How Glass Lamp Shades Are Made

In the hands of skilled artisans, glass is a substance of infinite malleability.  Likewise, glass lamp shades are available in a mind-boggling array of diameters, colors, and styles.  During (and probably before) Roman eras, people indulged in the artistic craft of creating utilitarian and even elaborate, glassware.  As electric lights and natural gas have permeated our world in more modern times, lamp shades of glass have also entered many homes.
In this manner, lamp shades of glass have become well-integrated into both residential lighting and exclusive art circles.  Due to the singular properties of glass, its manual shaping is truly a unique craft.  Glass is a composite substance that is characterized by molecular disarray.  When heated, glass does not transform from a solid into a liquid.
Instead, it flows, softens, and deforms under  pressure.  Experienced artisans thus begin their work with a mass of hot vitreous material.  They use long, hollowed-out steel rods known as blow pipes to pick up and manipulate the glass.  With a series of alternating breath inflations and rolling on a metal table with the rod, an artist is able to mold the glass into a cylinder form.
Finer glass features like flaring lamp shade edges, are created with other metal implements.  Lamp shades feature a variety of colors.  The well-known interior designer, Louis Comfort Tiffany, was famous for his stained glass lampshades.  By consulting the artistic infrastructure of stained glass art, he combined fragments of colored glass and lead rods to produce awesome art that reflected dazzling combinations of objects, scenes, and colors from nature.  Making color additions to glass is an integral part of the craft for artisans.  Due to the existence of certain metal oxide contaminants, the material often starts out with a tinted appearance.  An artisan may also add color to the substance via several processes.  A very small chunk of colored material may be softened above transparent glass to create a double-layered visual effect.  To produce novel designs, very tiny crushed grains of tinted materials can be mixed into clear material.  In a process known as "enameling," a paste-like solution is utilized for drawing designs or patterns directly on the surface of the glass.
The newly-decorated piece must then be kiln-fired in order to set the liquefied concoction.  Contemporary lampshades made of glass feature equal amounts of class and "dazzle" as their predecessors did.  Antique shades are very rare and quite expensive.  Their acquisition can be regarded as more of an asset or investment than an ordinary purchase, however.