Creating A Vintage Style Glass Light Shade

The decor world is largely in agreement that antique glass lamp shades belong to a special and distinct category of home accessories. What is widely known is the history of antique shades. Toward the closing of the 19th century gas-powered lighting became popular and homes started incorporating artistic antique glass lamps. Designers exploited the properties of glass and the brightness of the gas-fired flame by creating chiseled surfaces that refracted the light in interesting ways. Tiffany was amongst the first to enter this industry.

Louis Tiffany, a 20th century artist, was the reason for the development of Tiffany-like. Louis Tiffany was a family member of the businessman who initiated the eponymous jewelry chain that is scattered in towns around the world at this time. At the time, Tiffany practiced art and headed an interior design firm. His investigations of stained glass techniques stirred him to fashion glass lamp shades. The Tiffany lamp shades are made up of panes of stained glass framed in metal, the construction of which mirrors church windows. When lit, they became brilliant scenes drawn from natural scenes such as animals, insects and landscapes.

Tiffany shades are out of reach of most people due to their scarcity. If they do not inherit one, owners are often avid collectors who purchase damaged lamps that must be restored. A less than pleasing alternative is purchase of a mass-manufactured imitation which often falls short of the quality in true antiques. However, one remaining alternative is to create your own stained shade.

A crucial step is settling on the right type of shade for your efforts. For example, the size and color must be picked. Shades that exceed 12 inches in diameter are large and best display a surface for your painted designs. Shades that are smaller than 6 inches will have insufficiently large surfaces to designs to be seen from afar. The shape of the shade is also important.

One popular shape for painting your own shade is the torchiere, often used for brightening up rooms with gentle lighting. The term torchiere is synonymous with standing light. The light shade has a cone design with a highly large subtending angle. This forces it to disperse the output of the bulb maximally, usually toward the ceiling so light is reflected back off the ceiling. Torchiere shades come in a variety of hues and widths. Get the measurements of the radius on top to get the catalog size and also on the fitter of the shade on the opposite side.

Several additional alternatives exist for shapes that are suited to painting. The shapes have interesting names, such as hurricane glass shades and gas lamp shades. The hurricane design bears an unusual shape, taller than wide, which reminds one of a classic flower vase. It fits well for rooms with cathedral ceilings that can accommodate the high, slender profile of the hurricane.

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