Grandfather Philip's Stained Glass

Medieval/Morris Cartoon

This is a cartoon for a painted panel consisting of two pieces of glass. The design is based on William Morris floral designs melded with medieval floral designs to form a floral bouquet that covers the centuries. When It is painted silver stain will be used in areas also covering centuries of techniques. Maybe I'm becoming too ersatz!

A Letter

I recieved a letter that was a total surprise! It was from a student that seemed to think I am an artist! It was sent in an envelope that was decorated by the sender and requested an answer in a different envelope decorated by me "the artist". It was answered the same day! My head grew 20 sizes!

Rudyard Kipling

It has been some time since I have posted to the site and I don't want anyone to think I have stopped or abandoned the site.
Actually I have been busy giving some lessons and designing a window in honor of Rudyard Kipling.
I rediscovered Kipling when I picked up a copy of "Just So Stories". The man was a genius!
This window will have drawings and text from "Kim" surrounded by a broken glass type border that blends from yellows on the top to greens on the sides and blues on the bottom.
Painting text is an absolute pain and I need to improve. Practice makes perfect.
Back to work!

Barber Family Crest

This design is a family crest for the Barber family. It will be 20" wide and 24" tall. The colors are a gold(yellow) shield with two red chevrons and three Fleur de lis with a red castle crown and bull's head. The bulls head and helmet are gray. The border will carry out the red and gold(yellow) theme.

Corrections

It seems my research is not up to snuff and I must make some corrections.
The panel I titled "Arthur" should be "William I". "Saint Crankyface" is really Elizabeth Seaton. Hope I haven't offended anyone. I'll try to be more accurate.

Simple Stained Glass

Download file
This just about says it all!

Heraldic Pane

This is the project I moved on to after "Tulips". It is a heraldic pane 16 inches by 16 inches with five foil construction panels containing 187 peices of glass. The rest will be lead came construction. The color scheme is greens, yellows and browns so it is subdued and not flashy. There are two pieces of that unspellable red in the center panel. If it's finished in time it will be auctioned off for the Gretna Theater in Mount Gretna, PA. I better get hopping!

Nancy's Tulips (text)

If you're wondering why there is no text with the" Nancy's Tulips" entry I don't know why it didn't load so...
My client, Nancy picked this design because it reminded her of her childhood in Wisconsin with all those tulips. It is 16 inches in diameter (not big) and contains 112 pieces of glass. the glass is textured and opaque except for the wine red color that I can't spell the name of. After the final pieces are cut, the foiling and soldering begins. More later.
Aren't computers great?

Nancy's Tulips

Henry II

This is an outline painting of a 14th century church window of King Henry II "The Saint" in Europe. This will not be overpainted with color. The plan is to surround it with colored glass painted with a border design taken from components in the center. The light box I made for painting has been a big help!

Shipping

It's finally on it's way. This was taken just before delivery to the shipper to be packed and shipped to Ireland. Another learning experience! Now we just have to pray it arrives safely. It was packed with so much material to protect it I think it would have to be dropped from the plane or run over by a forklift.

Photography

Learning never ceases. Thats a good thing! Trying to learn how to take photographs of stained glass to show how it looks is difficult and I'm not sure it can be done effectively. I'm running around taking pictues of flowers in our backyard to practice. Another good thing! I think these are better.

Phoenix Arising

It was the plaster!!! The picture once again is lousy though. The Phoenix is also engraved to give it a better outline and the white glass doesn't look white. In fact none of the colors look right. Maybe I should take a course in digital photography.

Fusing Glass

While I am working on framing "Palms", I am trying to fuse a "Phoenix" in honor of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix which is being put on sale June 21, 2003. Needless to say the first two wound up as ashes which I guess is apropos. It is not my fault! It was the plaster coating on the kiln platen! At least I think it was. I'll know for sure in a few days. Hope you can wait.

Not Anatomy

Since we are not ready to post another Anatomy, I thought I might do something about glass fusing. Frances bought me a kiln for Christmas for glass painting. Glass painting is an art unto itself that requires new skills. Mixing paint, application by brush and textures and shading. The last step is to fire the painted glass in the kiln. Another new skill to be learned! Learning never seems to end. Anyway, to learn about the kiln and its operation, I assembled some scrap pieces of glass and fired them. The picture are first attempts that were basically OK. Some later pieces failed altogether! Fortunately I have lots of scrap glass.

AnatomyIV

A trip to the glass store in Allentown was in order to pick out the glass for the project. I love to go to Warner-Crivellaro! The problem is I can't afford to go too often because I want to buy everything!
Frances and I made it home with the glass and only a few extras without breaking anything and now it was time to do some serious glass work.
This picture shows some of the glass after being cut to shape and size for the window.

Anatomy III

Since we have decided on the design and colors, it is time to draw the pattern (or cartoon). The design is drawn to the actual dimensions of the finished project. There needs to be an exact duplicate. One is used for cutting the glass and the other is used to fit the project together. If translucent glass is used, you can place the glass over the pattern and trace the outline onto the glass. If the glass is opaque, you must cut the paper shape out and trace the outline onto the glass. once that is done you can actually cut the glass! There seems to be more drawing and tracing than glass cutting! The picture is one of the patterns for palms(the perspective is off.).

Anatomy II

The concept was good but, could not be translated to glass. Another drawing was required to be drawn to scale that could be done in glass and approved. Then color had to be picked and the colors chosen existed in the bathroom tile.

Here's the tile colors and the drawing to the left are supposed to be those colors. We are on our way to making a window!

Anatomy I

In order to post more frequently and perhaps maintain interest , we will show how stained glass comes to be.
First is the concept. In October 2002, we were in Ireland for a poetry retreat. Not me but the rest of the family. The retreat was at Anam Cara, county cork and was remarkably relaxing and it had stained glass windows! To make a long story short, I got a commission to do some additional windows.
The picture is the concept. It had measurements to meet and there was no direct sunlght so the window needed to be bright. Could this concept work?

First Entry

This web site was such a surprise! I hope to be able to keep it updated frequently enough to maintain interest. Stained glass does take time and I am old and slow but the projects come out just fine. Today I finished glazing a bathroom window that is going to Anam Cara in West Cork county Ireland. When the frame and everything is complete there will be a picture. I call it "Palms" because it is a rendering of the palm trees at Anam Cara. Bet you might not have known palm trees grow in Ireland.

Painted stained glass outlines

This terrible picture shows two attempts at how not to paint glass with the third attempt of the outline coming out perfectly.

The first two "fried" because of too much gum arabic and improper mixing. The third, on the right, is smooth glass and while the painting technique needs improvement, it is "goood"!

I need a story about a person putting a nut on a frog's head so the painting has meaning. Any takers?

Zoupi in the Studio

Zoupi from zousan.com came to visit the studio. He lives in Japan with my daughter, Kristen, and has travelled all over the world.