The lampshades, window panels, and fireplace screens are made of stained glass. It is the exactly same material that you can find in stained glass lamps from JCPenney, QVC, Lampsplus, Dale Tiffany, etc. We buy from the same lamp factories that these companies buy from. In fact, some buyers went to JCPenney stores and have confirmed this. Also, we have taken the shades to all local stained glass shops and confirmed that it is indeed stained glass.

Some people call the material acrylic or Plexiglas. That is untrue. Acrylic is a modern synthetic material. It requires sophisticated equipment to manufacture. If you refer to how the lampshade material is made (www.tiffanydirect.com/deco/glass.html), it is clear that glass, not polyacrylic, is made from the not-high-tech furnace.

In addition, poly-acrylic can not sustain a high temperature more than 150C. When the lampshades are made, the temperature can be 400-500C during soldering process (refer to www.tiffanydirect.com/deco/shade.html). Plastics would have melted at such high tempreture.

Also, acrylic is 17 times stronger than glass. The lampshade can easily be broken/cracked – a proof that it is not acrylics, but glass.

You can go to a hardware store and take a look at the plexi glass sheets, and then compare them with the lamp materials yourself to see the difference.

Lastly, perhaps the following message from a previous buyer (who herself is a craftswoman) can explain why there is some times a confusion about the material.

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HI MICHELE, MAYBE YOU SHOULD TELL PEOPLE THAT WHEN YOU MIX GLASS AND COPPER FOIL , WHAT YOU GET IS A PLASTIC SOUND , WHEN IT IS ACTUALLY GLASS. I KNOW I DO STAIN GLASS BUT I CANNOT MAKE THE LAMP FOR WHAT I PAID YOU .AGAIN THANK-YOU. LISA ROBINSON.

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