Antique Glass Lamp Shades And Interior Decor
The art and tradition of working with glass is an old one. The consequences are that many more households have glass lamp shades at home as part of their interior decor. The slow penetration into homes first picked up during the Industrial Revolution at the same time when gas and electrical lighting reached our doorsteps. A very famous figure who energized the movement to buy glass lamp shades was Louis Comfort Tiffany. One could say he single-handedly created the industry on which it rests.
Those interested in glass shades would be pleased to know that there are a number of designs from which to choose. Although lone artisans labored hard to make a few per week, factories can churn out specific designs by the dozens. The hand-made items can still be found but for a much higher price.
The high malleability of glass is derived from the fact that glass becomes soft and flowing at high temperatures. In turn this leads to many stylistic possibilities. Controlling and shaping the glass is a profession dating back thousands of years. A large fraction of products from this profession was in items like glasses, lanterns and containers. The need to cover light bulbs only came in the last one hundred and fifty years.
Glass is a composite material of silicon and oxygen. Unlike many other natural substances, glass has an amorphous atomic structure. Whereas crystals have neat arrangements of rows of constituent atoms, glass instead is made up of disordered silicon and oxygen atoms. The oft relayed misconception is that the stained windows of old churches show a greater thickness at the bottom edges compared to the top because the glass is permanently a liquid that deforms slowly. However, the truth is more likely that the deformation occurred when the window was first cast and the substance was near a molten state.
Craftsmen use the malleable molten state to their advantage for producing the myriad shapes. To take an example, a craftsman uses a hollow metal tube called a blow pipe to pick up raw glasses. As he rolls it on a surface, he blows into it periodically to give it a cavity and some shape. For small objects, it’s very easy to manage the glass. For larger objects, great skill and patience are required.
The artisan can improve upon his product further by adding finer details such as curling the edge of coloring the surface. Louis Comfort Tiffany pioneered the stained glass lamp shades by combining colored glass with iron rods. He drew inspiration from his past work in stained glass art. To color the glass, he added iron oxide impurities, and generated shapes of natural scenes or creatures with iron.
Readers wishing to understand more can head over to learn about glass table lamps. Additional resources provided for lamp beaded glass shade can be located here.
