Glass Abstract Panel [Project 21 / Commission 1]

The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.

Arnold J. Toynbee

Blue Menagerie

Completed panel, “Blue Menagerie”, leaning in my window prior to delivery.

C’est fini. 

My first commission turned out beautiful.

Best of all — my client loves it! 

Blue Menagerie, before soldering, while still on my work table.

Project 11 -- Double Mosaic Windows

In a section of my mosaic windows [Project 11], my client saw a section that resembled a duck’s bill & asked for a similiar panel with blue & yellow glass — with a ‘hidden’ duck.

Since she planned on hanging it in front of French doors that spanned a long wall, we determined it should be fairly large — approx. 18″ x 27″.

Other than that, I had complete freedom in the design — I could just go with the flow of the glass.

Startup of Abstract Animals

I got stalled quite early with the first pieces.  I’d placed in a fairly large, dark blue shape that I wasn’t sure my client would like — I hummed & hawed for days over keeping the shape & the colour.

[Hmmm, turns out she especially likes the blue bubble glass!] 

But I was also stalled with the overall design — I simply wasn’t seeing a nice flow.

Then, I happened to be gazing at it from the other end of the board — oh, goodness, that looks like Lady, my black Labrador, in the corner.

I was stalled again.

Should I change direction & start building from the bottom up?

This is an abstract — should I keep such an obvious ‘picture’?  Or, is Lady really that obvious?

I placed in a couple more pieces & then found a really weirdly shaped one — hmmm, do I have a duck here?

Of course, I stalled again.

Again, this is an abstract — how obvious do I want this duck to be?  I told my client I would ‘hide’ a couple in here, not have a  large one popping right out.

But, it flowed & I liked it.

By the time I was done the section, I had a well-shaped duck’s head with a long yellow bill, & flapping wings on a slender body.

Too obvious?  I certainly hoped not.

Choosing Glass Pieces

When picking glass colours to go next to each other, I had to keep in mind a number of considerations:

• the overall colour scheme was yellow & mid-range blues — no white, clear, or other colour;
• the two yellow sheets I bought were of similar tone but one was opaque while the other was semi-opaque — they would appear different according to the type of light passing through;
• I also bought a lighter & darker blue glass for a bit of contrast, so they were used sporatically — again, the light blue was opaque while the dark blue was semi, creating different looks according to the light;
• one of the mid-blues had raised lines running through it — I mixed the direction among pieces for added texture;
• every few inches, I would analyze digital photos for a balance in the colours — changing them to black & white was extremely helpful for me to check the amount of white space & ensure a balanced variability in grey tones.

Finishing with Unique Touches

I wanted some larger pieces to balance the small ones in the duck’s head & another animal was needed to balance the two at the bottom — a blue whale came to mind.

I’d discarded a piece of blue opaque earlier because it had a small swirl — a thinness — that was less opaque than the surrounding area, but I thought it would make a perfect eye for the whale.

Opinions from those I asked were definitely against it — I was stalled again.

For me, a highly interesting aspect of stained glass is the bubbles & swirls created in the production process.  Sometimes considered flaws, I think these little areas add an interesting uniqueness.

So, I decided to go ahead & use the piece — thus the whale gained an eye. 

When my last yellow glass piece broke into two while making my headboards [Project 7], I needed to add a piece of lead calm to connect them.

I soldered a metallic butterfly from a favourite broken pin onto the errant lead & still absolutely love it!

My first name, Vanessa, means butterfly in Greek & butterflies come with the dawn, my second name — thus a beautiful signature for my work.

Not sure if my client would like it, I checked with her.  She was firm — I was the artist & it was up to me, so . . .

I had this silver butterfly with glittery wings — perfect.

It certainly didn’t go as easily as the headboard one, but with a few *?&8* & !*?X*, along with quite a bit of solder, I finally got the butterfly to attach at the junction of 5 lead calm.

My client loves it ! 

She says the butterfly makes the piece.

Overall, I spent about 40 hrs. in constructing the piece — cutting/grinding glass, making patterns, fitting lead calm, soldering, puttying, & cleaning — with another 10 hrs. in admin — discussions with client, cleaning cutting table, & taking photographs.

Incalculable hours were spent in gazing at said photographs, thinking about the design, & choosing the colour & shape of glass pieces.  [Not counting the weeks I was ill, the project spanned 2 months.]

My biggest time-waster was second-guessing myself — not listening to my instinct.

I constantly questioned whether my client would like it even though she had given me complete design freedom.  Turns out she loves the piece & said “it’s more than I even imagined”.  She thought I have “real talent”.

LESSON LEARNED –>  TRUST MY INSTINCTS

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How do you like it?  Do you like abstracts or would you rather see a defined scene?

Don’t you simply love the sparkling beauty when light shines through the glass?

Vanessa Dawne Studio of Design

Functional glass & wood art on Vancouver Isle

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