Making Light Bloom
Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Lamps
by Sandra Nickel and Julie Paschkis (Peachtree, June 24, 2025)
The untold story of Clara Driscoll, a nature lover with the mind of a creative innovator and the unsung genius who designed and engineered the iconic Tiffany lamps.
Drawing inspiration from her childhood gardens, Clara Driscoll created designs for Louis C. Tiffany’s stained glass windows. Clara had such a flare for glass that Tiffany put her in charge of a special workroom, staffed with women—called the Tiffany Girls. But Clara wanted more. She wanted to create a three-dimensional work that would make light bloom. So she figured out how to engineer a lamp—how to shape and bend glass and light it so that her designs sprung to colorful, vivid life.
Today, we all recognize Tiffany lamps, but we almost forgot the woman who created them. Extensive back matter features more information about Clara Driscoll, her letters, and her design and manufacturing process, as well as bibliography and sources.
★ “A must-purchase biography that illuminates both an important American innovator and the origins of a timeless art form.”—SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, starred review
★ “A terrific blend of art and social history set in an absorbing biography about an unacknowledged genius.”—BOOKLIST, starred review
★ “Alongside delicate, design-oriented text by Nickel, Paschkis combines black outlines and luminous colors to make the pages glow like stained-glass itself.” —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, starred review
★ The Horn Book has announced that it has given Making Light Bloom a starred review. The actual review will come in its July/August 2025 issue. —THE HORN BOOK, starred review
“An evocative look at one woman’s gift for channeling her love of nature into art.”–KIRKUS
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Mr. Schu revealed the cover for Making Light Bloom on November 20, 2024. As part of the cover reveal, John and Sandra chatted about Julie Paschkis’s illustrations, Tiffany Lamps, the importance of primary research, and how we discovered that Clara Driscoll was the hidden genius behind the Tiffany Lamps. You can find the cover reveal and interview HERE.
It’s a starred review for Making Light Bloom from Publishers Weekly! ★ “Alongside delicate, design-oriented text by Nickel, Paschkis combines black outlines and luminous colors to make the pages glow like stained-glass itself.” —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, starred review
It’s a second starred review for Making Light Bloom, this one from Booklist. ★ “A terrific blend of art and social history set in an absorbing biography about an unacknowledged genius.”—BOOKLIST, starred review
It’s a third starred review for Making Light Bloom, this one from the Horn Book. ★ The actual review will come in its July/August 2025 issue. —THE HORN BOOK, starred review
Making Light Bloom tells the story of Clara Driscoll and how her childhood gardens inspired her to create one of the most iconic pieces of American decorative art—the Tiffany lamp. Clara was meticulous about keeping her creations as close to reality as possible. But other artists inspired by flowers haven’t had the same vision of paralleling reality. Using Making Light Bloom as a springboard, this lesson featured in LitLinks leads students through a process of discovering their inspiration as they design a lamp of their own.
