considered and as pieces are cut and fit into the pattern, the shade slowly evolves on the light table. Bill is seen choosing flower colors for the shade. Easter Lilies are white, but our client prefers that the shade not have bright white flowers, so mixes tones of white were selected for the flowers.

Once the layout was completed, the foiling began. This design has over 1900 individual pieces of glass, so each step takes up quite a bit of studio time. 

The foiling complete, the form is waxed with our house made tacky bees wax and each piece is individually transferred in place on the form. The next step is to begin the soldering.