Olympus-OM
[Top] [All Lists]

[OM] Re: iStock

Subject: [OM] Re: iStock
From: Paul Braun <cygnus@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 17:34:58 -0500
Andrew Fildes wrote:
> Exactly - breaks your heart. I made bird window hangers - parrots,  
> cockatoos and kooabkurras - a friend had a little assembly line going  
> at one point (but mine were better!) Neither of us could compete in  
> the markets or gift shops around here - you can't exactly hang a  
> label on it saying - 'this took two hours to make and it's worth it'.  
> People were buying really horrid acrylic pseudo-glass imports instead.
> As my granny said, 'you'll never go broke underestimating people's  
> taste' as she sold another plastic bowl of plastic fruit with a sad  
> and bewildered look on her face.
> There's an interesting semantic difference here - round these parts  
> we talk about leadlight and tiffany but 'stained glass' is strictly  
> reserved for the skill of assembling panels where the sections have  
> been hand painted, as in most church work. Those guys are still doing  
> just fine.

And, strictly speaking, you are correct.  "Stained Glass" has actually 
been stained or painted, and then fired.  It has, however, come to 
almost a generic term for any sort of art glass.

I get bugged when people refer to any sort of art glass lamp as a 
Tiffany Lamp, when the only lamps that rightfully belong to that 
category are those made by LCT himself (or his craftspeople.)  I'll 
accept "Tiffany-Style" lamp for a lamp done in copper foil with 
opalescent glass, preferably in some sort of natural or floral pattern. 
  But calling any old colored glass lamp a Tiffany lamp really irks me.

I've been studying Tiffany's works, both lamps and panels, for years 
now.  Have actually seen quite an assortment in person - in fact, on our 
trip to Scotland back in '91, we actually took a side trip up to 
Dunfermline to find the window that Andrew Carnegie had commissioned for 
the Abbey there.  Found it.

We've done a few reproduction lamps, and have the molds and patterns to 
finish off a couple more from the glass we kept when we shut down.  And 
all of the panels I did for myself follow Tiffany's design tenets - that 
is, using the glass as the paint, instead of painting on plain glass. 
I've got a huge light table that I'll use to lay out sheets of glass, 
looking for that "just right" part of the sheet for the piece I need to 
cut.  Tedious, somewhat wasteful, but enormously satisfying when the 
panel or lamp is done.

-- 



Paul Braun
Valparaiso, IN

"There's a fine line between stupid, and clever." - David St. Hubbins

"Enjoy every sandwich." - Warren Zevon

"The Fountain of Youth is a state of mind." - The Ides of March

==============================================
List usage info:     http://www.zuikoholic.com
List nannies:        olympusadmin@xxxxxxxxxx
==============================================

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Sponsored by Tako
Impressum | Datenschutz