Tiffany Lamps
Tiffany lamps are one of the most distinctive and popular styles of lamp. Tiffany lamps feature stained glass shades. The Tiffany lamp was first designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany in 1899 with a bronze base and a beautifully handmade glass shade, with intricate glass design soldered carefully together with copper foil. The original Tiffany lamps were one of the finest American contributions to the Art Nouveau movement. Tiffany's lamps were each made by hand and he and the original artisans that worked with him brought to life designs like the Wisteria and Pond Lily lamps that are still popular today.
Tiffany lamps can be groups into the following categories: flowered globe, flowered cone, geometric, transition to flowers, favrile, irregular upper and lower border.
Although there are many different styles of Tiffany lamps, they are all made in the same way. The first step in making a Tiffany lamp is to draw out the pattern on a piece of cardboard. Second, a glass color and a number are written in each cell of the pattern piece. Each color of glass being used is then laid over the template and so that the pattern can be traced onto it. Once the pattern has been transferred to the glass, the pieces are cut and smoothed. Then the pieces are cleaned and copper foil solution is used to bond the pieces together and the lamp shade is shaped. Finally, the edges are soldered to fix the pieces permanently together.
Other designers have made the Tiffany lamp concept of the stained glass shade their own, like Frank Lloyd Wright's Mission-style Tiffany lamps, and the Tiffany style has also been applied other decorative lighting, including wall sconces, chandeliers and other types of lamps. Today modern manufacturing methods enable the creation of beautiful Tiffany lamp reproductions, and even over 100 years later, the original Tiffany patterns are still popular in homes world wide.