Year End at Century Studios

 

As 2021 draws to a close, we would like to take this time to thank all our clients for your support and for the interesting projects that keep us excited to get to the studio every day. We also want to thank everyone who follows us on social media for their "likes" and uplifting comments. 

Century Studios will be closed Friday December 24 through Monday January 3. We will resume regular business hours on Tuesday January 4.

The 28" Poinsettia shade pictured was created in 2009 for a client in Illinois.

 

Mosaic Bases

As the end of the year approaches we have been diligently working to complete projects. Bill Campbell has been working on a couple of mosaic lamp bases for clients and is very happy that he has them completed. Traditionally used with the 16" Dragonfly shade, this Dragonfly Mosaic Urn was commissioned by a New York client to be used with an 18" Clematis shade. The glass mosaic on the base has a lustre surface and the color shifts from blue to green.

Century Studios will be open regular hours until Thursday December 23. We will be closed from December 24th through January 3 and will resume regular business hours on Tuesday January 4.

 

Lamp of the Week: 18" Poinsettia

Poinsettia flowers are traditionally considered a seasonal plant but they were a favorite subject for Tiffany Studios lamp designs and appear on multiple sizes of shades. The 18" Poinsettia shade has a wide band of flowering plants on the lower half of the shade with a prominent trellis above. For this shade, bold tones of blue, green, and red are combined for a striking lamp. The shade is shown on the elegant Library base (22.5" tall). The lamp was commissioned by a client in Massachusetts in 2017.

14" Geranium

Like the ubiquitous plant that inspired this lamp design, the 14" Geranium is a compact shade that packs a big punch. Masses of leaves cover the body of the shade, with flower clusters appearing only in the upper third of the design. The sunny yellow of the background insinuates itself throughout the shade. The clustered leaves are composed from heavily mottled green mixes. To balance the colors in the shade, we pulled the deep cherry reds of the flower colors into the background and leaf glasses. The shade is shown on the Lummis base (18.5" tall).

This lively shade was commissioned by a local client who wanted a shade for his original Tiffany Studios floor base. The 42" tall base is the perfect height to stand next to a low chair as a reading lamp.

 

This Week at the Studio

 

The days have been packed this past week at the studio. As Irwin Terry continued work on a shade, Bill Campbell spent time preparing waxes for our trip to the foundry. The waxes had been created the previous week by Irwin and each wax has to be cleaned up by hand before they can be turned into bronze lamp parts. The pieces shown in the photo above show fewer than half of the waxes we will be taking to the foundry on Monday.

While we were busily working on our projects, two cases of glass arrived from the Youghiogheny Opalescent Glass Company in Pennsylvania. We stopped what we were doing to unpack the new glass - you can see some waxes on our work table next to the crate.

It is always exciting to open glass shipment. Each sheet of glass is taken from the crate and checked out before being incorporated into our extensive library of glass.

We are showing just a few sheets of glass that will be used in upcoming projects. Seeing each sheet of glass as it emerges from the crates is an inspirational experience that gets us excited to begin work on the next project.
 

Lamp of the Week: 22" Poinsettia

 

The 22" Poinsettia (commonly called the Double Poinsettia) combines large expressive flowers blooming within a formal trellis. A variety of reds tinged with blue, purple, and yellow were chosen to give the flowers a fanciful, sun dappled appearance. The light blue background glass at the top of the shade deepens to purple mixed with amber at the bottom of the shade. Defining the design and unifying these colors is the trellis with its hints of blue, amber, and green. Created as a showroom piece in 2015 the shade is shown on the Perforated base (24" tall) and is now in a private collection. The fanciful "pigtail" cap gives the visual profile of the lamp added interest.

 

 

10" Geometric with Balls

 

Tiffany Studios created numerous variations on geometric shades with decorative borders and one of the more striking variations is the addition of a row of glass balls. For this 10" Geometric with Glass Balls shade our client chose a mottled strong blue glass for the main body of the lamp. Each golden glass ball has an iridized lustre finish and has been specially created by our glass blower with a hollow center that we then fit with a reproduction jeweler's style mount so it can be screwed into place once the shade is completed. The addition of the row of balls gives the shade a unique three dimensional quality. To see Bill Campbell fitting balls on a previously made shade, look at our blog post from August 15, 2019 that can be referenced here: https://centurystudios.blogspot.com/2019/08/lamp-of-week-14-geometric-with-luster.html

The shade was commissioned by a local client and it is shown on the Ruffle base (total lamp height 17"). Our client is using this unique shade on an original Tiffany Studios floor lamp with a harp.

Studio Hours

 

Century Studios will have regular business hours

now through Thursday December 23

 

Tuesday through Friday 10 - 5

Saturday 10 - 4

Sunday & Monday CLOSED

 

Our studio will be closed Friday December 24 through Monday January 3, 2022

 

 

16" Geranium

 

Sixteen inch shades are the perfect size lamps to fit in any room. Depending on room size and placement, they can be used as accent lamps or be the focal point in an interior. Commissioned by a client in Maryland, this 16" Geranium shade is shown on the Small Stick base (20" tall).

The 16" Geranium shade has five pattern repeats. Bill Campbell chose the glass for this shade and used a variety of fracture/streamer glasses to bring hints of both the flower and leaf colors throughout the background.

Large mottled green leaves form a patchwork of color below delicate scarlet flowers. The juxtaposition of the more transparent background glass with the denser glasses chosen for the plants gives the shade a naturally light and airy feel. The result is a shade with an engaging, pleasant personality.

Lamp of the Week: 25" Fish Scale

 

The 25" Fish Scale shade is a large helmet shaped shade that can be used as a table lamp, floor lamp or chandelier. The glass shifts from celadon green at the top down to green with amber on the lower half of the shade. We also gradually shifted the density of the glass from top to bottom to emphasize the color shift. The shade is shown on the Twisted Vine base (26" height with a tall riser). This meticulously crafted shade was commissioned in 2017 by a client in California.   

18" Geometric Moorish Turban

At Century Studios, we recreate a wide variety of Tiffany Studios' geometric lamp designs. One of the more unusually shaped geometric patterns is the 18" Geometric Moorish Turban shade. This shade has a unique onion dome profile that begins quite small at the top and flows outwards before curving back in at the bottom. The geometric tiles are horizontally bisected by a decorative border row. To visually ground the design, the two border rows at the bottom have an arch motif.

This shade was created for the owners of the Youghiogheny Opalescent Glass Company in Pennsylvania and they provided us with a selection of six glasses from their line of True Dichroic sheet glass to work with. While related to one another, each of these glasses had their own distinctive coloration when viewed on the light table. We were given the freedom to employ as many of the colors as we wanted to and Irwin Terry took it as a challenge to use all six sheets to create a smooth color transition from top to bottom. Much time and care was taken to blend the colors together.

Shades with an undercut must be removed from the form in two pieces and put back together later in the soldering process. Once the upper interior is soldered, the lower half is reattached and the soldering is completed. We shot a short video showing Irwin attaching the lower portion of the shade in place.

The 18" Geometric Moorish Turban shade is shown on the Decorated Trumpet base (24" tall using a tall riser). The shape of the base is a perfect compliment to the shade.

 

Lamp of the Week: 16" Daffodil

The 16" Daffodil shade was designed without decorative border rows which gives the impression that the flowers are growing wild rather than in a formal garden. For this shade, we chose a sunny yellow background glass that deepens to an amber/green mix on the lower portion of the shade. The fresh green leaves and stems provide a crisp contrast to the warm amber tones in the shade. The shade is shown on the elegant Greek Urn base (overall lamp height 22"). We created this piece as a showroom example in 2017 and the lamp is now in a private local collection.

 

28" Peony

 

At Century Studios we schedule projects in the order we receive them, and often coincidences occur where we have similar shades following one after another. We featured the recently completed 22" Elaborate Peony  in our blog post last Sunday (October 31, 2021). While Bill Campbell worked on that shade, Irwin Terry began the layout of a 28" Peony cone for a different client.

At Tiffany Studios, lamps were designed to bring the excitement of stained glass windows off the walls and into the room - while still performing the functional service of providing light. The 28" cone shaped shades were intended as large chandelier fixtures that would be the focal point of any space they occupied. Most of these designs have patterns that flow across the entire surface of the shade with no pattern repeats. This inspires the lamp artist to respond to the changes in the design, searching out the choicest glasses and using them boldly.

The 28" Peony cone masterfully moves the viewer on a journey of exploration as the shade is viewed from different angles. One side has flowers so densely clustered that there is almost no background showing between the blooms. From another angle, the flower clusters loosen up and cascade across the curvature as if rustled by a gentle breeze. This area shows larger expanses of background and more leaves.

Our client expressed a desire for a boldly colored shade with an emphasis on red flowers supported by blues, purples and greens. After searching through our glass library, Irwin began the shade with the background glass, finding an unusual glass combining blue, green and fuschia that had areas of purple where the mauve, fuschia and blue mixed together. This combination of colors provided the perfect backdrop to enhance all the elements of the shade.

The main flower colors in the shade were chosen from several sheets that had a higher concentration of fuschia as their base, and were blended with a variety of colors. Once the main flowers were in place, additional red mixes were chosen for variety and purples were insinuated into the floral elements. Rippled glasses were used throughout the shade to add a lively textural element. The addition of bold green mixes for the leaves enlivened the design and gave the shade a lush, velvety tone. An unusual glass with a green/teal mix was chosen for the upper and lower borders to provide some extra zip to the shade.

Our client has chosen to use this shade as a large table lamp with the airy Arc base (28" tall) which is often referred to as the Eiffel Tower base.

Lamp of the Week: 20" Russian

 

The 20" Russian is one of Tiffany Studios "busy" shades, presenting a fretwork grill inset with round and arched openings. Viewed through the yellow/amber fretwork is an orange/amber sky splashed with lavender. This shade was made entirely from Lins glass, a glass company that closed in the late 1990's whose glass is prized by lamp artists. Shown on the Twisted Vine base (24.5" tall), the shade was created in 2004 and resides in a local collection.

 

22" Elaborate Peony

 

We have completed the 22" Elaborate Peony shade for our West Coast client. The shade is shown on the elegant Lion's Foot base. This base can be telescoped to be made taller.

With over 1000 individual pieces of glass, the Elaborate Peony shade is a challenging and exciting piece to create. Bill Campbell spent several weeks selecting, cutting and fitting each piece of glass for this complex shade.

The shade consists of three repeated sections with highly detailed interlocking piecework. While some pieces are clearly flowers, leaves, or borders, much of the design can be one thing or the other, allowing the glass artist to showcase exceptional glass choices in an Impressionistic way.

This pattern is often referred to as the Windswept Peony due to the complexity of the design which gives the impression of movement.  The 22" Elaborate Peony is one of Tiffany Studios master piece shade designs and it is always exciting to create one of these lamps.
 

Lamp of the Week: 16" Acorn

 

With its elegant simplicity, the 16" Acorn is a shade that is at home in any interior as a featured or accent lamp. A mottled celadon green glass is used for the body of the lamp. The glass for the acorns is an off-white mixed with light pink (note: this design was originally called a vine leaf on the Tiffany Studios price guides, but the modern name for the shade is Acorn). The shade is shown on the Lummis base (18.5" tall). We created this piece in 2020 and it is currently available for purchase from our showroom.

 

Studio Hours

 

Century Studios will be closed Saturday October 23.

We will resume regular business hours on Tuesday Oct 26.

Lamp of the Week: 17" Bat - 6 Bat Variation

 

The 17" Bat - 6 Bat Variation shade features a cluster of six bats flying against the night sky. This shade is a variation on the 3 Bat lamp. Tiffany Studios created this variation by filling the triangular sky portions at the lower half of the standard three bat shade with additional bat bodies. When viewed from above, the wing tips of the bats are intertwined in a kaleidoscopic effect.. Due to the extra bats, the two stars that appear on the 3 Bat shade are not present in this shade. The shade is shown on the Bat Stemmed Mosaic base (18" tall).  This lamp was commissioned by a client in North Carolina in 2015.

10" Azalea

 

The 10" Azalea is a small, highly detailed Tiffany Studios shade design. The shade is divided by vertical border rows into five sections creating vignettes, each with an explosion of flowers. The crisp greens leaves and velvety red flowers play against the strong blue background. The blue-grey border rows give definition to the shade. The shade is shown on the delicate Dandelion base (17" total lamp height). This piece was commissioned by a client in California.

 

 

 

 

 

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Lamp of the Week: 25" Salamander

The 25" Salamander is one of the more unusual Tiffany Studios shade patterns. The design has a Moorish influence, with the upper third of the lamp containing multiple border rows with repetitive shapes. A wide band with vignettes of salamanders decorates the main body of the shade. Taking inspiration from the legend that salamanders are born from fire, this shade is covered in flames within the decorative borders and flaring from the amphibians themselves.
The deep midnight blue of the background provides a striking contrast to the red, orange, and yellows used throughout the shade. This lamp was created in 2019 for a client in Canada. the shade is shown on the slender Artichoke Trumpet base (tall version with 6 lights, 28" height).

12" Apple Blossom

 

Tiffany Studios created apple blossom shades in many shapes and sizes and the pattern on this 12" Apple Blossom has the look of a mosaic. Commissioned by a client in South Carolina, the turban shape of the shade enhances the flow of the flowering branches. The shade is shown on the Torpedo base (18" total lamp height).

While we are working on shades, the colors shift and change throughout the creative process. Blending different glasses next to one another affects how color is perceived. In the upper photo, one section is laid out on the light table for a final check before foiling begins. Remnants of wax and glass dust are still visible on the glass pieces. In the lower photo, a section of the lamp is partially foiled and the colors appear to deepen and intensify. When finally soldered together, cleaned and patinated, the colors of the shade really come to life.

Lamp of the Week: 22" Greek Key

 

The 22" Greek Key is a generously proportioned shade can be used as a table lamp, chandelier or on a floor base. A symbol of infinity and unity, the Greek Key is a motif that can look classic, yet modern and is still a major design element in decorative arts and furnishings today. The warm amber tones of the shade impart an air of peaceful elegance. The shade is shown on the distinctive Arc base (26.5" tall). We created this example for a client in Virginia in 2009.

This Week At The Studio

 

At this time of year, time seems to be speeding up as summer comes to a close and the month of September flies by in a flash. During the past two weeks, we have been multitasking like crazy. We completed several lamp bases, including two table bases and two Bamboo Sr. Floor bases. We finished a couple of small lamps for clients (we will show them in upcoming posts), and worked on two larger stained glass shades.

The first of the two larger shades we worked on is an 18" Geometric Turban Moorish shade (shown at top). Irwin cuts and fits all our geometric shades and while he concentrated on the 18" shade, Bill did patina work on the lamp bases. Once the 18" shade was completely cut and fit to the form, each row was and put into a separate numbered bag for foiling. After taking a break to do the wiring on the lamp bases, Irwin began foiling the pieces of the 18" shade. When all the pieces are foiled, he will transfer them onto the form and begin soldering the shade.

Patina work completed, Bill began the layout of our next commission, a 22" Elaborate Peony shade. As we steadily work on our respective projects, we are discussing the next pieces we will be creating.

Lamp of the Week: 28" Grape Trellis

 

The 28" Grape Trellis was originally designed by Tiffany Studios as a chandelier fixture, but the shade can also be used as a floor lamp or oversized table lamp. Tiffany's large chandelier cones present the lamp artist with a an exciting opportunity to showcase the beauty of stained glass in ways not possible on smaller shades. The intricate patterns and expanded surface area allows for more variety within the shade. As is the case with may of the large chandelier cones, the 28" Grape Trellis has a non-repeating pattern.

The 28" Grape Trellis pattern is defined by the trellis itself, which provides a visual structure for the leaves and large clusters of fully mature fruit to realistically intertwine across the surface of the shade.  The color of the trellis informs and tones every aspect of the piece since it appears throughout the entire shade. The background areas were cut from a number of different glasses that sometimes blend, and often provide contrast to the surrounding elements.

For the fruit and foliage we chose glasses with a wide variety of textures, colors, and transparencies. The grapes are a mix of lush blues, deep purples, and reds tinged with blue and green. Ring mottled glass imparts a sun dappled effect to the leaves and provides shading on the grapes. One of the features of this shade is the large leaf that is cut from drapery glass. The pleated folds of the drapery glass add a realistic element to the shade.  

The completed shade is a visual delight that blends together glasses from all the major glass makers of the past 30 years. The overall tone of the piece is lush and bursting with life. This exciting chandelier is currently on display and available for purchase from our studio showroom.