Words, Words, Words.

Well, this is something I never thought I'd say (since I don't really consider myself a traditional artist), but I'm having some of my work included in an art show!

The studio where I do stained glass is being featured at our local First Friday Art Walk this week, and I was asked to submit one or two of mine. I'm actually pretty excited! (Especially since I can't draw to save my life, but my glass panels tend to turn out well!)

( Here's the one I thought I might submit: )

Because you can never have too many good things in your life, and because we tend to overlook the good stuff far too often, here, in no particular order (and for no other reason than I felt like it), are 101 things that make my life awesome! I was surprised by how short a time it took me to list them all. (The best part was I probably could have kept going!)

( 101 Things That Make My Life Awesome! )

I didn't get the opportunity to post on this the other day, but I took a little impromptu trip to New York City on Thursday to see the windows for which my stained glass instructor had been commissioned. The windows are currently displayed on the front of the Forward Building on East Broadway, which once housed the Jewish Daily Forward newspaper but is currently being refurbished and remodeled as a luxury apartment building.

The patterns for the new windows were made from old black and white photographs of the originals. Based on light reflection and brightness/contrasts in the pictures, my teacher tried to get the window colors as close to what they might have been when the building was first constructed. No matter what, I think he did an amazing job.

As for me, I was lucky enough to lend a hand. So I can honestly say I helped to make a stained glass window that is now on display on Broadway. :)

The link below is the best picture I was able to find of the Forward Building on the internet (complete with the newly installed windows). It's not close enough to see detail, but it's decent:

The Forward Building (175 E. Broadway)

When my own photos come back from being developed, I'll see if they will be good enough to scan and post. I was a little disappointed that we weren't able to get very close, since the entire sidewalk in front of the building is currently being torn up and replaced. We had to look at it from the park across the street. I was certainly glad to have had the chance to see them though.

(Oh, and the window on the right is the one I worked on. *G*)

Firstly, I'd like to wish a wonderful day to any of my friends who celebrate Boxing Day, Kwanzaa (which begins today) or St. Stephen's Day. As the holiday season continues, I extend my best to everyone. *hugs*


Also, I received the photo of my kitchen cabinet project from the Sensei this morning. He went over to install it on Saturday - so it was delivered by Christmas, as promised! :)

As I said, it's not the pattern nor the colors that I might have chosen had I been making the piece for myself, but I'm still very pleased with the way it turned out:

Kitchen Cabinet

Now, I've got to do a few more family things, but with any luck I'll finally be able to catch up on my commenting later.

Have a wonderful day, everyone!

I got a bit of a surprise this evening when I went to stained glass (my first evening back since my brother's visit): I've got a commissioned piece. It will be my first paying job.

As it turns out, a woman hired the Sensei to put a stained glass insert into one of her kitchen cabinets. He promised it by Christmas, but he's also working on another project that is taking up all his time. So the cabinet project became mine. It's rather exciting for me -- even though it doesn't necessarily have a pattern or colors that I love. (Naturally, that's the customer's choice. But it will certainly make it easier for me to part with it. *G*) I've never made a piece that big (and in need of that much accuracy) in such a short amount of time before, but I'm determined to have it ready by Christmas.

I'll post some pictures of it when it's finished.

Also, I'll have a hand in a project that's going to be on display in New York City, which is *very* exciting. The Sensei got a job replacing the two stained glass windows on the front of the Forward Building on East Broadway, and I'll be helping with the work on that as well. *squee*

I haven't posted anything stained glass-related in a long while. I was going through some of my archived posts and I couldn't believe I hadn't done this one yet. It's not only one of my favorites, but it's also the project that took the longest -- 9 months (though keep in mind I only do this once a week).

My mother wanted a Tiffany-style lampshade, and this was the result. I was very proud of this one. I even special ordered the base -- I liked the tree trunk look.

I've taken pictures of it with the flash, and without it:

The Lamp #1

The Lamp #2 (I like this shot.)

I've been asked if I would ever consider doing another. I answer that with a rousing: No! NO! Sweet holy Moses, NO!!

If I never have to try and solder glass over a curved Styrofoam mold again, it will be too soon. This one's one of a kind, babes.

Unless I change my mind someday. *snerk*

Yay, an update! (Now that I finally have something to say!) And a new piece of stained glass to share!

Actually, I'd been looking forward to posting this for a while. (Since this one took a long time, and a great deal of effort, to make.) I've always had a great love for the novel Don Quijote by Miguel de Cervantes. So, some time ago, I made up my mind to make a pair of windows depicting some rendition of the famous windmill scene from that book.

I began by making this window about two years ago:

Don Quijote

which simply portrayed Quijote and Rocinante, and really turned out to be one of my very favorite pieces that I've made.

My original plan was to then make a panel with the windmills to balance off the original. However, this fell through when I realized I didn't have enough glass to make the ground. (The sheet I used turned out to be an "uncat" -- in other words an sheet of uncategorized glass made by mistake. Hence, one of a kind.)

So, since the two pieces clearly wouldn't match, my plan changed. In the end, I used the windmill pattern I had set aside for this set, extracted the Quijote from the pattern of the first piece, and inserted him as a silhouette into the new one. I think it turned out better because, while the windmills themselves would have only worked as part of a pair, both windows can now stand on their own:

Tilting at Windmills (new)

I plan on taking a better photo later, when I have more sufficient light behind it, but I was so excited with the fact that I finally finished it -- and that I'm especially pleased with the way it turned out -- I had to post it right away.

And now some spam of a different type. It's been a while since I posted one of these, but I'm almost finished with my latest glass project and I thought I'd like to start posting pictures of them again.

I don't think I've done this one yet, and it just happens to be one of which I'm especially proud.

I'd wanted to do a piece with ballet shoes for a long time (since I'd taken dance for 11 years), but I couldn't find a pattern that I really liked. Therefore, the following is one of the few pieces that I've ever done completely from scratch, without simply adapting from another pattern. (Those of you who saw my pig drawing from my previous post can probably understand why.) So, I used an actual photograph of my own ballet shoes, and then the Sensei helped me Photoshop it into a pattern.

It's probably one of my favorites that I've ever done. (1. Because the pattern turned out really cool; 2. Because the solder beaded almost perfectly; and 3. Because I did the textured clear background all in one continuous sheet. That meant no breaking! Whee!)

I've included pictures taken both with and without a flash. (It highlights the colors and the textured clear differently, and I liked that.)

Ballet Shoes #1

Ballet Shoes #2

I haven't posted any pics of my stained glass projects in ages . (At least not since I mourned the woeful breaking of my favorite votive.) However, since I'm nearly finished with my latest project, I felt the need to start displaying photos again. This is one of my personal favorites.

Here's a shot of a piece I made for my father for Christmas a few years ago. He requested a tree. He got several. Plus a waterfall. Personally, I thought it turned out pretty well. (Definitely one of my better soldering jobs.)

Here's another shot, taken without the flash. I don't think it looks quite as pretty here, but you do get a view of the actual textures on some of the glass which looks kind of neat.

Woe to me this morning as I brought forth catastrophe upon one of my glass creations.

Last year, the Sensei and I made about 150 of these candle votives for his daughter's (my best friend's) wedding. He had the blue ones placed in sets of three on each of the tables at the reception, as well as lining the windowsills of the hallway leading into the ballroom. It was absolutely gorgeous. And, although I made several of the blue ones, the green one in the middle was special, since I made it just for the fun of it with a glass that I especially liked. My green votive had been on display on my bathroom radiator.

So this morning I was rushing around because Gene and Will were picking me up for the Teachers' Institute that we had to go to today. I opened the cupboard above the radiator, in which I keep a variety of toiletries and styling products, and a brush comes tumbling out.

SMASH!

I didn't even want to look down.

The bad news is, of course, the votive is now broken. The good news is it didn't shatter completely and only split into two solid pieces. (A fact which absolutely amazed me!) It's now been glued, it's definitely passable, and I'll most likely even make a new one, but I'm still bummed that it happened in the first place. (Damn you, round brush! Damn you and your unsteady rolling!)

Alas! Thus, here be one more pretty photo, in memoriam.

Rest in pieces, my favorite special votive. I'm eternally glad you at least weren't damaged beyond repair.