Thursday, August 28, 2008

A little color showing through


The missing piece was cut and put in its place. Now the washing begins. A little soak in hot water and some scrubbing to get the glass dust and glue goo off and the pieces are put back in place on the board. The glass is looking good.

No Pins!


The pins are all gone! This week I have finished cutting the glass pieces. I had all the pieces done, or so I thought. There was one lone piece that never had a pattern piece or number on it, so when I was finishing up the last set up pieces I realized there was a missing one.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Beginning the project



After the pattern and glass is chosen the cutting and pinning fun begins. Here are a few pics to show that process.

Right now the piece doesn't look too much different than the fully pinned picture except that the pins are disappearing and there are glass pieces underneath the pattern pieces. There is a little blood on the pattern pieces too, this is glass after all and there are some sharp edges and slivers to contend with. Nothing a little soap, water, bandaid and a piece of chocolate won't fix though.

So far all the background, leaves and branches have been cut and I am now trying to finish up the flower pieces. Probably 75% of the surface area is done, but maybe only 50% of the pieces are cut. There are a lot of flower pieces!!!

The glass is just beautiful by itself and if I can I will get some pictures of what I have left. It reminds me a lot of quilting and picking out fabric and then seeing how it looks after being cut into smaller pieces. But I can't see all of that yet! Soon, it will be revealed soon.

Free time? Who has free time?


As previously mentioned I started a new project. It is a stained glass project and I'm getting excited to see how it comes out.

In the beginning it is an idea and a pattern. I wanted to do some kind of flower and the wisteria seemed to fit the bill. The piece is going to be approximatemately 5' x 2'. Yes, that is five feet by 2 feet. This thing is huge! There are 640 pieces. Does that sound like a lot? It is, but someone else just started a first project that is smaller in area size with almost 200 more pieces than mine. Can you say intricate? Mine doesn't have too many tiny pieces and I'm thankful for that.

The instructor at the studio wants beginners to start with large projects. They have great success, so I trust them on this.

After the pattern has been decided on, the glass is chosen and the fun begins.

Amazing Glass Works










Last weekend we went to the deYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park and saw the Chihuly exhibit. On a previous visit we had seen a few pieces. Well the actual exhibit was quite spectacular. There have been some critical reviews and ok, maybe the pieces in the exhibit don't make you ponder the questions of life, but they sure were amazing to look at and ponder how they were made. My pictures don't do the pieces justice, but I like them.