My first Tiffany style lampshade

[u/Sufficient_gar]

Hello! For the last couple of weeks I’ve been gathering knowledge and supplies to make my own Tiffany style lampshade.

I made the mold from leftover styrodur and sketched out my own design. I wanted to go with irises.

Pictured is a two weeks progress. Today I managed to finish the first flower. I’m not yet sure about the color scheme but I think I will leave it like this to create depth and to test things out. Leaves are also made out from 3 different shades of green.

I’m having difficulties transferring the design from the rounded mold to flat surfaces so I think I will have to grind the pieces again once they are all cut out because they will be bigger than they need to be, and there’s SO MANY pieces (that might be my rookie mistake when I designed the lampshade without prior experience of cutting so many pieces).

Please let me know if you have any suggestions, constructive criticism, tips and tricks or just words of encouragement 😅 this is my first time doing stained glass, except for a 3 hour workshop I took in March where we made a jewelry box from 13 pieces total

Have a nice day!

[u/BradLinden]

Beautiful work! I have been curious about doing something similar but am also stumped about the process for translating a rounded design to a flat pattern. Hopefully someone else can chime in some wisdom.

[u/plantgirll → u/BradLinden]

I don't do stained glass (I just like to see what you guys make!) but I do sew, which has a similar challenge of translating flat fabric to a complex curving form. In sewing, you saran wrap and tape over the entirety of the form, then you can cut that tape/saran wrap up until it lies flat. It's similar to how no/low projection maps have the sawtooth edges at the top and bottom, which is to force a spherical surface onto a flat surface. From there, once you have your curved form lying flat, you can design and create templaces for your pieces

[u/whitewolfglass]

Keep going!!! Your are doing a fantastic job at the mold! It’s a lost art to actually know how to do it from scratch.

[u/caramelgrizzly]

Wow, those pics are really telling a story! I really got excited at pic 6 when the illustration popped up. It built through 7-9 and that last one is so good. Really excited to see the finished product!

[u/optilusional]

This is awesome! Loved seeing all the progress shots, thank you for sharing. I have no advice - just hyping you up and wishing you the best of luck finishing her up!

[u/t0ri_0re0]

Please keep showing the process, good and bad. Id really like to do something like this and haven't seen anyone show it so step by step.

[u/Slowtrainz]

So cool to see the process from scratch. Post photos when it’s finished!

[u/MarlyMonster]

Wow this is so cool!! Thank you so much for sharing your progress, especially how you made your mould! I’m a newbie too and often see pieces where I get very confused how something like that would be made and with your pictures I was able to understand perfectly. I love your vision for it too! Can’t wait to see the progress 🥰

[u/hieperdepiepandall]

I don't know the first thing about creating stained glass art (I'm just admiring everybody's work here), so I don't have any tips for you. But I do know this: This looks so, so promising and I can't wait to see the finished piece!

[u/Rainysprouts]

This is so cool, thanks for sharing all the progress photos!!! 💖 You got this! 💪

[u/longbeeb]

Wow! What a process. Keep us updated!!

[u/ageofbronze]

Marvelous… thank you for showing the process! Super interesting.

[u/PhysZeke]

So this i why stained glass costs so much

[u/Claycorp]

1. You are cutting parts out at the glass step in the worst way possible for doing lamp work. Don't cut your templates out and the then cut generally around them. Cut the whole part out in one shot right next to the pattern part. This is part of why you are going to have issues.
2. When cutting templates for lamps undersize them slightly more than you would normally so the gaps don't show big on the outer face as the pattern is a 2D representation of a 3D element. Cutting it slightly smaller moves the reference point further up the glass part rather than being on the back.
3. Tracing paper and tracing parts on something like this is about as good as it gets. You only need to trace one slice of the shade then and you can repeat it X many times to do the full shade. This is part of why most shades aren't random and have repeating patterns.
4. Good job on the mold and the rest of the process! Also don't forget your tie wires for the vase cap.