Kerr Stained Glass Commission; Getting ever closer!

These foiled pieces make up one of the two sidelights! It's funny to see them stacked up and compact like this, like a little package! The second sidelight is cut, ground and about 75% foiled. I'll finish up the foiling tomorrow and then begin soldering. I probably won't get them finished tomorrow, but they'll be very, very close! More and more people are stopping by to look at them and comment on how beautiful the colors are together with the clear texture. I think the Kerr's are going to be very happy.

Stained Glass Commission; Kerr update

The transom is complete! It's all framed, polished and awaiting the completion of its sidelight sisters! The bevel cluster in the center of this transom is stunning! Very beautiful… I can't wait to see it installed. This photo really does not do it justice.

The sidelights are coming along smoothly. I got derailed yesterday with a horrific sinus headache that had my head pounding, teeth hurting and hands shaking. Not a good combination when it comes to cutting glass. (Ok… you don't really "cut" glass, you score it and break it. It's just easier to say cut.) Not only is cutting glass when you don't feel good dangerous, it also is very evident in the quality of the work. So with a cocktail of Tylenol Sinus, Excederin, 7-up, hot tea and some quality couch time the sinuses are cooperating today. The left side (of the sidelights, not my sinuses) is 65% "cut" and all pieces should be cut by the end of the day. I'm heading up to see Sam and Butch tomorrow to pick up the y-zinc that will be used to frame and install the sidelights. The y-lead that I ordered just isn't going to work (I'll have to figure out something else to do with it).

You'll notice the big question mark on the top/center piece. That's my way of reminding myself that piece isn't fitting exactly the way I want. It never does any good to fuss around with a single piece without all the surrounding pieces being cut. So, once all pieces are ready to be "final fit", I'll fuss around with that piece until it meets my expectations.

I would so love to say these will be done by Monday or Tuesday and installed before Christmas… but as soon as I say it, karma will kick me in the pants with another sinus attack. I might have to hire my daughter to help me foil so I can get the right side cut and then solder them both at the same time. Keep your fingers and toes crossed that the Kerr's can have a colorful stained glass Christmas!!

Stained Glass Commission; Kerr Day 3

All the transom pieces are cut and foiled. Was able to solder half of one side today. Expect to have transom completed by the end of the day tomorrow... then on to the sidelights!

Kerr Commission; Off and running!

Yesterday construction started on the Kerr commission transom and sidelights. I'm starting with the transom. The piece measures approximately 8" x 58" and incorporates an elegant bevel cluster along with red, gold and clear texture glasses.

Plans are under way for Jingle & Mingle ’09!

Jingle & Mingle ’09 is a holiday Open House on Friday, November 27th from 1:00pm – 4:00pm hosted by myself and my Factory Studio-mate, Emily Martinez. This is our first holiday season sharing studio space at the Factory and we want everyone to come out and celebrate with us!

In addition to showcasing our art and special holiday themed pieces we’ve created for the season, we’ll be offering hot chocolate, cookies, and drawings for a free class and artwork. Black Friday can be a frantic and exhausting day of shopping… plan to come in, relax and enjoy the artful ambiance that is The Factory.

Watch for the Wine Down Main Street 9 and A Williamson Christmas Shopping Guide (special supplements to the Williamson Herald) for coupons that can be used exclusively in our studio!

Installation is complete!

Rain has been relentless in middle Tennessee for the past week. But the sun finally peeked through the clouds and allowed us to install these sunroom windows on Saturday afternoon! The installation went fairly smooth. The left side fit like a glove, the left side caught at the top so Jeff shaved the wood trim a little and the panel slid in.

So much of my time over the past 6 weeks has been spent working on these windows. They became so much a part of my daily life, I feel a little lost now that I won't have them there waiting for me tomorrow!

On to the next project... a bathroom window!

Closer yet...

I should have taken a moment to consider which pieces were being cut and in what order. It's down to the wire and the last two pieces I cut today were the worst two pieces out of the 285!! They are not bad pieces per say, just very detailed and curvaceous! My plan was to finish cutting, grinding and foiling before I left for the day so I could start soldering on Wednesday. Pieces 196 and 199 had something else in mind entirely! (196 and 199 are located between the two purple flowers in the upper right corner.) After 45 minutes and 4 attempts on #199, they are done, they fit and they are glorious! I had to stop there for the day and left the remaining 13 pieces (which are easy peasy pieces) for Wednesday. I am now really looking forward to Wednesday... the cutting will be complete!

A special thank you to Jordan Westall for his help foiling these windows. Thanks to his work, I believe these will be done by the weekend.

I guess I didn't post the left side once it was cut and foiled. Here it is...

Getting closer!

Well, the camera batteries went dead on me today so I wasn't able to get a picture today. This picture is from Wednesday... I now have half of the undone pieces on this picture done. I figure there are about 35 more pieces to go before I can solder! I'm STOKED!! I love to solder. It's my favorite part of the process.

We changed the color of the sunflower leaves and it was a wise decision. This color looks awesome with the light coming from behind it and it really makes the sunflower pop!

Now... if I can just remember to get some new camera batteries tomorrow!

Days 4, 5 and 6

I had a blog all ready to post Saturday... no internet wi-fi at The Factory and home internet on the fritz. I love technology... when it works. There is something about losing your internet connections to make you feel completely disconnected from the world. Machines have taken over our lives... we rely too much on the convenience they provide us.

Each day as the piece comes together, more and more people stop to take a look. The windows are coming along nicely. Although not nearly as quickly as I had thought they would. There are a total of 284 pieces of glass in these windows, I'm averaging about 16 pieces a day. And that's just cutting them... then they have to be foiled. Foiling can be done anywhere anytime, which is a good thing. I think I'll start bringing home some pieces to foil in the evening.

Day 3; The Prescott Windows

Today was a much better day! I stopped by Target on my way into the studio and picked up an adjustable arm desk lamp to put on my work table. The added light really helped me keep my cutter on the right side of the line.

I was able to get several blue and green pieces cut. The green glass was being a little persnickety. Not breaking where I scored it. Some glass is like that. Hopefully it was just that sheet and the rest of the green I bought will behave. I only had to re-cut one piece. There are a lot of little blue pieces that fit in between the flower petals. Those little pieces take just as much time as the big pieces but don’t show as much progress. I feel really good about what I was able to accomplish today.

Tomorrow is Friday, so I don’t have to work at the rec center at all (yea!)… plan on heading in early and getting a good jump start. I do need to work on a repair for another customer… we’ve been waiting on a custom bevel piece to come in from California. It’s finally arrived, so I need to bang that out. Shouldn’t take too long.

The Prescott Windows; Day 2

I’m sure my students will secretly delight in the fact that my glass cutting skills today were off kilter! For some odd reason, I could not hit the mark and spent far more time at the grinder than I prefer. (Those in the glass crafting know, who know me, know I HATE grinding!) A few of the pieces still need a little tweaking but they will fit in just fine. If not, I’ll recut them. This lack of cutting prowess made my progress today less than desired. Tomorrow is a new day and hopefully a little wine and a good night sleep will restore my normally accurate cutting abilities.

You’ll notice that I’m still avoiding cutting anything around the hummingbird. I'll get to him soon enough. I cut some of the green and blue toward the center (right side of the left panel), the other coneflower in this panel and the petals of the yellow daisy. I am loving all the colors in this project! They are showing up pretty vibrant in the pictures, laying flat against a white piece of paper makes them more two dimensional and darker than they will actually look with air and light behind them.

The Prescott Windows - Day 1

Construction began today on the left side of the Prescott windows. I’m sure the Prescott’s are getting anxious to see them complete, as am I. The design and glass choices took about 30 days, which is pretty good considering the pattern is an original design and was drawn out by hand. The Prescott’s have been great to work with… I hope I can exceed their expectations!

The pattern preparation took an hour and half. I checked and double checked the measurements. One of my biggest fears is to attempt an installation and the piece not fit into the opening! Pattern preparation is kind of like painting a room… the prep work is tedious but necessary! There are two patterns, one to use for transferring the individual pattern pieces to the glass and the second to lay out the cut pieces.

The rest of the afternoon was spent cutting glass. There was, of course, the occasional potty break and the 3:15 walk down to Frisky Berry for a cup of coffee to keep me going! I didn’t get as much cut as I had hoped. Wednesday should be a good, productive day.

For some reason, I cannot get a handle on the color of the hummingbird. I asked Chris at Armstrong Glass his opinion and the bird you see in the picture were the colors he suggested. I’m going to cut it again with the color I had been thinking of previously. I’ll let the Prescott’s take a look at it before it is soldered together and let them decide which color combo to go with. We’ll see how it looks when all the other colors are around it. It can always be changed. I love the colors as they are now, just not sure how they’ll look with the blue background and green leaves.

Boring studio news

The studio is finally coming together. The first big order from Art Glass House came in last Thursday and it was like Christmas! Lots of glass and supplies! The pony case of Kokomo glass was a welcome surprise... there were no more than 2 pieces of the same glass and they were all beautiful. There were even a few pieces I'm not sure I want to part with!

A new marketing tool

I was told recently that to successfully market your business, you need to be spending 50% of the time you have marketing. That seems a little excessive, but did get me to thinking that I need to spend more time getting the word out there about Sapphire Road Stained Glass.