Lover's Nest

One of the elements I love most in stained glass panels is when there's a stunning focal point in the piece. I'd look at other artist's work and wonder how they'd come up with those elements.

It wasn't until recently that it occurred to me that I could incorporate any glass element into my pieces. With this in mind I went out to the local antiques and collectibles store. There's always interesting glassware there. I almost never buy them though just because I don't display those kinda things. This time whenever glass caught my eye I'd pick it up and look at it with light shining through it.

I got a few pretty serving bowls and some interesting platters. But on my way to check out something caught my eye. It was a dirty jar stuffed away on a shelf. The frosted glass drew me to it and I realized there was a pretty image on the lid of the jar. Two birds cuddled together on a branch. I held the lid up to the light and realized what a beautiful image it was, even in its dingy state. Immediately ideas sprung to mind on the piece I'd create with it.

What a great find. From dingy jar shoved in the back of a shelf to proudly displayed stained glass panel.

Creative spark captured

Spring is my favorite season. I always feel my creativity spike when I see trees budding and flowers blooming. Sometimes I wish I could capture that creative spark.

I've always been fascinated with the idea of encasing something for safe keeping. People often lock away keepsakes in a case or trunk never to be removed again (or very rarely). Then the idea came to me to put something in stained glass. I can't think of a better way to display something beautiful than to have it hanging in stained glass, letting the light filter through it.

I decided the best way to capture the moment of early spring is to encase a rose bud. The color of the purple flower is striking against the swirled glass. The brown swirls representing the soil the rose grows from. An elegant way to bring the outdoors in.

Sometimes simple is the way to go

$40.00 at Zibbet Shop.

I like to work on stained glass everyday but with work at the restaurant and a garage sale coming up I haven't had enough time. I finally had to fit in some work between things.

Lately, I've been enjoying simple designs. As my skills improve and I get more practice I find simple designs are in a sense more difficult because there is no place to hide mistakes. This pushes me to execute each element perfectly.

This 12"x12" piece with the mix of striking colors and chocolate swirled glass would make an elegant focal point to a room, either on a stand as pictured or installed as a window.

Bare Trees

Like most people my age I grew up listening to the Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks iteration of Fleetwood Mac. I had always liked their music but then my parents purchased some CDs of the band's earlier work. Bare Trees quickly became one of my absolute favorite albums of all time.

There's a fantastic vibe to the whole album that gets me every time I listen to it. A certain moodiness to the sound and lyrics.

This was my first attempt at making a picture out of stained glass and I think I was able to capture the vibe of the album with this piece.

To really understand what I'm talking about you have to listen to the first song in this post as well as this one...

Of all the stained glass pieces I've made thus far I feel a special connection with this one. I'm very pleased with how it came out.