Create A Tiffany Style Lamp Form and Pattern

Example 1: An “outside” (“complex”) lampshade form

Why this example?

As I mentioned earlier, it is my intention to create, and describe the creation of, both an “inside” lampshade form and an “outside” lampshade form. I want to start with the “outside” lampshade form, since that is what most people are familiar with. I decided to do a “complex” lampshade form because it is a more complicated type of “outside form”.

If you are planning to use a ring (read the next section if you are unfamiliar with rings), you’ll probably want to put a recess in the top of your lampshade form. This will be covered in the Variations section that follows the examples.

Step 1: Brasses

Make sure that you can find all of the brasses that you are going to need for your lamp. Have any brasses that might impact your lampshade form or pattern on hand before you proceed.

My hanging peacock lampshade)

Before I ever started my hanging peacock lampshade, I needed to make sure that I could find the pieces that I would need to hang and light it. I suppose that I could have just hung it from a single point, through the center of the cap, but I was concerned that it wouldn’t hang straight. The lampshade that had inspired me hung from 3 points and I wanted to do the same thing. I found a lamp parts site on the Internet and was able to order all of the pieces that I needed. I did order the straight tubes in several different lengths so that I was sure to have the correct lengths when the time came.

The brassware

Knowing that the lampshade was going to hang from 3 points helped with the pattern. It’s hard to determine the number of repeats by looking at a single picture.

Knowing that there would be 3, evenly spaced, connect points meant that the number of repeats needed to be divisible by 3. I could have gone with 9 or 12. I chose 12.

I’ve had one close call with a completed lamp that started to pull loose from its ring (I saw it happening and caught it on its way to certain destruction). Ever since that occasion, I’ve put extra effort into making sure that the cap or ring is securely attached. I don’t wait until the lampshade is complete before I make the attachment. Once I’ve cut and foiled the first couple of inches around the cap or ring, I solder the exposed side and make sure that that inner ring of glass is securely soldered to the cap or ring. I mention this here because your lampshade form may need to have a recess for the cap or ring.

If you use a cap and your lampshade form is going to be an “inside” form (pattern and glass go inside the inside of the form), you’ll want to have a recess in your form where that cap can sit. If your lampshade form is going to be an “outside” form (pattern and glass go on the outside of the form), you won’t need to create a recess.
My preference is to use a ring, wheel and cap (Tiffany used rings, wheels and caps). The wheel is a spoked piece with a flange at the bottom. The wheel screws onto the top of your lamp base. Your lampshade is built around the ring, which slips down onto the wheel and sits on that flange. The cap doesn’t actually attach to the lampshade. The cap is usually the same size as the ring and screws down onto the wheel, locking everything in place.

Ring (soldered to lampshade)

Wheel (screwed onto top of base)

Cap (note the threaded rod in center of underside)

Cap (screwed onto wheel, holding ring in place)

Most of the time, the cap sits on top of the ring. Sometimes, the cap slips over the ring. If the cap sits on top of the ring, you’ll be able to make the top of the ring flush with the glass and no special recesses will be needed in your “inside” lampshade form. If the cap slips over the ring, you’ll want to make the top of the ring extend above the surface of the glass. In this case, you’ll need to create a recess for this protrusion in your “inside” lampshade form. If you are making an “outside” lampshade form, you’ll always need to make a recess for the ring.

At this point in the process, I make a point of doing any modifications to the brasses that might impact me later on. I tin the areas that I plan to solder to (I recommend a product called Solder Magic Action Tin for this). If I’m using a ring that doesn’t already have a flange around the bottom (some do – most don’t). I create a flange by soldering a piece of tinned copper wire around the bottom of the outside of the ring. This creates a ledge for the glass to rest on. Adding this ledge changes the diameter of my ring and will have an impact on the size of the recess in an “outside” lampshade form.

Step 2: Create a full-sized paper profile

The title of this section is pretty self-explanatory. This step is where you experiment to come up with the exact shape that you want. At the very least, I use a drafting compass and straight edge. If I have round objects (buckets, paint cans, etc.) that are the right size, I’ve been known to trace around them.

The following is the profile that I plan to use for Example 1. It’s not a beautiful shape but it will allow me to demonstrate what I want to demonstrate.

Example 1: Paper profile

I created this design as follows:

I first drew the two parallel horizontal lines at the bottom. The lines are about 1/2” apart. The top line is where I actually plan to end my design. It would be difficult to work with a lampshade form that ended right at the edge of the pattern. That extra 1/2” at the bottom will give me that extra space.
Next, I drew the vertical center-line. I used a framing square to make sure that it was at 90° to the horizontal lines.
After determining the desired height and radius for my shade, I used my drafting compass to draw the top circle and the curves that intersect the horizontal lines.
I drew around the base of a small bucket to create the curves in the wasp waist. It’s this waist that makes this shape “complex”. If you were to completely build your lamp on this form, you wouldn’t be able to get it off the form.
Just for the heck of it, I added those little curves in at the top. There will be a cap or ring at the top so I just started those curves and connected them with a horizontal line.

Bear in mind that you will really only be using one side of this profile to make your wood profile. Slight discrepancies between the left and right sides aren’t of consequence. You can pick the side that you like the best.

Step 3: Prepare the base

The base is a piece of plywood (I prefer 3/16”) that will become a permanent part of your lampshade form. It is marked with lines that will assist in aligning the Styrofoam blocks as they are glued to the base and in drawing the repeat lines on the finished lampshade form.

There’s a lot of opportunity for error here so I always lay things out on paper and then transfer to wood once I’m confident that I have the layout the way I want it.

For Example 1, I first drew a horizontal line across the center of my sheet of paper. Next, I drew a vertical line, perpendicular to the first line at its approximate midpoint. I used a framing square but there are any number of ways that I could have made sure that the angles were exactly 90°. Using the intersection of the two lines as my center-point, I then used a drafting compass to draw the largest circle that I could.

Large circle w/ center-point

For example 1, I decided that my lampshade form would have 3 repeats. I used an adjustable angle tool to trisect my circle. Had I wanted 2 or 4 repeats, no additional work would have been necessary (the quarter lines were already there).

As a general rule, I would always go with a simpler number of divisions and then bisect or trisect:

For 6 or 9 repeats, I would start with 3 and then bisect or trisect.
For 8 or 12 repeats, start with the quarters that have already been drawn and bisect or trisect.
For 10 repeats, start with 5 and then bisect (I’ll be doing 10 repeats in Example 2).

In segmenting your circle, you’ll always want to make sure that at least one of your quarter radii is also a repeat radius. This will greatly simplify the drawing of the repeat segments on the completed lampshade form later on.

I used an adjustable angle tool to trisect my circle as follows:

I first stuck the thinnest tack that I could find into the center-point of my circle.
After setting my adjustable angle tool to 120° and starting with one of the arms aligned with one of my quarter lines, I rotated the adjustable angle tool around the tack or pin, marking the section points on the circle.
This hardly ever comes out even the first time. The last section will probably be smaller or larger than the others. This was the case with Example 1. I noted the difference, adjusted the angle tool by 1/3 of that amount and tried again. This correction process should be repeated until the sections are even.

Three segments

Finally, I drew the radii from center-point through each of the section points.

The final step on paper was to draw a circle with the same radius that the completed lampshade form will have. I got that measurement from the bottom horizontal line on my paper profile (it’s the distance from the vertical center line to the outside edge of the form).

Completed drawing

Transferring the drawing from paper to wood was a simple task. I should mention here that anything on the outside of the circle that we drew in the last step doesn’t need to be transferred to wood. I simply laid the drawing out on the wood and used a pushpin to poke holes at the center-point and at each point where the radii intersected the circle. On the wood, I used those marks to redraw the circle and radii.

Completed drawing on wood

My next step was to cut the base out.

Later on, I’m going to be gluing Styrofoam to this base and then shaping it by turning a wood profile on a pivot. I’m going to want my base and Styrofoam to stay in one place while I turn the profile. This is how I accomplished this.

I found the smallest brads that I had on hand and a piece of 1/2” plywood (actually, I used the back of one of the boards that I use for my flat stained glass panels). I also found a drill bit that was just the right size for the shaft of the brad (the heads didn’t matter because I planned to cut them off).
I drilled one hole through the center point of my base (it didn’t have to be the center but I thought that it might be useful later on to have the center of the underside marked) and a second hole out toward the edge on one of the radii.
With my base on my 1/2” piece of plywood, I lightly tapped a brad into each hole. I then pulled the brads out, removed my form and tapped the brads back into the same holes, a little bit more securely this time but still no more than half way through the plywood. After cutting the brads off, I tapped the brads in just enough so that they wouldn’t protrude above the surface of my form.

Holes and pins (brads)

When I went to fit my base onto the pins (brads), I found that aligning the holes and pins was very difficult. Once I had them aligned, I traced the outline of my base onto the 1/2” piece of plywood. Just outside of that circle I drew a mark to indicate where the radius with the hole should line up. This made future efforts to align the holes and pins a snap.

One last step and we’re through with the base. I realized that once the Styrofoam is glued to the base, all of the radii that I drew would be hidden. Since the edge of the base will always be visible, my last step was to mark the edge at the ends of the radii.

Step 4: Prepare the pivot

Before we make the wood profile we’ll need to determine the heights of the foot and pivot point. The piece of PVC pipe that the wood profile will rotate around will be cut to the correct length and we’ll cut the pivot pin to exactly fit inside of the PVC pipe.

The following photos illustrate what I’m talking about when I refer to the “pivot pin” and the “foot”. The “pivot pin” is the piece of the wood form that fits inside the PVC pipe. The foot glides around the wood base as you shape the Styrofoam.

Wood profile from my second form

Pivot Pin Foot

First, I got a piece of the smallest diameter PVC pipe that I could find (many home or hardware stores sell this in 2’ lengths). After measuring the inside diameter of the pipe. I cut a strip of my 3/16” plywood that would exactly fit inside the pipe (no wobble). I’ll be cutting my pivot pin from this strip.

Strip fitted to PVC pipe

One thing that I discovered with my second lampshade form was that, when I left the end of the pivot pin square, the chopping motion that I used to shape the Styrofoam rocked the PVC pipe back and forth enlarging the hole in the Styrofoam and loosening the pipe. To avoid that issue, I decided to round off the inside corner of the pivot pin. With the center point of my drafting compass at the edge of the strip, I drew an arc with the same radius as the width of my strip. Then I cut that arc out.

Rounding the end of the pivot pin strip

I next took a measurement from my paper profile. I wanted the height of the form (the distance between the bottom horizontal line and the highest point on the profile). Adding 1/2” to this measurement, I measured and cut my PVC pipe (I wanted the PVC to extend above the highest point but the 1/2” was somewhat arbitrary). You want (at least) one end of your pipe to be cut off as smoothly and evenly as possible (use the factory cut end if possible).

Finally, I made some final revisions to my paper profile:

I made a new horizontal bottom line 3/16” (the thickness of my plywood base) below the old bottom line.

Revised paper profile

I centered my pivot pin strip over the vertical centerline and drew a vertical line on either side of it.

Step5: Make the wood profile:

My next step was to transfer the design from the paper profile to the 3/16” plywood. I cut the paper profile out, taped it to a clean 90° corner the plywood and traced around the edge.

Transferring the profile

With the profile on wood, a couple of final tweaks to the profile were called for (the pictures that follow will probably explain these more clearly than my words can):

First, I marked where the top of the PVC pipe would hit. Remember that the paper profile had an extra 3/16” at the bottom to account for the thickness of the base (the last horizontal line that I added to the paper template represented this). Since the PVC pipe will sit on top of the base, I aligned a 3/16 spacer with the bottom of my sheet of plywood (picture 1) and, with the bottom of my PVC pipe against it, marked the side of my board at the top of the pipe (picture 2).
The mark that I just made represents where the wood profile will sit on the top of the PVC pipe. The second tweak was to mark the wood that would need to be cu out to make room for the pipe (picture 3).

Tweaks to the profile

Assembling the wood profile

All that was left at this point was to cut and assemble the wood profile. After aligning the pivot pin with the wood profile, I bridged a small piece of plywood across the joint and screwed (no glue here) it into both. I did the same thing on the backside with another bridge piece. Note that the rounded corner on the pivot pin is toward the wood profile.

Step 6: Glue and shaping the Styrofoam

Starting with the four bricks that will fit together at the center of the lampshade form, I trimmed off a corner of each to make room for the PVC pipe. I used a table saw but could have just as easily used a steel straightedge and box knife.

Styrofoam brick with trimmed corner.

I then glued and toothpicked the four bricks together, making sure that all of the trimmed corners were together at the center.

This time, I used a special spray glue for Styrofoam. In the past, I’ve used Silicon adhesive and white glue.
No matter what glue I use. I try to keep the glue below the anticipated finished surface of the form. The glue is harder than the Styrofoam and would very likely leave ridges when I shape the Styrofoam.
None of the glues dry immediately. To keep everything in place, I use a lot of toothpicks. I either make sure that the toothpicks will not get in the way of my shaping process or I remove them once the glue has set (usually overnight). If the toothpicks are going to stay in the Styrofoam, I use a nailset to push them just under the surface.

Next, I glued the cluster of four bricks to the base to base, taking care to align the crack between bricks on each face with the quartering lines on my base. This not only helped me make sure that the bricks were centered on the base, it will help me later on when I go to draw my repeat lines.

This particular form is more than one brick high (actually about 1 1/3 bricks high). I took 2 more bricks,

trimmed off a corner of each to make room for the PVC pipe,
cut them in half,
glued/toothpicked them together into a shorter cluster
and, finally aligned the cluster with the first cluster and glued.

Next, I slipped the PVC pipe into the hole. I found that the pipe felt a little bit loose. To get the pipe to fit a little bit more snuggly, I wrapped the top and bottom of the pipe with masking tape (this is a useful tip to remember should your PVC pipe get wobbly at any point during the shaping process).

PVXC Pipe in Styrofoam.

I next started to chop and scrape the top of the center bricks until their shape conformed with the wood profile.

“Chopping” is an up and down motion with the pivot pin rocking in the top of the PVC pipe.
In “scraping”, you turn the wood profile around the pivot point, lightly scraping the surface as you go.
In both chopping an scraping, keep the wood profile as straight as possible, use a light touch and be very careful at the edges of the bricks. It’s better to start at an edge and scrape toward the center of the brick. If you chop on an edge or scrape toward an edge, you run the risk of breaking that edge off.
To avoid having to do excessive chopping and scraping, I usually cut away any obviously excess Styrofoam.

Note: Keep your shop vacuum ready during the shaping processes. You’ll use it a lot (brush attachment recommended).

Chopping motion

Combined with scraping motion

With the center bricks shaped, I would ordinarily go ahead and glue in any bricks that are going to fit completely under the profile (i.e., bricks that won’t require any shaping.). In Example 1, There are no bricks that don’t require some shaping.

I would ordinarily work from the center out. With the center bricks shaped, I would next glue and shape the bricks that have full face contact with the center bricks and then go ahead and shape them. Next, I’d glue the bricks that have full face contact with those bricks and go ahead and shape them. I’d continue in this fashion until the shape was complete.

This was my first attempt at a “complex” shape. As you can see in the preceding picture, on my small “complex” shape, the wasp waist was already starting to make an appearance on my center cluster of bricks. I should have stopped the moment that I realized that that was happening.

By going ahead and cutting out that wasp waist, I created a situation where, when I glued on the outer bricks, the underlying void made the whole situation rather fragile. In this case, it would have made much more sense for me to glue all of the bricks in place and then work on shaping that wasp waist.

As it was, I caused a little bit of damage. That’s OK because it will give me an opportunity to talk about repairs.

To do each repair, I simply cleaned up the area to be repaired, glued a scrap of Styrofoam in place and, after letting the glue dry thoroughly, reshaped the area.

As it was, I still ended up with some minor divots that I'll have to deal with later (see Both Examples Step 10: Damage repair).

Fully shaped form.

Step 7: (Optional) Additional shaping

If this wasn’t a complex shape, one way to smooth out any imperfections would be to shorten the PVC pipe by approximately 1/8” and then do the same to the foot on my wood profile. With that done, I could then gently use the same scraping/chopping process that I before.

Note: This won’t work for a “complex” shape because lowering the PVC pipe and wood profile will create a gap between the wood profile and the undercut portions of the “complex” shape. Also note that, even with simple “inside” or “outside” shapes, lowering the PVC pipe and wood profile won’t have any impact at all on surfaces that are completely vertical.

Step 8: (Optional) Create a recess

(See Example 1, Step 1: Brasses for an explanation as to why you might want to create a recess)

You might be wondering why I didn’t create my recess at the same time that I did my other shaping. That’s exactly what I set out to do until I discovered that the shaping motions would do great damage to the edge of the recess.

The first step in creating a recess was to create a new wood profile. This profile would have the same pivot point and foot as the original wood profile, but, with the exception of the one portion that would cut the recess, the rest of the profile would stand clear of the form.

Creating a new wood profile

Starting with my original wood profile, I removed the pivot pin and traced the design onto a fresh piece of plywood.
Keeping in mind that I wanted to keep the foot and the notch that rides on the edge of the PVC pipe unchanged, I drew new lines that were outside of the lampshade profile. I then drew in the piece that would cut the recess (right next to the notch).
Finally, I cut out the new wood profile and attached the pivot point.

With my new wood profile complete, I used a gentle scraping motion to carve out the recess in the top of my lampshade form.