18" Lotus Lamp, Part 3

After many weeks of diligent work, Irwin has completed the 18" Lotus Lamp. Soldering the shade began once all the pieces of glass were cut, fit and foiled by hand (see blog posts from November 3 & 10). Soldering shades with tiny pieces takes extra time and patience so that the solder does not obscure the minute pieces of glass. Special care had to be taken towards the top of the shade where the pieces are especially long and narrow.

Once the outside of the shade was completely soldered, the form with the shade attached was heated so the wax, which held the individual pieces in place before being soldered, would melt and let go. Irwin gently lifts the hot form out of the soldered shade in the photo below.


The next step in construction was to solder an extensive system of reinforcement wires to the inside inside of the shade. These copper wires add strength to the finished shade, but are not visible on the outside when the shade is lit. Reinforcement wires are positioned along the interior lead lines and soldered in place. The rest of the interior then had to be soldered before the the shade was ready to be cleaned, copper plated and finally patinated.

Next posting: The completed lamp!! Here is a sneak preview of what the finished shade looks like:

Woman in the Woods Window

We recently had the good fortune to have one of our early windows in the studio to be photo- graphed. This "Woman in the Woods" window was created as a studio piece in 1994, and was sold from the showroom. It recently changed hands and the current owner brought it by for us to revisit and photograph.

Inspired in part by an original Tiffany Studios window, this impressionistic piece has three plated layers of glass which gives the image depth and fullness. There is extensive use of fracture/streamer glass and drapery glass is utilized for the figure's gown. Bill once again has painted the facial features and hair. The face was painted on a larger piece of clear glass with green fracture and streamers, some of which was acid etched to remove the fracture. There is no lead line around the face which gives the profile a softer effect. The borders of this piece are a little more elaborate than usual and enhance the jewel-like qualities of the window.

18" Lotus Lamp, Part 2

Work has been progressing on the 18" Lotus Lamp which Irwin has been creating. Once all four sections were cut and fit, the time consuming work of hand wrapping each individual piece of glass in copper foil began.

Following the foiling of each piece of glass, the lamp pieces have been transferred onto the three dimensional form and put into place. The fiberglass form has been coated with an exclusive Century Studios' beeswax mixture that allows the wax to become tacky so it will hold the glass pieces in place. Once the entire lamp is transferred onto the form, Irwin will begin soldering the lamp shade.

Tiffany Studios designed a unique lamp base for the 18" Lotus shade. Beginning with a cluster of cast bronze lily pads at the bottom, ten "stems" move up inside the shade and curve back downwards, each stem ending in a light socket. Because of the depth of this shade, the lights form two undulating rows which light the upper and lower portions of the lamp. As with many early Tiffany Lamp designs which had specific shade and base combinations, this base can only be used with the 18" Lotus shade.

A smaller version of this base was created for the 16" Snowball shade. The bronze lily pad base is more petite than the larger version and has six lights instead of ten. Once again, three lights are positioned towards the top while the remaining three cascade down to light the lower portion of the shade. At Century Studios, we make both versions of this unusual Tiffany base in bronze with a verdigris patina. The light switch on these bases is a cast bronze lily pad located in the cluster of foliage near the bottom of the lamp.

Christmas at Century Studios

This past weekend, we put up our annual Century Studios Holiday display. Stop by our showroom and browse our selection of Christmas tree ornaments, gift items and hand made stained glass holiday suncatchers. In addition to our lamps, we have a variety of art pottery and blown glass vases which make great gift items.

18" Lotus Lamp, Part 1

Since Bill has been busy working on a large mosaic project for a client, Irwin decided it was time to revisit one of the most complex patterns we offer - the 18" Lotus Lamp. We made the Lotus pictured on the left about 20 years ago, and have only made this lamp on commission since then, so we felt it was time to make another example for our showroom. The overall look of the piece Irwin is currently creating will be deeper in tone than the one pictured.

The 18" Lotus Lamp is one of those Tiffany Studios lamp patterns with multiple names. It is interchangeably referred to as the Lotus, Flowering Lotus and Descending Lotus shade. On the original Tiffany Studios' price list it was called a Pond Lily, but so were about 6 other lamp designs. To dispel some of the confusion we refer to it as the Lotus pattern. Tiffany Studios only made about eight examples of this early lamp.

In laying out this lamp Irwin is using a stash of glass he has been saving for years, specifically for this pattern. Beginning with a blue fracture/streamer water glass that was made by Schlitz Studios, Irwin began the painstaking process of laying out the water and stems. While only 18" in diameter, this shade has close to 1800 individual pieces of glass. The delicate stem and water pieces become mere slivers as they converge towards the top of the shade. Most hand rolled art glass is approximately 1/8" thick, so these needle shaped pieces get very tricky to cut, fit and foil by hand.

Once the water and flower stems were cut and fit, selecting the glass for the flowers could begin. The glass for each flower petal and leaf was carefully chosen to create an impressionistic water garden. In the above left photo you can see how individual flowers are composed and checked on the light table. In the photo to the right, you can see one section of the lamp that is ready to be hand foiled before transferring the pieces onto the waxed lamp form. Many hours were spent selecting the flowers and looking through our library of glass to find just the right colors and textures to make the pattern come alive. The complete Lotus Lamp has four repeats of this pattern section.

We will do more postings on this elaborate project as it progresses. Below, you can view all four sections of the lamp in a row.

Lamps of Tiffany by Dr. Neustadt

The Lamps of Tiffany by Dr. Egon Neustadt was the first major book published about Tiffany lamps and is still one of the most extensive, showing several color variations on many lamp designs. It is an important book for any Arts & Crafts library, and a "must have" volume for serious Tiffany collectors/enthusiasts.

Published in 1970 by Dr. Nuestadt through the Fairfield Press, New York, this book was originally published in two editions. The first was a standard hard cover book with an illustrated dust jacket, and the second has a deluxe binding of purple cloth stamped in gold and pink gilt on the cover and spine, rather than the standard yellow cloth stamped in purple and gold. The deluxe edition is very hard to find and was signed and numbered by Dr. Neustadt. There is a second printing of this book which has a black cloth binding.

The Lamps of Tiffany chronicles Dr. Neustadt's extensive private collection of Tiffany Studios lamps and glass. Included are photos of many of the most important Tiffany lamp designs which are accompanied by lengthy descriptions by Dr. Neustadt. Starting his collection in the 1930's, Neustadt was an early Tiffany collector and most of his collection is now divided between the New York Historical Society and the Queens Museum of Art (Neustadt died in 1980) .

The pictures show a copy of the deluxe edition, copy #473 (of an unspecified number), hand-signed and numbered by Dr Neustadt. The book itself is in fine condition showing only the slightest of wear to the head and tail of the spine. The dust jacket is price clipped (because it is a deluxe copy) and has an 8” vertical tear along the edge of the spine, with some wear around the edges.

Included with this book is the Portfolio of Tiffany Lamps, a folder containing 16 prints of various lamps from the collection, published at the same time as the book. This copy is available for purchase from our showroom. We only have one deluxe copy of this rare book available.

Mosaic Wall Pieces

Over the years, Bill has made quite a few glass mosaic panels with a variety of sources for inspiration. These pieces are created by cutting art glass to make a picture using the reflective quality of the glass (as opposed to our stained glass windows and lamps where the glass is selected with light coming through it). Once cut, the pieces of glass are permanently affixed to a backing, then the space between the pieces is filled with grout. This gives the final piece a softer overall look than a stained glass window panel because the lines between the glass are not dark metal outlines.

Usually, only one person can work on a glass mosaic project because the picture will evolve over the course of its creation, so it is difficult to work on two different sections of a piece at one time. Bill seems to have more patience for this kind of work, so Irwin usually works on a lamp or window project while a mosaic is being created.

The Cockatoo mosaic was made for a St. Paul, MN couple and was inspired on a Tiffany Studios mosaic wall hanging. The Angel Playing Music panel was made as a studio piece over 10 years ago and was sold at that time.

One of our most recent mosaic panels is inspired by a Pre- Raphaelite painting of Sidonia Van Beck by Edward Burne Jones. One of the wonderful features of glass mosaic is the ability to use iridescent and lustre glasses. Lustre glass has a soft, reflective surface that catches the light as you walk past it. Sidonia has a velvety blue lustre glass background that compliments the glasses chosen for the figure which are not iridized. Our Sidonia portrait mosaic is finished in an elaborate gold frame and is currently available in our showroom.

Lustre glass was used extensively by Tiffany Studios in their mosaics. One of the largest Tiffany glass mosaics is the Dream Garden in Philadelphia, PA. Located in the lobby of the Curtis Publishing Building just behind Independence Hall, the Dream Garden is a masterpiece of mosaic art which was created by Tiffany Studios from a painting by Maxfield Parrish.