Lamp of the Week: 20" Lily Pad

Tiffany lamps usually feature plants and flowers rendered life sized, but the 20" Lily Pad shade is an exception to this design philosophy. Consisting of just two elements, floating lily pads on water, this shade uses forced perspective to make the pads at the top of the shade appear in to recede into the distance. This deceptively simple design uses intricate piecework to create the horizontal pads floating on diagonally swirling water.

For this shade, we used a variety of related green mottled and streaky glasses for the pads and a delicate hammered textured glass made by Schlitz Studios for the sparkling water. Subtle color shifts from top to bottom enhance the horizon line perspective of the design. The lower border row of rippled ovals adds texture and a subtle underline to the piece. Shown on the Grooved base (26" tall) shade was created in 2013 and is in a private local collection.

28" Hollyhock

When Tiffany Studios designed floral themed stained glass shades, the flowers were rendered life size. To create a natural look, the size and shape of the shade will often be dictated by the flower depicted. The 28" Hollyhock shade is an excellent example of how the subject influenced the final shade design. The vertical nature and height of the hollyhock plant lends itself to a cone shape rather than a dome.

For this shade, the blooming hollyhocks reach skywards into the blue summer sky from a base of dense foliage at the bottom of the shade. Multicolored flowers play against one another in joyful harmony. Textured glasses mixed into some of the leaves and flowers add visual interest to the shade. This shade was commissioned as a chandelier fixture by a client in South Carolina.

Lamp of the Week: 16" Daisy

The 16" Daisy Shade is a Century Studios hybrid of a Tiffany Studios shade design. The shade pattern is actually the 16" Black Eyed Susan, but for years Bill had been speculating that the pattern would look wonderful in daisy colors.

While this variation is a Century Studios' idea, it was not unusual for Tiffany Studios to change colors on an existing shade pattern to create a new design. One such example is the 22" Laburnum (when created in golden tones), and the 22" Wisteria (when created in blue tones).

The shade is shown on the Greek Urn base. We create this base at our studio using molds taken from an original Tiffany base. This piece was commissioned in 2014 and is now in a private East Coast collection.

12" Geometric

Commissioned by a New York client, this 12" Geometric shade shifts from purple down to green. The shade is shown on an original Tiffany Studios Zodiac lamp base.

Lamp of the Week: 14" Dragonfly

The 14" Dragonfly shade is a small lamp 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 was created by Schlitz Studios in the early 1990's (Schlitz closed in the mid 90's) and waited patiently for over 20 years in our glass library to be selected for this piece. We created this lamp as a showroom piece in 2015 and it is now in a local collection. The shade is shown on the Mushroom base (16" tall).

14" Geometric with Lustre Balls

Tiffany Studios created geometric shades with many unusual details that individualize the look of the shade. The 14" Geometric with Lustre Balls has the addition of a row of glass lustre balls bisecting the upper and lower portions of the geometric glass tiles. Each hand made ball has a Tiffany lustre surface and is held in place in a custom made, over sized jeweler's style setting. The setting allows light to pass through and around each semi translucent ball to pick up light from within the shade.

The geometric portion for this shade was cut from an orange amber glass made by the Chicago Art Glass company in the early 1990's. The shade is shown on the Small Stick base (20" tall) and was commissioned by a client in New York state.

Lamp of the Week: 18" Trumpet Vine

The Trumpet Vine s one of the four Tiffany Studios 18" shade designs that are topped by a cast crown of openwork branches from which the shade cascades downwards. This shade mixes intensely colored orange/red/yellow flowers and lush foliage against a rich multicolored background. To create the piece, the glasses used include a variety of mottled, streaky, and rippled styles. The heavy branch work that descends into the body of the shade along with the irregular lower border emphasizes the naturalistic look of the lamp. This lamp was made in 2004 and is in a private collection.

10" Japanese Crests

The 10" Japanese Crests shade is a Century Studios original shade design. Ten Kamon (Japanese family crest symbols) are placed around the shade against a stylized background motif. The crests represent a family's lineage and status from ancient times. Each symbol has been hand painted and kiln fired. The 8 Legged Harp base is a telescoping base (19.5" to 24.5" height) that gives the shade the look of a hanging lantern. This lamp was commissioned by a client in England.