Local stained glass artist Howard and I are about to head to the studio next weekend and head-dive into stained glass making. I’m super excited and incredibly nervous as I contemplate my fear of blood -gushing finger cuts. My fear is valid. Every time I’ve cut glass (twice), I’ve managed to nick my fingers and stained (pun intended) the glass, with my blood. Yuck. We’ve bought extra boxes of band-aids, and I suppose I’m as prepared as ever.
During the month of December, Howard and I revised sketch #2, our concept of discovery through reading. We included more adventures, dreams, and little references /inspirations of other books. There was much back and forth between what to include and what not, what shapes would work best for stained glass and what don’t, but all in all, it took about a month to finalize our design.
Final Sketches
This is the final design that we presented to our clients, whom consisted of the Principal, the PTA, and three teachers (more on this later). This is a sketch that we traced on vellum paper so that we could draw the lead lines in.
This panel measures 16″ x 72″ Have I mentioned I’ve always wanted to ride in a hot air balloon? and who doesn’t enjoy “Cloudy with a chance of meatballs”?
In addition to the three panels above, we decided to add two more panels that will reside on the left and right of the 3-panel above. The left panel is of a boy reading (for balance) and the right panel is the school’s mascot, a python. Once the sketches are finalized, I transferred them to vector graphics and designed the lead lines.
We presented a colored version of the sketch that I put together in Photoshop, which took me about 8 hours to do. Designing colors and textures is time consuming.
Click on picture for larger version
Client Presentation
We met at Howard’s beautiful house for the meeting, and had a tour of all the gorgeous stained glass projects, and a tour of the studio. There were lots of oohs and ahhs and shocking faces when people realized how much time and effort goes into a panel. It takes about 40 hours to complete each panel. For a novice like me, it will definitely take longer.
Howard has all the tools laid out and even gave everyone a chance to experience stained glass cutting.
Table for demonstration
another table with a current project. Howard was finishing putting together lead lines.
glass grinder
Glass cutter tool. When you cut glass, you create a “zzzzip!” sound as you score. Too little pressure and the break will not follow the score line, and too much will cause unnecessary wear and tear on your cutter as well as your wrist and elbow.
A plier is used to break two pieces of glass apart after you score the glass
another stained glass project Howard was working on
glass cutting demonstration.
The Principal’s first time cutting glass
After the tour, we presented our designs and everyone loved it. They even clapped! So excited!
But there’s more!
We gave each a blank copy of the sketch and asked them to do a color exercise. We laid out a bazillion color pencils and while coloring, we talked through the contract. Here they are, coloring away like little kids. 🙂
We all had a great time and we hope the committee gained a little insight on stained glass.
As for me and Howard, we’ll start cutting, grinding, and assembling glass next week. We hope to have this project done by the Fall, before next school year begins.