Copper foiled center panel

Today I finished foiling the interior panel of the medicine cabinet door.  I have to cut out and foil the long side and top strips sometime this week.  I hope to have this completed by next weekend. Painting the pile of boulders turned into a "do it twice" deal.  Since you can't scrape paint off of glass once it is fired, you had better be sure you A) know what you are doing and B) like what you have done the first time.  I didn't have A or B in hand for the first firing, and that piece is now in the trash.  I still didn't quite have A in hand the second time around, but I think I like it!  Besides painting and firing it with softer colors (browns and blue-grays) I lowered the fire temp a little.  That seemed to keep the glass from devitrifying.

"Sunrise at Big Bear Lake"

 I finished cutting the interior panel glass today and will paint the detail on the boulders (gray glass lower left) once the Reusche paints I ordered arrive.  I can go ahead and outline the rocks, but the colors I want to use for lichen, shading, etc., are not only umber and black...they are faded teal green, dark mossy green, and pale yellow mixed with a tinge of green.  The perimeter glass is a very pale Spectrum caramel and white swirl, and the corners will be Uroborus mottled dark teal swirled with dark green and pale teal.  My one fear is that when I start foiling the pieces, the dimensions will change (and yes, I used foil shears to cut out the pattern) because no matter how careful I am cutting out the pieces, my windows seem to grow!  

Medicine cabinet panel is coming along nicely.

  Bear's head,  outlined and fired with Reusch dark umber, then painted with Reusch dark umber and black glass paint, using small sable brush and small stippling brush.  It took two firings--one for the outline and one for the detail work.  Not too shabby for a first attempt at something this intricate.  Below is a pic with some changes made to the mountains, lake, and added boulders which I plan to work into definition with the same painting techniques.  Goodbye butterfly!

Update on bathroom medicine cabinet

The client wants to re-design the cabinet door front.  After we got completely through the design process and he signed off on it I began buying and cutting glass.  The client's wife wants boulders in the design.  I said it would cost more money since I have to buy boulder-like glass, and the only place I would be willing to put the boulders is where the butterfly is right now.  Could be a fortuitous event.  I like where I put the tree, and I like the glass I used for it.  I like the shadows playing on the tree trunk.  Do you see the lenticular clouds on the right hand side?  Above the tree?  Glass is cool that way.  I'll put in the other tree tomorrow.   Tonight I worked on painting the bear's head with glass paint.  Argh!  Painting on glass is hard!          

Glass for a medicine cabinet door

There are some books in life that inspire me to attempt more difficult work.  One of those books is Clara and Mr. Tiffany, by Susan Vreeland.  This book has given me "new eyes" for looking at how water color paintings were translated into glass.  If you get a chance, read this book, along with The Forest Lover, and Luncheon of the Boating Party.  The descriptions of colors will make you drool and long to make yourself a better artist.

This is a scene of pine trees with Big Bear lake in the center ground, mountains and sky in the background and a brown bear (of course!) in the foreground.  This is for a bathroom medicine cabinet in a cabin in Big Bear so it will only be seen in the summer, when the cabin is open.  C'est la guerre, I guess.

The somewhat overwhelming butterfly at the bottom of the design was requested to match the butterflies in a bathroom chandelier...do you choose art to match your sofa?  God, I hope not.  Anyway, no back lighting for this piece, so all the glass has to have its own character without light behind it.  I looked at pictures of Tiffany windows to see how he chose his glass.  He actually had a number of women working for him who took his ideas and paintings (Tiffany worked in watercolors), copied the designs and chose and cut the glass.  He had his own glass blowing factory so he could have glass made the way he mixed his palette--glass mixed to match the interesting views in Tiffany's brain.

I can only begin to try to work like Clara Driscoll in the book.  It's always a work in progress.  I'll let you know how this looks when it's finished.  Until then, read and be inspired!