28" Magnolia - Part 2

The work on the 28" Magnolia shade continued at a steady pace. Once all the pieces were laid out, cut and fit to the pattern we began the process of wrapping the edge of each piece in copper foil. Bill Campbell is seen foiling a glass piece. The rolls of copper foil in the red holder have many different widths because thickness of the hand rolled art glass can vary wildly.

Irwin Terry waxed the form with our house made tacky wax. The beeswax based mixture is heated and brushed onto the surface of the Fiberglas form.

Once all the pieces of the lamp were foiled, Irwin began the process of transferring each piece onto the waxed lamp form. 

After mounting the form onto our custom built shade holder, the shade was now ready to be soldered. Our shade holder allows Irwin to easily pivot and spin the shade as he solders. The soldering iron heats the solder to 800 degrees so care must be taken to not touch the surface of the shade as it is being worked on.

Once the exterior of the shade was completely soldered, the lamp form was heated to melt the wax and the shade was removed so that the interior could be soldered. All large shades are reinforced by the application of copper wires that are soldered on the interior of the shade. For this shade six wires were installed to follow the leadlines from the top ring to the bottom rim of the shade. These wires are not seen when the shade is illuminated, but add stability to the piece.