Welcome to Theodore Ellison Designs



		Our work has been featured in American Bungalow, Old House Interiors, The San Francisco Chronicle and Old House Journal.



by John Luke Theodore Ellison Designs handcrafts leaded glass into architectural windows and lighting influenced by the Arts and Crafts tradition. The studio, which Ted Ellison opened full time in 1997, offers a line of scaleable and adaptable window designs, and Ellison also works directly with homeowners, architects and designers on custom projects. Raised by parents who practiced crafts in their spare time and dragged their kids to antique stores all over the Midwest, Ellison took naturally to wood shop, metal shop and drafting in high school. One teacher, very old school, taught all of these classes, he says. He taught us what makes good furniture, the importance of building to the best of your ability, and how to use traditional skills and tools to craft something that has integrity. Ellison graduated from San Francisco State, where he studied art history, textiles and weaving, metals, ceramics, drawing and stained glass. He also was able to complete a two-year apprenticeship with the Italian glass artist Narcissus Quagliata, who is noted for, among other works, his glass dome atop the last Basilica of Michelangelo in Rome. After he graduated, Ellison worked in the Bay Area as a teacher and carpenter. It was when he was working on a carpentry crew restoring Craftsman homes that he was able to pick up work designing and building windows for some of the homeowners. Once, while he was getting supplies from a local glass shop, a customer came in and inquired about designs that might be appropriate for her bungalow. When the clerk presented several Victorian designs and a few modern ones, Ellison realized that he could come up with something more appropriate. Pretty clearly, he was right. It is always fascinating to find an artisan who can breathe new life into historical tradition, says Arts and Crafts wallpaper-ist Bruce Bradbury. Teds glass pieces, which echo the muted, earthy colors and textures of the early-20th century, transcend mere historicism while staying true to the design ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement.
	Finding Balance in Surprise "I spend a lot of time looking at art and listening to music where all of the elements-the detail, the negative space, the rhythm-work and fit together in a way that is unexpected," Ellison says. "I try to create something that will be in concert with other furnishings and, in the window itself, achieve a balance between color, the texture of the glass, the character of the lead line and the degree of light transmission, so that the whole thing comes together in a way that makes sense, but in a way that doesn't seem obvious." Ellison pays particular attention to his handling of the lead. "Whether hammering the came-which produces a wonderful randomness-or planing it to create the gentle tapered lines in some of our Mackintosh-influenced work, I'm always adapting tools and creating jigs to get effects that I think will be appropriate for a particular type of design."
Though Growing, Remaining Small Ellison works with his assistant, Chris Botting, .in "an old pool hall in a moderately rough part of Oakland," but will soon move to new quarters to accommodate the growth of the business. "We started slow," he says. "Being from an art background, it took me a while to realize that advertising might be a good idea. Now, through advertising in American Bungalow, being accepted at the Pasadena Craftsman Weekend and the San Francisco Arts and Crafts show, and with the support of people like Paul Duchscherer and stores like The Craftsman Home and Omega in Berkeley, we have a steady six-to-eight-month backlog of work. Fortunately, we've been blessed with clients that accept longer waits to get their projects." Ellison is also a member of Artistic License, a guild of craftspeople and design professionals dedicated to preserving the highest standards of the architectural trades. Asked what work he's especially proud of, Ellison says he was recently commissioned to design leaded glass for the 1909 Greene and Greene Anthony House in Beverly Hills. "The original wood doors in the living room were replaced with sliding aluminum doors at some point, so new doors based on the original drawings have been built, and our work will go in the top portion of each panel. "I don't know if 'proud' is the right word. I vacillate between awe, bewilderment, intimidation and complete exhilaration." Ellison says he wants his workshop to remain small in order to sustain the quality of its output. He also wants to continue to develop his line of scaleable and adaptable designs. "I started this series because not everyone wants to go through the custom design process for a small window," he says. "We're working on a series of designs that can be interpreted for uses throughout the home-from the front door, to fireplace sidelights, to the kitchen cabinetry, to the lighting."