Tiffany lamp repairs range from the straightforward to the complex – and often they are the more complex variety. However, recently I had two shades to repair that didn’t require too much work to bring them back to a standard where they could be enjoyed again.

The owner had bought the shades second hand from a lady who was downsizing to a smaller house. One was a rich, blue shade with warm red and orange flowers. The other was mostly creamy yellow and featured pink flowers and hummingbirds between scalloped bands of deep red.

While the damage was not too extensive to either shade, neither could be used with the damage. Both had damage on the outside edges in a few places. The outside edges are easier to remove than damage higher up in the body of a shade.

The main challenge was to source replacement glass that would blend best with the existing glass. For the blue shade border I checked through my drawers of small stained glass offcuts and was able to find just enough of the right tone to match.

The dark red border on the hummingbird shade was a bit more challenging as the glass was very dark red and had a texture on the inside. Happily I was able to find a good match for this too.

One piece of the yellow background glass had some cracks in it but we agreed that I would add a little glue to that piece to stabilise it.

I used the traditional copper foil technique to replace the damaged areas, which involves cutting new glass to fit the space and adding copper tape around the edges. The copper foil can be soldered and anchors the new stained glass in place.

These two refurbished Tiffany lampshades are now back with their owner and ready to be appreciated in their new home for many years to come.