At Century Studios we schedule projects in the order we receive them, and often coincidences occur where we have similar shades following one after another. We featured the recently completed 22″ Elaborate Peony in our blog post last Sunday (October 31, 2021). While Bill Campbell worked on that shade, Irwin Terry began the layout of a 28″ Peony cone for a different client.
At Tiffany Studios, lamps were designed to bring the excitement of stained glass windows off the walls and into the room – while still performing the functional service of providing light. The 28″ cone shaped shades were intended as large chandelier fixtures that would be the focal point of any space they occupied. Most of these designs have patterns that flow across the entire surface of the shade with no pattern repeats. This inspires the lamp artist to respond to the changes in the design, searching out the choicest glasses and using them boldly.
The 28″ Peony cone masterfully moves the viewer on a journey of exploration as the shade is viewed from different angles. One side has flowers so densely clustered that there is almost no background showing between the blooms. From another angle, the flower clusters loosen up and cascade across the curvature as if rustled by a gentle breeze. This area shows larger expanses of background and more leaves.
Our client expressed a desire for a boldly colored shade with an emphasis on red flowers supported by blues, purples and greens. After searching through our glass library, Irwin began the shade with the background glass, finding an unusual glass combining blue, green and fuschia that had areas of purple where the mauve, fuschia and blue mixed together. This combination of colors provided the perfect backdrop to enhance all the elements of the shade.
The main flower colors in the shade were chosen from several sheets that had a higher concentration of fuschia as their base, and were blended with a variety of colors. Once the main flowers were in place, additional red mixes were chosen for variety and purples were insinuated into the floral elements. Rippled glasses were used throughout the shade to add a lively textural element. The addition of bold green mixes for the leaves enlivened the design and gave the shade a lush, velvety tone. An unusual glass with a green/teal mix was chosen for the upper and lower borders to provide some extra zip to the shade.
Our client has chosen to use this shade as a large table lamp with the airy Arc base (28″ tall) which is often referred to as the Eiffel Tower base.
