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!