The Dynamics Of A Group That Gave Back To The World What One Took Out

tiffany
Originally uploaded by Curtis Castillow.

By Curt Castillow

Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) an artist at the turn of the century perfected the art of creating stain glass lamps, vases, and windows. His trademark was the favriel style of iridescent colors and natural forms in art nouveau. His lamps become extremely popular in the 1960’s and today sell in the price range anywhere from $80,000 to $350,000. Unfortunately, when he died his technique died with him. There was no book or instruction manual left behind to show ensuing artists how to do what he did. No one really knows exactly how he did it, but there is a small group of individuals who have resurrected his technique through trial and error and have created works of art that rival even his $100,000 Tiffanies. This small, international society of artists is no “DaVinci code” secret society but it is an online LISTSERV. Through cooperation and incentive, this listserve thrives today and shares Tiffany secrets of stained glass art that gives back to the world what Tiffany took out.

In the early years of our marriage, as a stained glass artist, my wife was still learning skills necessary to creating a Tiffany reproduction lamp. She found a website created by Walt Beopple that displayed his beautiful Tiffany reproduction lamps. She emailed him requesting how she might learn to design and create quality lamps like his. He told her there was only one way—the ASLGA LISTSERV. ASLGA stood for Association of Stained Glass Lamp Artists. It was a group of a 1000 plus stained glass artists from around the world that communicated via the list-serve to share Tiffany reproduction lamp techniques, methods, and art form. My wife learned from the LISTSERV that there was no book that taught Tiffany’s technique and method; There was only a relatively small handful of artists around the world that knew the technique. She joined the group and the other artists began to tutor her online how to create her own Tiffany reproduction lamps. The knowledge was invaluable.

Artists emailed my wife and others, step-by-step instructions, tips, shortcuts, pointers, and other valuable information. What was so fascinating was that this information couldn’t be obtained in any other way or place than with this group. The information disseminated in the group via email, was so valuable that the head of the group eventually put together all the instructive postings and bound them. One could purchase the postings for $20.00 which was the cost of the binding fee. What I found even more fascinating than the priceless secrets held by this group was their trust in each other.

They trusted each other enough to lend each other tools and equiptment worth hundreds of dollars. For example, my wife needed a large fiberglass dome to build her Tiffany lamp upon, so she emailed the group requesting where she might find one. A woman named Carol offered to lend my wife her dome worth over $150.00. She had never met my wife but trusted her. My wife didn’t have an account name, signature, or website to give her credibility. She did, however, have Carol’s trust.

I asked Heather (my wife) if there were technical cues that gave a person credibility so that you could trust them. She said it helped if they had a website that presented their artwork. For example, Peter Grotpass, an artist, shared his website address so that one could see for him or herself Peter’s beautiful stained glass lamps. Another technical clue that helped others trust in another’s expertise was finding a business name in their email address. For the most part, however, everyone trusted each other.

My wife claims their trust in each other came because they were a close group. I couldn’t help but wonder if the trust came because they were close or the closeness brought the trust. For whatever reason, they were a tight-knit group considering most of them had never met each other. Here is an illustration of how close they were. There was one artist named Walt, that was admired by the group for his knowledge and skills, but most importantly, for his willingness to reach out to anybody in the group that needed help. He helped my wife countless time and was the responsible for leading her to the LISTSERV. One day, an email was received that Walt had passed away. The group was very saddened by his tragic loss even though most of them never had met Walt. My wife related how strange it was that she was so saddened by the death of a man she never met. She said there was a void in the group after Walt left. It took sometime for the group to get over the loss of one they had grown to admire and cherish.

You could see the group’s closeness in the content of their email messages too. At least half of the messages were personal. If anyone became sad or discouraged users would rally to their side with emails of encouragement. There was a phrase they would often say to cheer each other up: “I’m sending some ‘white light’ your way.” I’m not sure what white light was but I assume it had something to do with the light that radiates from the stain glass lamps.

My wife doesn’t participate in the group anymore but she will always remember with fondness their willingness to give what no one else or book could give. It was not only the knowledge of a lost art form she appreciated, but the friendship and all that comes in its wake—trust, appreciation, respect, and validation. She will always remember with fondness the willingness of this group to give back to the world what Tiffany took out of it.