Closer to finish with cutting

In my opinion, this lamp design is one of the best, that 

was made by Tiffany Studios, it is of generous size,

timeless elegance and it depicts reality in a subtle, 

gentle way. We can detect a beautiful plant, that usually

grows freely in nature, framed and emprisoned by a 

cage, that represents " law and order ", but allows it  to

grow and have some sun. Everything here is  so well 

balanced , neither trying to impress, nor exagerated,

I just love it. 

I rarely start cutting from entire sheets. Mostly with 

leftovers. Many of the bits I have aren´t large, some 

were bought as such, broken, beautiful, but they are 

often hard to cut, so the colour and glass selection is 

more tricky than it may appear. The blade of my 

band saw is getting tired. Me too...

Starting a Double Poinsettia

My first Double Poinsettia Lamp went to another 

home ( within our family ) and I miss it. So it has

to be made again. Not really big fun, lot of work, 

and very absorbing with regard to details, but what

should matter, is the result.

A Dragonfly lamp , 14 " diameter

Last check before patination.

I´m quite happy with it.

Cutting finished

When the amount of a glass you have for a particular 

project is limited and no more of it being made, it 

is important not to run out of it, before all your pieces

 are cut, otherwise you have a problem. I was lucky

to end with almost no waste, but used a saw to avoid
any risks in breakage. This Lins seems easy, but is
 difficult to cut ( for me ), its structure and physical
density is changing considerably within inches.

Which colour for the insects ?

I´ve used a subtle color gradient from golden yellow

into dark amber for the background. The wings are

transparent with fractures and look almost natural.

Finally hanging

   

 

First comparison - Two Dogwood Chandeliers

 

Curious about what my shade would look like in

comparison to its model, I set it towards a similar 

background. Anyway, it´s just an attempt and not 

quite accurate, as the original is a scanned printed 

picture and not a digital photograph.

Off the mold - first glimpse

Although the result should not be surprising, it is

still a thrill every time I take a shade of its mold 

for the first time. Details I had not considered enough

show up, others that I had overestimated appear less

relevant, but generally spoken, this is the most exciting

moment to me. From now on the shade will look better

with every further step towards its final completion.

Finished cutting and fitting the last piece today.

A Dogwood Chandelier

   

This Dogwood chandelier is one I wanted to make 

for years, but had not enough courage to start with.
It requires a lot of preparation as the pattern has
to be sorted out before you can cut the first piece of
glass.The picture below shows the pattern as it fits
to my mold. This mold is self made, of styrofoam,
coated with plaster. I am happy there is almost no
overlapping, only1 cm to the bottom, which is ok.

An arrangement...

Comparing two Venetian shades - The one on the right is my own.

Comparing two acorn lamp shades

I recently found a picture of an original Acorn lamp wich looks pretty similar to my own lamp,
except its size ( 16" ) is smaller . Mine is  20" .

A very unusual Tiffany Chandelier

This lamp, depicted in Duncan´s book Tiffany Lamps and Metalworks caught my attention as it looks so unusual compared to most other types of chandeliers known in general. It sold at Christie´s, I think in 2009 for about 200.000$ . It has 28" in diameter and a lot of pieces, but it´s worth to give it a try.

First step was to sort out the pattern...

and make it fit to the mold. The third attempt to adjust it accurately was finally successful.

A final comparison

The original Tiffany Geranium lamp ( left ) and my copy of it ( right ).

First peek

Close to start soldering.

Starting a Geranium Lamp

The bars of my cage

I rarely question myself : " what are you doing here ? " , but sometimes it happens. As if I was trying to justify my existence, I switch on all the lights in the living room, then sit down, look around - and can´t help but feeling a bit like an idiot.

16" Daffodil Lamp Project

 I started this one 3 days ago. It will have to rest now, as I have to work a little for a week or so. Good opportunity to get some distance to this project and then see, what needs to be changed . I found picture (on the left) showing an original lamp as reference. Slight differences in texture or color selection can be tolerated, I´m not going to change the border rows .

 

finally finished and quite happy with the result. Which one next ?

Set on a Stick base

Patience is good, but

sometimes I can´t wait. Soldered the tiles on, none cracked. Soldered the bottom ring on.
It lays perfectly flat and straight as it should. Still a lot of soldering ahead, but I am happy with the result to the present. Proportions look fine, color selection seems acceptable to me ( tastes are very individual, yours might be different ) but I ´m trying my best to judge by quality, not by taste.

Off the mold - first view on the Zodiac

Took it off the mold last night. It turned out a bit different from what I had expected, closer to what I had in mind in the very beginning of this project.

What comforts me is it´s touch. I hope no tile will crack when being soldered properly.

soon...

soldering vertically isn´t the most fun, but the glass pieces are too lose and I can´t move around the lamp yet. Once they are all tacked together, things will be easier. Hopefully.

Tacking with solder

Foiled pieces are now tacked with solder in parts. I don´t want them to fall off and create cascades...
I´m not quite sure which will be the best way to procede with the large tiles; they stand out too much right now. Probably they will need to be tacked at two points only and then be set properly after the shade is removed from the mold.

Finally

Now that all pieces are cut and mounted they can be foiled. Removing the small bits and traces of tacky wax which helped keeping them in place works better than expected. 

Almost...

I am slow. My hands being sore serve as an excuse. But in fact there is another reason which keeps me off rushing. As long as I don´t see the finished job, I can keep up the dream.

The "other side of the moon"  would unveil too many pieces left to be mounted, so I´d rather not show it. I´m pondering about the best way to solder. Most pieces are stuck with tacky wax- which will need to be removed before soldering, otherwise removing the shade from its mold will cause too
many problems, as my mold is made of plaster and not fiberglass. The method I used on the Salamander lamp was better.

The nasty job

Most people who do stained glass on a higher level use to work systematically. Am I not on a higher level or just sort of disabled ? My pattern sheets aren´t complete, because of some minor irregularities in comparison to the pattern sections of the mold. These are okay, and will not be noticed by the viewer, once the lamp is finished, so there is still a lot of tuning ahead.

Cutting almost finished

The quality I can achieve will always depend on the material I have. In this particular case it´s
limited and the choice therefore just as well. The golden brown will have to be mixed out of various leftovers.

Cutting

There is no need for hurry. My pattern is not absolutely precise in terms of regularity and the glass pieces will need individual adjustment again, so I can forget asking myself how long it will take to get finished. The journey is the reward.

Zodiac lamp - the glass selection

It took me a while to make up my mind which one of the various zodiac colour combinations would suit me best. It was also a matter of glass that I have in stock. In this case Lins seemed the most suitable .

This picture was made with my old Leica Digilux 1. 

It´s off the mold

Shot with I-phone, which means the colours appear brighter than they are in reality. Still some work to do : change some glass pieces, add some to the back, finishing etc. The second picture was taken
with a Sony camera. Only one socket on this base.

Foiled Clematis

It is going to be soldered today, I think.

A Pink Poppy lamp