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 🙂

Christmas present brooch construction

I’ve been busy making some Christmas designs in stained glass. This Christmas present brooch design would work equally well as a birthday present. I particularly enjoyed adding the sweet little clear glass ‘tag’ with etched heart and could customise the tags with the initial of the recipient for an extra special personalised gift. Below I’ve added the steps I took to create these fun designs.

The background present shape is cut from stained glass and any rough edges are ground off.

The shapes are copper foiled around all sides, ready for soldering.

Tinned wire is cut and shaped ready to add to the stained glass pieces.

The pieces are tinned with a coat of solder so that the wire will fix to the glass. A tiny clear glass tag is added, featuring an etched heart shape to complete the brooch. Then everything is cleaned carefully before the clip is added on the reverse. These would work equally well as pendant necklaces I think.