Back from another break! And project complete: Critter Quartet

Well, taking care of a baby full-time while taking classes part-time leaves little room for hobbies. I am hoping to dive back into a smaller project soon but I won't hold my breath. The main issue is that it is difficult to transition between childcare and stained glass. One can't simply drop everything while soldering or glass grinding; there will be lead or sharp glass flecks to clean up first.

Since this blog is a visual endeavor, let's get a picture of the little culprit:


Also, I finished the Critter Quartet back in December but neglected to post about it. This image is washed out and I'll replace it soonish. Heh, I'm certainly a failed blogger at the moment.

Project in Progress: (More) Koi

I now have all of the fish pieces done. Some details are done with bake-on paint, and the foil overlay scales have been tinned with solder. Now it's mostly a matter of cutting and grinding, although there will be some things to figure out when I get to the pondgrass wire details.

Click for a close-up!

Project in Progress: Critter Quartet

So I asked my wife Zoe if she wanted me to make her something nice, just for her. Something in stained glass. And at Glass Endeavors she goes to the racks of pattern books and picks out the "10 Pieces or Less!" book. Bah, she's so minimalist!

I will be combining some of them, however, to make something that is both cute (in the mature, sophisticated way that Zoe appreciates, obviously) and also appropriate for a baby theme. That's very appropriate, since we just had a baby 2 weeks ago. ;)

After continuing work on my Koi project, taking a break for this one feels relaxing and trivial. A few of the simpler patterns combined well for a nice larger piece. I've just been using my scrap glass that I already have, and I've cut out almost all the pieces already. They still need grinding, but you get the idea!

Project in Progress: Koi

Finishing the Candle got me back into the groove, so I'm now well under way with my latest project. The Koi pattern will be a new challenge in a few ways. Not only does it use a bit of glass plating, but it also has a ton of foil overlay and leaded wire accents. I'll also drill a hole in the glass for one of the fish eyes, rather than just cutting and grinding solid shapes in all my previous work. Finally, there are some details created using bake-on paint.

So far, I have the hardest part mostly done, with the fish pieces cut, ground and painted. I'll need to do a lot more foil overlay on these pieces, but that should go fairly quickly.

Here is the image on the website where I bought the pattern, of the completed project. I think mine will look better! :) To be fair, it's always hard to capture the full effect of a stained glass project with a photo, anyway.

Been a while...but Project Complete: Medieval Candle

I completed this project a while back but was too lazy to update my blog! But here we go.

This picture shows the main 2 panels that I plated together. A tiny third piece went on the very back to give a shadow along the left edge of the open book.

And below, you can see the final product! As usual, a lot of the details and subtleties are lost in the picture, like the stacked page effect in the special glass I used for some of the pages, etc.

Quick Update

Well, it's been a while since I posted and a while since I worked on my latest window. The nice weather has made it hard to spend hours of my free time sitting in a dark basement. Still, I'm planning to get back to work in the near future!

Project in Progress: Medieval Candle

My current project is a first foray into glass plating. This piece is quite small, but has three layers and 80 pieces in total.

This page from the instructions shows the final piece as it should appear (top image), with several textures and shadows. Notice also the pages from an illuminated manuscript (lower image) that appear in the book within the piece. I liked this effect, which is produced by affixing a transparent copy of the image to the back of the clear front glass.

I've completed cutting and grinding the pieces in the first layer. It's remarkable how visually unappealing it is, but that must be a part of glass plating; the piece will be odd-looking until you finally view the finished product with backlighting.

Notice that the glass of the background appears much more orange than in the picture above. That is an odd aspect of this particular glass - when viewed with backlighting, it really does appear as a mottled, pale yellow.

This piece is going much faster than the Bird Flower project, and I may be finished with it in 2-3 weeks!