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Tree of Life Stained Glass Ark Door Windows, Completed
June 25th, 2010
Waiting to be installed
Nervous laughter!
Entrance to the synagogue
Close up view
Front view of finished windows with the interior lights on
Leading Stained Glass on a Curved Work Surface, Part 7
June 22nd, 2010
View of leading in progress
View of the top two windows
Side view from above
Side view from above - panels are not in final order
Leading the lower curved window
Once I got used to working on a step stool and sometimes on just one leg, the leading went better than I thought. There were a few times when I had to cut a piece in order for it not to stick out too much from the surface. I couldn’t really have the pieces be larger than 4″ unless they were angled to the side. Since I made the curved project in six windows, I soldered 1/2″ steel rebar on the top part of each window to cover the seams. That worked out great since it covered the seams, and created a ledge for the upper window.
Creating The Curved Stained Glass Windows That Will Be Installed Behind The Ark Doors, Part 6
June 15th, 2010
Mold that the stained glass windows will be built on
Glass cut - waiting to be grinded, then leaded
Link to Valerie Batt’s interview at the Hot Shops May Open House
June 14th, 2010
This is a little embarrassing because I’m not used to being interviewed, but I thought I’d share it anyway! Daniel and his wife Rebeca who did the interview came in during the end of our two day open house to test out their microphone. The Hot Shops has two open houses a year – the first weekend of May and the first weekend of December. It’s a great time to come down and visit all the artists in their studios! I work everyday, but a lot of the artists don’t so it’s a good chance to catch everyone in action.
Installing Tree of Life Stained Glass Ark Windows, Part 5
June 13th, 2010
Notching out trim to fit over rebar
Doors are installed!
Installing the arched window
Windows installed!
The first part of the installation is complete! I’ve got until June 24th to create the curved glass windows that will be installed behind the arched window. I’ll take pictures soon to explain. What a relief to get the windows in. Everything went so smoothly thanks to the guys at Hawkins Construction who helped!
Process Photos for Arched Tree of Life Stained Glass Window, Part 4
June 10th, 2010
Doors with arch window showing cut paper templates
Paper templates cut and placed on drawing
Background glass drawn out - ready to cut
Most of the glass cut and on the pattern
Glass grinded to fit perfectly in the pattern
Leading the arch
Leaded and soldered
Cement pushed in the channel of the lead before cleaning
Whiting sprinkled to clean off cement and polish window
Excess cement scraped away from lead
Finished Window after polishing
I won’t normally to process blogs like this, but for such a detailed, large window I thought it would be interesting to show the steps. It was challenging to cut the background glass so that one piece flowed into the other throughout the entire window. Since the window was so large, I had to sandwich it between 2 sheets of plywood to flip it. I soldered 4 strips of rebar on the back side of the window to give it support. I ran the rebar along the branched to hide the lines.
Jewish Press Article About Stained Glass Ark
June 3rd, 2010
Click on the link below to see the article that was on the cover of the Jewish Press in Omaha! It talks about my stained glass windows for the Ark doors and the Erman family who donatated the Ark.
http://www.jewishomaha.org/page.aspx?id=221469
Leading, Soldering, and Cementing Section of Stained Glass Ark Doors, Part 3
June 1st, 2010
Glass is cut and ground to fit perfectly and ready to lead!
Leading lower 12 inches of door using various widths of lead
Lower left door showing soldered joints
Cementing the windows - one of the final steps
Whiting added to clean off cement
Cement cleaned off - almost done!
Here are a series of photos showing some of the steps involved in creating a leaded glass window. I like to use various widths of lead. I used 5/16″ around the tree pieces and 1/8″ for the flowers. The pieces have to be cut perfectly to use such a narrow width! Above the flowers, I used zinc metal instead of lead to add to the strength of the window. I will patina the metal to match the color of the lead. One of the final steps will be adding rebar to the back of the window so that when it’s installed, it can be notched into the wood frame.
Cutting Glass for Tree of Life Stained Glass Ark Doors, Part 2
May 30th, 2010
Using paper templates to start cutting the leaves
Branches and leaves cut
Cutting the background glass
Glass cut and ready to lead - the bottom 12 inches
I decided to cut all the glass for the two doors at once. Since the glass is all opaque, I cut paper templates to use for the shapes. It’s a great way to figure out just the section of glass I want to use for each piece. It’s amazing how in each sheet of glass, there is so much variation in color. This is where I’m “painting” with glass. The tree is starting to come to life!
Creating a Stained Glass Window Using a Photograph for Inspiration
May 24th, 2010
Photograph client wanted to replicate in glass
Completed stained glass made to hang in window
My client wanted a stained glass window made to look like this photograph. I found a piece of Uroboro glass that looked so much like the tree covered hills that I hardly had to cut it up. The glass had a ripple texture to it that added to the effect. I added the white Spectrum waterglass as a frame to give the piece some height.