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Vs.

I'm going to try and discuss the difference between different kinds of lamps and what non-stained glass people call them and why it’s wrong. This is mainly designed for the non-stained glass people, or the stained glass impaired.

It seems that everyone these days sees a stained glass lamp and simply calls it a Tiffany lamp, which pretty much insults Tiffany most of the time. Why am I getting so into this? Well there are a few reasons: when someone comes up to my work and says, "what a beautiful Tiffany lamp", I think "wow he's comparing me to one of the masters". Then he turns around at a fruit lamp and says the same thing. Now what am I to think. Sure on one hand he has good taste, and knows my work is pretty and could be compared to a famous artist. On the other hand, he's most likely a moron. There are very big differences between Tiffany's stuff and the scum of the lamp world (I mean that in the nicest way of course). Here are some differences between the two:

• Tiffany lamps may have between 300-2000 pieces per lamp.
• A fruit lamp may break 100 or so.
• Tiffany lamps are usually very deep in color, with shadows, highlights, and lots of details.
• A fruit lamp is generally dingy, dull, the only thing lively and colorful about the whole thing, is the fruit which really doesn't go well with anything.
• A Tiffany lamp is very, very expensive; even reproductions cost a ton of money
• A fruit lamp is not much money and can be bought almost anywhere.

Why do people keep calling them Tiffany’s then?
Tiffany invented the copper foil method (by in which you wrap a sticky copper tape around the edge of each piece of glass, so you can lay a bead of solder on it). So now every time there's a lamp made, it's automatically marked for life as a Tiffany, or Tiffany-style lamp. Now you know what the "style" part means.

On the plus side though, when someone mentions Tiffany, they think of stained glass (or jewelry, or some singer who named herself Tiffany so that all the stained glass junkies will listen to her music, which of course didn't work). So at least when they think of Tiffany, they at least know that it's stained glass. In most cases it's a selling point. When someone is selling a house they may say "we have a Tiffany-style lamp in our house", and when the new owners come in they’re fooled into thinking they have something special.

Which reminds me of a comic strip (which you may or may not get), Funki Winkerbean, in which one of the guys found a stained glass lamp for Montoni's restaurant and they are convinced that it's a Tiffany. No matter how much I yell at the paper "that's not a Tiffany lamp, stupid", they never seem to hear me (though I could swear Garfield looked my way.)

I once was watching the Home Shopping channel in which they were having their bi-annual stained glass blowout, in which they took Tiffany shade shapes and put some hideous design on them. People called in saying how beautiful they were, but I guess they really didn't have anything to compare them to. The one thing that bugged me the most was when the host of the show explained how hard it was to make the lamps, and explained it like this: "They first make a metal web of wire and solder, and then insert the glass". Then he turned to the guy who owns the place where they were made, and he certainly didn't shake his head no. Where in the world did this info come from anyway? Well, anyway, to put it out in layman's terms:

Tiffany = a diamond ring
A fruit lamp = a twist tie wrapped around you finger

This is another thing that bugs a lot of stained glass artists: the sun catcher issue. A real suncatchers is made up of real pieces of colored glass soldered together. I've seen a lot of people calling those little plastic things at flea markets suncatchers as well. This makes things a little confusing, especially where price is a concern. Plastic suncatchers may go for around a few bucks, while the real McCoy may be anywhere from $8.00 and up. The biggest difference is the uniqueness of the glass (iridescent for example) which you can't get from plastic. Also, the sparkling effect real glass has. Compare a crystal glass to a plastic one and see the difference! However the "shake-n-bake" stained glass is good as a kids project.

Another bad comparison is the paint that they sell, "the cheaters guide to stained glass". They actually have the audacity to not only call it stained glass, but to say it's just as good, if not better. They take a price out of the air and compare it to what this gloppy paint can do and show the price difference. There are huge differences between this peel and stick stuff and the real thing. The main one is that the fake stuff is really, really, ugly, (unless, of course, you made it, which seems to make it better some how). And another is that it doesn't sparkle. Also, there's no way of doing any kind of effect with the stuff. However, the glass stains do stick onto glass really well, which you can incorporate into your future products.

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Started on 9-22-98