There are three important dimensions for glass light shades: fitter size, height and width. The fitter size is the outer diameter of the lip which is inserted into the fixture’s shade holder. The height of a glass shade is taken from the base of the fitter lip to the bottom of the shade. The width is measured across the widest portion of the shade, which may be the top, middle or bottom, depending on the shade type.

The first thing you must consider when replacing a glass light shade is the proper “fitter” size of the shade holder on your lamp or fixture. The shade holder is the part (usually metal) that holds the shade to the lamp or fixture

The fitter is the portion of the shade holder through which the glass light shade actually passes and makes physical contact with the lamp. Shade holders come in different fitter sizes and so do glass light shades. The idea, logically, is to match the same fitter size for both the shade holder and shade.

Sounds easy you say, well it is.

Electricity was a brand new invention in the late 1800s and American glass manufacturers developed novel approaches for concealing the electric light bulb, which was rather harsh to the eye and perhaps unflattering to the domestic interior. Tiffany, Steuben, and Quezal responded to this need with the most extraordinary and beautiful art glass light shades, all of which were hand made and exquisitely fashioned. Many other companies also made art glass light shades for table and floor lamps, electroliers, hallway fixtures, and wall sconces. Art glass shades were available in an infinite variety of shapes, sizes, colors, and decorations. Some shades are formed and decorated as lilies while others are bell-shaped and have ribbed or textured decoration. Rims are usually plain but sometimes are notched or ruffed.

Tiffany and a French designer, Emile Galle were also known for their application of stained glass to the new forms of lighting - first gas, then electric lamps were sheltered under stained glass light shades. Stained glass making is a technique of collage, in which pieces of differently colored glass are cut to the shapes of a design, and fitted together. The glass is colored either by the mixture of certain oxides or minerals with the molten glass, or by firing these colorants onto the surface of clear glass. The advantage of the latter method is that the colorants can be painted onto the glass to create a picture or design. The most well known method of holding the pieces together is the use of lead joining strips. However, other materials such as copper and plaster have also been used for the joining. Stained glass windows probably originated in the Middle East, where glass making also originated. Fine early examples can be seen in the mosques and palaces of India, Iran and Turkey. In Europe stained glass was first used in the windows of the great cathedrals in Germany, beginning in the 11th century. It has been associated with church architecture since the middle ages.

Art Glass can be defined as any ornamental glassware, whether utilitarian or not, which incorporates specialized shapes, surface treatments, glass chemistry, cutting or engraving, casing or shading, enameling or other decorative processes which are applied to a normally unique item.

Art glass is typically hand blown and may, or may not, utilize a mold for shaping. The large scale production of Art Glass started in Europe about 1850, and about 1870 in the United States. There were 4 main areas in Europe that produced this glass: Bohemia, France, Great Britain and Italy. In Europe there were several companies that produced a large portion of their sales destined for export, and some of these larger and better known companies are still in business today.

The oldest examples of glass date to about 2000 BC, and were found in Egyptian tombs. Glass was made by the Phoenicians who lived in what is now Lebanon. The classic method of forming glass was to blow the molten glass, by catching a blob of the heated glass on the end of a pipe, and shape it to the desired form by blowing through the pipe, and shaping it with various tools. The glass could also be blown into a mold.

Colored glass is created by the addition of minerals to the molten glass. For example, gold was used in the past to create red; cobalt for blue; and manganese for purple. Ancient glass found in burial sites often has an iridescent surface that results from chemical reactions that occurred with the soil. In the late 19th century glass craftsmen sought to duplicate this effect in new glass. Iridescent effects were used by the Art Nouveau glass makers such as Louis Comfort Tiffany, Steuben Glass and Emile Galle.

Beginning in the 20th century, glass started to become highly collectible as art. Works of art in glass can be seen in a variety of museums, including the Chrysler Museum, the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Toledo Museum of Art, and Corning Museum of Glass, in Corning, NY, which houses the world's largest collection of glass art and history, with more than 45,000 objects in its collection.

Several of the most common techniques for producing glass art include: blowing, kiln-casting, fusing, slumping, pate-de-verre, flame-working, hot-sculpting and cold-working. Cold work includes traditional stained glass work as well as other methods of shaping glass at room temperature. Glass can also be cut with a diamond saw, or copper wheels embedded with abrasives, and polished to give gleaming facets; the technique used in creating Waterford crystal. Art is sometimes etched into glass via the use of acid, caustic, or abrasive substances. Traditionally this was done after the glass was blown or cast. In the 1920s a new mould-etch process was invented, in which art was etched directly into the mould, so that each cast piece emerged from the mould with the image already on the surface of the glass. This reduced manufacturing costs and, combined with a wider use of colored glass, led to cheap glassware in the 1930s, which later became known as Depression glass. As the types of acids used in this process are extremely hazardous, abrasive methods have gained popularity.

Objects made out of glass include not only traditional objects such as vessels (bowls, vases, bottles, and other containers), paperweights, marbles, beads, but an endless range of sculpture and installation art as well. Colored glass is often used, though sometimes the glass is painted, innumerable examples exist of the use of stained glass.

The Harvard Museum of Natural History has a collection of extremely detailed models of flowers made of painted glass. These were lampworked by Leopold Blaschka and his son Rudolph, who never revealed the method he used to make them. The Blaschka Glass Flowers are still an inspiration to glassblowers today.

Art Nouveau

The arabesque, the floral or animal pattern and the feminine silhouette are the typical motifs of this international decorative style that emerged in Brussels around 1900.

This important artistically avant-gardist movement appeared, at the turn of the 20th century (1890-1914), in all of Europe's big cities as a reaction against the academic schools. Followers of the movement all subscribed to its underlying principle, namely that the essence of aesthetics should be sought in nature rather than ancient Classicist renditions.

First coined by some Belgian art critics as the 19th century drew to a close, the expression 'Art Nouveau' really began catching on internationally in Paris with the opening in 1895 of the art gallery Maison Art Nouveau by the famous German art dealer Siegfried Bing.

The essence of Art Nouveau is described by sensuous lines and subtle light, feminine figures and curly hair, fluent dresses and attitudes, vegetal curves and willow leaves, twisting waves and evanescent smoke, but also by controlled lines, geometric details, colorful new shapes and Art Nouveau was a new art form, an original artistic and decorative movement inspired by the idea of "total art".

The violent mutation created by the Industrial Revolution at the turn of the century led the way to all kind of new ideas, attempts and creative innovations in the fields of architecture and interior design, furniture and fabrics, glass and tableware, jewelry and perfume bottles, posters and wallpaper, textiles and lighting.

New materials were used and combined, such as metal and glass or wood, creating admirable objects and buildings.

Partly inspired by Japanese art which was changing the western attitude to Art (as painters as Monet, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Ensor, Munch, Matisse or Toulouse-Lautrec would later confirm), but also influenced by Celtic, Gothic and Rococo art, the leaders of Art Nouveau refused to continue to differentiate "lower applied and decorative art forms" and "higher fine arts". They wanted to create a modern way of life, to invent new shapes and free lines, where the structure and the decorative elements would form one unique work of art, a total and harmonious artistic environment Nature and Life were chosen as inspiring sources creating emotions and feelings in all forms of visual arts such as painting, architecture, decorative arts and graphic design, but also in literature with Baudelaire, Rilke, Hofmannsthal, D'Annunzio, Proust, Maeterlinck, Ibsen,... or in music with Debussy, Sibelius, Strauss and many others.

This explosion of senses and the return to nature was a pretext for a new concept of art and the first visual attempt of modernity.

Compact Fluorescent Lights or CFL's

Time for change, time for action We are in a time of change. Global warming is a reality, and incandescent light bulbs are a culprit. Did you know that only 10% of the energy used by a regular incandescent light bulb goes toward producing light? The rest of the power is wasted as infrared heat! That is a lot of extra heat and extra energy.

The simplest thing everyone can do to make a difference is to switch out incandescent light bulbs with more energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs. Energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs produce more light than heat with the electricity they use. As a result, they can provide the same amount of light as standard incandescent light bulbs, using only one-quarter to one-third as much energy, and they last up to ten times longer than incandescent bulbs. Since lighting can account for up to 20% of home electricity use, changing out your light bulbs for energy-efficient bulbs represents a big area for potential savings.

Compact Fluorescent Lights produce light differently than incandescent bulbs. In an incandescent, electric current runs through a wire filament and heats the filament until it starts to glow. In a CFL, an electric current is driven through a tube containing argon and a small amount of mercury vapor. This generates invisible ultraviolet light that excites a fluorescent coating (called phosphor) on the inside of the tube, which then emits visible light.

CFLs need a little more energy when they are first turned on, but once the electricity starts moving, use about 75 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs. A CFL’s ballast helps "kick start" the CFL and then regulates the current once the electricity starts flowing.

Older CFLs used large and heavy magnetic ballasts that caused a buzzing noise in some bulbs. Most CFLs today — and all ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs — use electronic ballasts, which do not buzz or hum.

Compact fluorescent light bulbs have an electronic ballast sensitive to excessive heat. Be sure not to exceed the wattage replacement recommendation for your light fixture. (For instance, if your light fixture is rated for 75 watts, avoid using a 25-watt, "100-watt replacement" compact fluorescent light bulb; instead, use a 15-watt, "75-watt replacement" compact fluorescent bulb.

Compact fluorescent light bulbs last for years, but when they do finally wear out, do not throw them away with your regular garbage as they contain small amounts of mercury. Some communities sponsor household hazardous waste collection days to ensure proper recycling or disposal of such items. Contact your city's public works department to find out about options in your area. If you break a fluorescent bulb, use a wet rag to collect the broken pieces, and place everything in a sealed container for disposal. Avoid inhaling the mercury during the cleanup process.