On the bench

Thought I'd post a quick photo of work currently on the bench. It's a 'sundial' window for a spectacular treehouse in Portland, Or. The window also contains a compass and the sun and moon, and I'll post a bit more about it when it's finished!

In this picture you can just about see half the window is leaded and the other half is still just the glass bits.

More glass painting.

Continuing the theme of 'little', I have recently completed another bit of stained glass painting for Bonny Doon Art Glass.


This one really was little! Two tiny people, only a few inches each, who are shown driving in this vintage car. The rest of the window was completed by John Forbes, of BD art glass, and contains custom golden bevels and copper foiled glass for this private piece. 

Painting this small is actually far harder than painting big. Glass paints are hard enough to work with, without having to jiggle them onto such small bits of glass.

Completed dome!

I don't always get to see the finished product - especially when it's not my job and I'm working for someone else. But today I got an email with pictures of the finished dome in place! Such a nice surprise! I love the delicate colors chosen for this one, it's all very subtle, and I think the coloring of the heads blends really well. I forgot to ask if the client was happy with it?! But I'll try and find that out soon.

Course, I can't take credit for much of this job - just those two little faces. The rest all goes to Bonny Doon Art Glass.

Speaking of faces, I just completed three commissioned folk art paintings of three young sisters.

They will be appearing next time :)

Completed Cherubs!

The Cherubs have been colored with stain and enamel, and have been delivered back to Bonny Doon Art Glass where they will be added to the oval dome ready for soldering and installation.

I'm sure they are happy to finally get their wings, as being a floating head can have it's downsides.

Pictures are of the finished heads on the light box, and waxed in place on the side of the dome mold. I took that picture from an angle so you can see the curve of the glass piece. The paint is placed face down (so the owners will see it on the inside) but note the blue eyes from the back look weird as I enameled and stained the back side of the glass. This is done for many reasons.

Stain always is brushed on the back side of glass, as it has a tendency to 'metal' (go metallic looking) which obscures the glass and image. It does this because silver stain is indeed made with silver nitrate, so it can kind of turn to metal in the kilning process. The enamel can be painted onto the front or back of the glass, but is kind of a hit and miss firing process. By painting the back in this case, it gives the faces a glowing color from behind, and if the color turned out all wrong, I can just acid it off and start again. If I had layered the enamel on the front on top of the paint, and the color came out wrong - I would have pretty much ruined the whole piece, and many hours of careful painting, so that is why on this occasion I painted the back!

There! That was the technical bit. Check out the dome picture too, for the great custom yellow bevels used for the angels wings. You don't often see colored bevels, as colored plate glass is fairly unusual, and I think the colors work great with the finished heads. What do you think?

From Angel to Jesus

Yesterday I was looking through some pictures on a hard drive from a previous computer, and found Christ!

I've had more than my fair share of hard drive failures, and one hard drive was lost altogether, but it was great seeing these pictures I haven't seen for years. Pictures of baby at just a few days old, pictures of beloved pets who have since passed away. As i downloaded them onto my current machine, I literally saw my life flash before my eyes (well, the last fifteen years or so at least) as the pictures momentarily popped onto the screen.

I saw myself, fresh faced, in the days BB (before baby) and was transported to a time when I only had myself, husband and pets to think about. Wow, what a trip.

Anyway, I found these pictures of Mr Christ, before and after his makeover.

It was a restoration job, and the 'before' picture shows how His painted features are starting to come off of the surface (on the light box). The 'after' picture shows his brand new painted head in the restored window. I also had to re-create His hands, as they were broken.

Fun to look back on some past work, and even more fun to realize I have some record of past work that I thought had been lost forever.

Valentines cherubs!

Happy Valentines to you all!

Last time I posted the drawing of the angel/cherub I was going to paint on glass. Today, here is the painted glass version of the twins (needed to paint two of them)

They are not yet finished, as now I have painted them, the glass needs to be slumped (bent) to fit the shape of the dome they will be inhabiting. Then, I will silver stain and enamel them, giving them a little color in the eyes, hair, cheeks and lips. The events happen in this order to accommodate the technical needs of the glass: Slumping temperatures are higher than stain or enamel temps, and paint should withstand slumping etc.

The faces are shown on my light box, so the black blogs are plasticine (holds the glass to the light box) and you can see the excess paint on the light box around each face.

Still - seemed an appropriate picture for today's day of hearts and love!