Leaf style stained glass shade

Here is a shade I completed for a delighted customer in February. She was delighted and said it surpassed all her expectations :). Lovely to get such favourable feedback! It was inspired by my little leaf design uplighter that she saw in my studio. And below are a few photos of how I made it…

 

Detail of some of the glass pieces cut and laid on a template to get the shape. The white residue is powdered glass from where the pieces were ground ready for foiling…

Here are the foiled glass pieces. Each one is foiled by hand, so quite a slow process (but therapeutic!) …

Ooh these panels look a bit like angel’s wings laid out. The glass pieces in the eight panels have been soldered together ready to assemble into the lamp…

And here is a close up of the signature and date etched on the inside of the finished shade. Note the solder joints have been darkened with a black patina which makes a feature of them and also makes a strong contrast with the jewel colours of the glass when the lamp is lit…

And this is the finished lamp :). Lovely warm autumnal colours. Below is the uplighter that the customer saw and that she wanted replicated in a table top shade. It looks perfect in her lounge which is decorated in warm terracotta tones.

 

Christmas holly lamp

Well a little late for Christmas I am posting my holly and berry lamp, which has received many lovely comments over the festive period :). And once again some photos of the making process. It was made using the copper foil – or Tiffany – method like the Tiffany Studios used back at the end of the 1800s 🙂 but to my own design.

Above: the finished shade.

Here are the first pieces of holly cut from beautiful rich green stained glass – each cut individually by hand. Also the first ‘berries’ in rich red and brown and clear glass. If you look closely you can see the thin strip of copper foil around each marble as well as on the holly shapes. I used my smallest fibreglass mould to shape the design.

Here is the shade from above with a lot more pieces added… nearly there with the foiling, but lots of soldering to do in the next phase…

Here is the outside view with lots of silvery solder holding it all together – starting to get heavy!

Above is the inside view before it has been finished properly – lots of lumps and bumps!

And finally the finished shade after patina has been added to blacken the solder and the whole piece has been cleaned inside and out before setting on its bronzed stand. Great fun to make and the ultimate Christmas decoration 🙂

Leaf uplighter

The finished uplighter

This uplighter grew – almost literally – from one broken piece of glass given to me by a client. She couldn’t find another lamp to fit her base so she asked me to design a new shade around that piece. I cut lots of leafy shapes in frosted and coloured glasses to match her existing decor and built them up on a basin that was about the right size. Each piece was individually foiled and spot soldered together to create the finished uplighter. She was delighted with the unique result.

The broken piece of uplighter

The first foiled shapes added to the broken piece

More leaf shapes added

The finished uplighter

Peacock lamp shade

Blue peacock inspired lamp

Steampunk lamp

Steampunk inspired lampshade made using traditional copper foil ‘Tiffany’ technique in stained glass and wire.