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 Tifany. 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.
One reason why one can find so many designs is that glass is quite shapeable at the right temperature. The craft of manipulating glass goes back thousands of years in the Western world. While most glass products came in the form of vases, cups and lanterns, the modern equivalent was only possible when light bulbs were invented. The even output of the lightbulb meant that the designs of the glass shades were more evident to observers.
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.
Artisans take advantage of the malleable molten state to wring out an infinite number of shapes. For example, a glass maker takes a hollow metal rod known as a blow pipe to pick up raw glass, by alternately rolling and inflating it with his breath, the artisan can fashion a bulbous shape from something initially without form. It's easy to make small objects like vases and cups, but takes real skill and patience to craft a large, elaborate glass lamp shade.
Such work can be improved by addition of small artistic details, for example curling of the lip for a flare effect. The artist Louis Comfort Tiffany incorporated iron rods into his works to depict intricate scenes of nature that were lit up with the stained glass panes. The staining process is aided by addition of frits of iron oxide impurities that give glass its various colors.
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.
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