love affair with stained glass

I took a class at Lighthouse Glass in Venice. This was the pattern I chose to work on. Also an example of altering a pattern. Initially it was only a side light, so just the right side was the pattern. I wanted it for a specific window, so I flipped the pattern over, drew in the left side, and then used elements of the pattern to fill in the top and bottom until it was the desired size.

When I brought in my pattern, the instructor looked at it, then me and said “This should be at least twice as large.” I said I wanted it for a specific window and was ocnfident I could do it. He pointed out that there were a lot of little tiny pieces (the entire window including 2″ frame is 22″ square). Cocky, I said it would be no problem. Wow, did I come to regret those words.

It contains over 300 pieces… and most of them are tiny. Buy the time I was done with it, I vowed to never, ever do small pieces again, at least in such quantity. Add to that, I broke the center piece of glass at one point, and had to replace it. Mind, the first piece of glass was $40… Eventually, though, it was done, and hung in my little glass work shack, and it was fantastic.