¤: Tiffany Style Lamp.

Spring 2017.

Mari & her lamp.

Before going to America I didn't know much about glass nor was I interested in it. Meeting with my lovely host mom's mother Nikki O'Neill everything changed. She is a glass artist and living with her made me appreciate glass. She showed me all the lamps she has made in her life and the ones that were not finished. Seeing her workroom with all the other glass sculptures she has done and her passion towards glass made me interested in it. Glass is complex, but if you know how to work with it it opens up so many different ways to create art.

This post will be me showing how I did my lamp named Dogwood. Huge thank you's to Nikki, who is an inspiring and wonderful woman!

Before starting with your Tiffany's lamp. You need to make sure how big you want your lamp to be. In order to know, the more pieces you have the bigger and longer it will take to get it ready. The lamp I chose had 118 pieces and is called Dogwood. So the full lamp set has a mold, MagicStrips, information sheets, patterns and glass sheets that come with it. After ordering your lamp set from https://www.anythinginstainedglass.com/worden/wordenform1.html .

It's time to start!

Cutting out your MagicStrips make sure to cut out on those little dots.

When done with cutting you will need - Alcohol, glue, tissues and pins. Alcohol to remove glue if it gets somewhere you don't want it and tissues to wipe it off. Glue needs to be a special one, so before starting glueing read the information sheets to see what you are allowed to use. It can't be just any glue. Pins will be used to pin your MagicStrips in place.

When MagicStrips are all glued on your mold and it has dried it's time to remove those pins. Nikki's advice was to make copies of my patterns and draw them on seen-through-plastic-paper. It helped to see better what kind of glass I wanted and where. I got super lucky, I didn't need to order glass with Dogwood lamp set. She allowed me to look through her glass and pick whatever I seemed to like. That gave me the creative freedom to do what I wanted and be as unique as possible.

Here you can see the patterns.

They need to be cut out by leaving their black marked area on them.

This table had lamps under it what I loved. There were two types of lamps yellow and LED lights. You can see a big difference in looking at glass without light and with light.

What I found to help a lot was to use a marker to number all the pieces after the pattern pieces to make sure I'm getting them in right shapes. It helped a lot with organizing.

Tools I used were Oil Feed glass cutter, glass cutting oil, different pliers, safety glasses.

Few photos of the workroom.

When all pieces were cut out it was time to use Glass Grinder for pieces that had curves. It must be filled with water and the diamond grinders NEED to be wet at all times. To prevent it not getting ruined. To do that keep a wet little sponge against the grinder.

The most annoying part was trying on every single piece to make sure it fits and has enough room between every piece. It may seem unnecessary but I had few pieces that I thought- well these fit, the others should have as well... But I was wrong.

Next process was copper foiling all your pieces. What I liked about that was you could do it where ever. So I did it outside the house, just watching tv or right before falling asleep. When Copper foiling it is important to make sure you have enough foil on both sides of your piece. Nikki gave me a good little trick on pushing foil nice and strongly on your pieces by using a marker end.

Once done with foil you will need to try every piece back on again, to make sure they all fit. At this step I had few problems, some pieces were too big and some too small. It would still work to leave the pieces how they were and when soldering just trying to make them fit. But I'm kinda perfectionist and I needed to get them right, so I went and cut out those pieces that weren't fitting right.

When every piece is in place and you are happy with the look then it's time to start soldering. You will need Flux to make it stick. You can't do soldering if you don't have Flux, it will just run off.

Wet sponge is needed to keep your solder iron clean.

It's important not to take your pins out yet. First soldering process is Tacking, meaning - make them all connected. Like on the next photos. When every piece is connected to all the pieces around each other, it's time to remove the pins. You MUST start Tacking from the top moving down. It's easier to get pieces exactly how you prefer them to be. Later there, glass doesn't pend. So that's something to keep in mind. It's your own decision how you tack the flowers and the leaves. Nikki advised to make them stick out a bit so it gives the flowers a real feel.

After pins are removed, take your mold out and its time to tack everything inside.

Once tacking is done go back on your outside of the lamp and start filling your solder joints. If you are able and know how to do Beading do it right away because it will saves time. Beading meaning- there is no copper wire left to see and solder is balling.

Hard part was doing bottom of the lamp. To do it you will need solder and metal wire that is stronger then solder. Meaning that the wire wouldn't melt while soldering. This will give the lamp more finished look.

When Soldering is all done you will need to sandpaper the rim until it is smooth. Afterwards wash it with soap and dry it with paper towels. Your lamp could be done at this point if you don't want to mess around with patina. My vision was sure to have soldering black. Nikki didn't have black patina , but she had dark brown and we used that. Overall, the end result still turned out being black.

To gain that dark look, you will need to follow these next steps closely. Wash your lamp with CJ's patina cleaner. Dry it. While applying copper solution use a brush and apply it on by back and forth motion. Rinse it off. Dry it by dabbing it gently and leave it to dry. I let it dry over night. Next day use the steel wool to scrub all copper off. Wash it only with water. Use copper solution again, rinse it and let it dry over night. Next day use colour patina you would like your solder to be. We chose Dark-brown patina. When applying your patina use a new brush and strong rubber claws. Cover your lamp with the same motion back and forth. Apply it inside and outside of your lamp. Let it sit for 10-20 min. When it looks as dark as you like rinse it with water. It stops the process.

Last step- Waxing!

This gives your lamp the glow and makes sure the patina stays on. If it's coming off you need to wash your lamp with just water then repeat the process with patina. Let it dry. Try again to wax it. Use soft cloth or wool. Apply really gently.