If you are a stained glass artist and don't have a rebar bender, you should think about investing in one. They cost around $100.00 and they are well worth the price. Without one I would not have been able to reinforce this window along the curved lead lines of my design.

Some of the angles are extremely tight. The zinc rebar is very strong and nearly impossible to bend without either heating it with a torch (you can also use friction by pressing down hard against the flat side of the bar and passing it back and forth against the edge of your work bench--time consuming!) or using a bender.

 I have built a stained glass window to fit in a transom above a front door. The house is a Victorian shotgun style in Louisville, KY.

A window this long and narrow needs reinforcement in several places. I used my rebar bender to curve zinc rebar to fit the design, and then soldered the rebar to the lead in several places. I am caulking around the lead lines using Dap window glazing compound, and then cleaning the surface with whiting to remove left over caulking. I will let the window sit overnight until the caulking hardens, and then I will take a sharpened stick and remove any overflow extending past the edges of the lead.

I'm thinking Christmas

Day of the Dead--cat coaster

Crashing boar?

I thought I was going to work on etching glass this week. Somehow this boar got in the way and I ended up painting him (or her) on glass and then he/she landed on a 9" x 12" x 1" plate. Boar isn't just for Thanksgiving anymore.

I used Glassline paint this time, instead of the usual Reusche brand because I wanted to get on with etching and get the boar out of my head. I sandwiched 90 coe cobalt blue frit between two pieces of 90 coe clear, the top layer of clear was painted. Fused all of it in one firing at 1460 dF and then slumped it into a plate mold at 1260 dF.

$50.00 for the perfect Christmas gift for the hunter in your life. Can you say NRA?

Margaret's birthday present

My daughter, Margaret, is having a birthday in a couple of days. She lives in an old, Victorian-style shotgun house in the Midwest, with 10' ceilings and original wide plank hardwood floors. There are transoms above some of the doorways and a high, narrow window on one wall in the living room. This is where this window will go. The room receives very little light from this window because of the overhanging pine trees in the neighbor's yard; thus, the clear "crackle" background glass. There is a yellow agate slice hanging in the limbs of the tree.

The window is 40.5" long x 16.5" tall and is copper foiled. I ran out of solder today which is exasperating because I was only able to solder the front side of the glass. Backside, with re-bar, will be done when my solder shipment arrives.

Tree of life stained glass panel

I am making a "tree of life" stained glass panel to fit in a long, narrow window that is high up on a wall (10' ceilings) in a Victorian era shot-gun house in Kentucky.  The window has restricted back light because of thick pine tree branches that cover the view.

 This is a close up of the panel. I am using Uroborus bright, grenadine red on clear wispy glass for the fall side of the tree and a bright yellow agate slice with crystals for the sun. The background is Spectrum clear crinkled glass. The texture of the background glass diffuses the light in different directions.

On the summer side of the tree I am using Kokomo dark green and lime green on clear wispy glass for the leaves. The middle of the tree, where the leaves change from green to red, is cut from Kokomo green, cerise, ruby red on clear streaky. The trunk and branches are cut from an opalescent Uroborus glass, and the bottom of the window is cut from Youghiogheny beige, copper, cobalt blue with a dark green stipple. It looks gorgeous with a minimum of light behind it. The window will be copper foiled and encased in 1/2" wide zinc came. To aid in structural support I will add curved, narrow re-bar along the top of the ground line as well as copper re-stripping in strategic areas of the tree. None of the structural support will show.