Project in Progress: (Even More) Bird Flower Painting

Quick update on the Bird Flower Project. I should have all the pieces foiled soon. It's taking a long time, like every step of this project. I'm excited to move on to less ambitious projects that I can complete faster.

Stained Glass and Modern Art

One thing I like about stained glass: It's hard to ruin a big piece with idiotic "artistic" aspirations.

People who know me very well are familiar with my abject disdain for "modern art." And I'm certainly not alone; this passionate disdain is shared by others. I accept that different people have different tastes, and some enjoy these modern visual oddities. I'd simply ask that they not call it "art." Call it anything else. ("Visually-assisted academic BS" perhaps? This website explores definitions of art much better than I.) For me personally, "art" should at a minimum incorporate one of two things, and ideally both:

1. Be remotely aesthetically pleasing. Not this. Sorry, no.
2. Require more skill to create than a layperson or animal can muster. For example, no. And no.

Granted, some modern art succeeds on both prongs but more often seems to fail on both. This piece by Mark Lawrence is pretty neat.


So, back to my original point. Stained glass is difficult to ruin with grandiose modernity. Even a "minimalist" piece will require a fair amount of effort and resources to make, and the more minimalist it gets, the more it resembles a normal window or an architectural highlight. The modern glass aesthetic also traces its path through people like Frank Lloyd Wright, who made some nifty designs. Furthermore, pieces that follow the modern canvas art traditions still look nice to me, since they inevitably incorporate color and seem more substantial, somehow, than splatters and rectangles on canvas.


In the end, larger stained glass pieces are functional; perhaps they are artistic craft rather than pure art. I tend to like what I see at craft fairs and that may be an insight into my taste and definition of art. Indeed, the Art vs. Craft debate an ongoing affair, so I'll sign out with this essay.

Perils of the Profession

This entry at Joe's Stained glass blog casts an interesting light on what it can mean to do stained glass for a living. It depends on what you want your business to focus on, of course. (And running your own business is an ordeal in itself.) Glass Endeavors seems to be thriving, but they focus on their store, studio space, repair service and classes in addition to doing the odd commission.

I think I'll stick to stained glass as a hobby for the foreseeable future...until I want to charge money for tacky glass memorials to Fluffy the cat.

Project in Progress: Leaded Glass Class

To take a small break from my Bird Flower project, I've started my second class at Glass Endeavors. This class will cover the leaded window technique, which is actually completely different from the copper-foil technique I've already learned.

With the copper foil technique, you simply wrap the edges of each piece with adhesive copper foil, lay out all the pieces, and solder them together. With leaded windows, you cut each strip of lead from a pre-extruded length, and assemble the window one piece at a time. Authentic horseshoe nails are used to hold the pieces together during assembly; small pieces of the lead came are set against the edges of glass and nails are used to press them in place.

See the picture below for an example of this technique in progress (source):



Also, here is the pattern I've chosen for my learning piece. It has a couple pieces that will be challenging to cut, but I like the overall look and want to try it out. For a larger image with much clearer lines, simply click the image below.

Project in Progress: (More) Bird Flower Painting

Finally, I have finished cutting and grinding the pieces! This was a pretty epic endeavor. Now I only need to foil, solder, patina and finish each piece. Plus add the frame and the rebar.

Here are all the pieces laid out. Each edge is spaced about 1 mm away from its neighbor. The window is 48'' x 22''.


I like how the foliage came out, and the glass I chose for the wood bark.


Here is the bird hanging out on its branch. Note that this is a sideways shot so it will be hanging upside down in the final pose.

Project in Progress: Bird Flower Painting

I've been chugging away at my Bird Flower project and I'm finally done with the bird. This picture gives an idea, but there will be more feathery effects in the glass when it's viewed with backlighting. Note that the bird measures about a foot across.


This was the most challenging set of pieces to cut and grind, since there were many irregular and tiny shapes. I had to avoid some of the strangest curves and ruffles in the pattern by revising the lines. Very wavy lines are impractical to cut. They also may add little to the overall pattern. All things considered, I'm very satisfied with how the bird came out. This bird section alone has over 50 pieces; it is nearly as substantial as the Celtic Deer project!

The Desert Spear by Peter V. Brett + Project Idea

Book 1: The Warded Man

When I read Peter V. Brett's first published novel, The Warded Man, I found it extremely difficult to put down. The premise of the underlying world was straightforward enough, but the character development, action and story line were exciting and compelling. I stayed up far past my bedtime to finish it.

Book 2: The Desert Spear

The next book in the series, The Desert Spear, will be released on April 13. I used my sci-fi/fantasy geek powers to get my hands on an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy), so I finished the book a couple weeks ago. I'd like to write a full glowing review of it but there are no such reviews online at the moment; I don't want to pre-empt whatever marketing strategy the publisher and author would like to employ as the book ramps up to its release date.

I'll say a little, though. I had very high expectations for this sequel. In the course of reading The Desert Spear, my expectations were met - and surpassed quite thoroughly. I would love to get into specifics. Like the first book, I was glued to the page far past my bedtime until I finished it. In some fantasy series, subsequent novels seem to contain filler material to fluff up the latest installment into a full length book. But none of that here! The Desert Spear has a wonderful pace and that rare "unputdownability" that I love in a good book. Great sequel!

Project Idea: Wanderer

In the very long term, I'd love to make a glass plating project based on this series of books. A combination of a few existing images might be interesting. The landscape would be a cropped version of this valley, illuminated by the setting sun. The structure on the far mountain would be changed to old ruins. The sky would meed to be more colorful, and the dark areas would be dark blues, purples, and greens rather than black.

The rider's profile would be along these lines, placed in the foreground and perhaps to the right. I'm thinking the upper half of the horse and rider would be struck by a ray of sunlight. The horse would also need some kind of metallic barding. Finally, I would need wisps of mist rising from the ground on the plain, perhaps shrouding a murky figure with red eyes. I still haven't designed a project from scratch, let alone done glass plating. At this point, I still have no idea what I'm talking about. I do have a suspicion this would be very hard to make. ;)