“I have always striven to fix beauty in wood, stone, glass or pottery, in oil or watercolor by using whatever seemed fittest for the expression of beauty, that has been my creed.”
— Louis Comfort Tiffany
Louis Comfort Tiffany was born in New York City in 1848. His father founded Tiffany & Co., a famous jewelry and silverware company. Instead of joining the family business, Tiffany studied painting.
Tiffany worked with ceramics, enamel, metalwork, jewelry and interior design. But he is best known for glass. He and his studio made windows, lamps, vases and more out of glass. These objects show creativity and inspiration by nature. As the quote above says, he always focused on expressing beauty.
The exhibition includes works of art from the collection of Richard H. Driehaus. You can watch a virtual tour of it on the museum’s YouTube channel through May 10 at bit.ly/tiffanyvirtualtour.
Close Looking
Nature was Tiffany’s muse. He found inspiration in its vivid colors and surprising forms. He grew flowers in his garden, admired dragonflies’ delicate wings and studied the patterns and colors of birds.
Tiffany designed lampshades by sketching directly from nature. Sometimes, he laid out leaves and flowers in a pattern. Nature’s infinite beauty never disappointed him.
Look closely at the image of Tiffany’s stained-glass lampshades. Do you recognize any of the flowers? Design your own lampshade by collecting leaves or flowers from outside. You can also draw them and cut them out. Then arrange them into a round pattern.
“Stained Glass” Suncatcher
Tiffany is known for inventing new types of glass. He experimented with new techniques because he wanted glass to capture the colors and textures of nature.
Now it is your turn to experiment and create a unique work of art! For this art activity you can order a free Family Day art kit from Athens’ KA Artist Shop (order here: https://bit.ly/2RhJcGb) or use materials from home.
For this project, you will need:
- Translucent or regular paper
- A dark marker
- Colored pencils or crayons
- Scissors
Directions:
- Use the marker to draw your design. Before you draw, decide on your stained-glass design. It could be a flower or landscape inspired by Tiffany. You could make an abstract design with overlapping curvy and straight lines. Or you could trace the shape of different objects and have the outlines overlap. Think about the final shape of your suncatcher. Will it be a flower, a circle or something else?
- Use your pencils or crayons to color in the outlines you drew. Do you want the colors to follow a pattern? How many colors will you use?
- When you are done, cut out your suncatcher. Hang it in a window that gets lots of sunlight!