Inspirations

Anyone whose ever quilted has noticed that there are a lot of cross and star patterns. These are the most popular, I think, because it's easy to divide an area into 1/2's 1/4's and 1/8's. It got me thinking while at Quilt Odyssey, that maybe I ought to design some crosses and stars.

I know of several area congregations holding services in rented quarters. The congregants are inspired, but the surroundings are not.

Stained glass is so associated with religious buildings that I got to thinking that I could design medium sized devotional panels that could move when the church finds a permanent home. If I build it correctly, these could even be incorporated into larger windows should the church wish to later.

It's proved surprisingly hard to design something that is brilliant at the right scale. The panels have to be light enough to hang from a variety of window types, but be large enough to be a major element in the sacred space.

I'm still playing with scale for the first piece, a stylized cross in a circle in a square. It comes in at 16" square, which is fine for a home, but a bit small for a meeting area. I'm leery of going larger than 20" though, since the piece starts to get heavy. I do have a color palette, with brilliant reds in the center ,a steel blue cross, a textured yellow gold as the nimbus and a peachy color for the background. I'm surrounding the piece with a paler blue glass and bright red in the corners.

Preliminary designs and pictures to follow later this week.

Quilt Odyssey

We got into this fantastic quilt show in Hershey PA. Originally denied for space, we were recently invited as an exhibitor dropped out! So now it's back to the drawing board to refine our brochures, check out the framework for the tent and otherwise make a few new pieces -just to say we did!
The show is 3 weeks away. We've both been working hard to get everything ready.
Phew

Our stuff at Artomatic.

Wow, there is a wonderful collection of artists at this show! I spent last night , along with hundreds of others, finishing my booth display. It was a pleasant mad house. A madhouse since the electric still was not installed, but wonderful since all the fellow artists were so kind and helpful.

This is just a few of the pieces I have up on the 8th floor corner space. I have light and a great view to the National Cathedral in the far right. The show is in a new unfinished office tower at M and 1st street NE right near Gaudallet College and a block off the metro stop.

For this show we only brought our bigger pieces, since this is a show, not a sale. We can sell our pieces, but we have to leave them up until June 16. http://www.artomatic.org/

More Flowers for the Commission

Okay, I've a bird, and 2 peonies foiled. We won't mention that the bird actually belongs in another window. I'm getting there.

I've also just figured out how to make one piece hearts. This was a happy accident as I had a scrap of green swirled glass of about the right dimensions. Now to figure out what to do with it!

Building a New Piece

I've received an interesting commission. The client has approved the rough thumbnail sketch and the major glass selections- but she's leaving the details up to me. Phew! The design meets her requirements that this window provide privacy from her neighbors, let in light, and add to a spacious feel in the room.

Since these are South facing windows, I don't have to worry about making the room dark if I use a lot of very saturated color. It's an issue in smaller for North facing windows. The bright and rich colors will give her all the privacy she craves.

By designing a landscape, the window will visually expand the space rather than close it off as a more Victorian design would do.

Fianlly, the right way to make a window is to have a complete cartoon of the design on the table , cut and fit all the peices and the assemble the entire panel at once. I'm not doing that. Since I have free rein, I'm building the fun elements first: the peonies, the birds, the other animals. After I've arranged them in the most pleasing way, I'll fit in the back round. This gives me the ability to tweak the design until the last moment, and fosters last- minute inspiration.

So for the next few weeks( did I mention that this needs to be finished fast) I'll be blogging about this piece and how it is progressing.

Back in the Saddle Again

It's been a while again since I posted , mostly because I'm still working on that house for my nephew. Kitchen is done, he had a barbecue for the 4th, porch is looking good. So it's time to focus on glass again.

I recently posted some glass hearts on ETSY, the craft market site. I still prefer to show our larger panels at shows since one really has to see the pieces to get the full impact- A photo does not do justice to the glass. But for the smaller pieces, where we just really are playing with pretty colors, well, it's okay in a photo.

I make these when I really really really get bogged down with a piece. Right now I'm still drafting the design for a custom window that should have daffodils, a brown cat, peonies, a peaceful landscape and a cherry tree . Okay. It is a large window and the fee will be very nice, but oh it's a big project. So I make these to encourage myself and to have a project done!