Glass Poppies

My mother often talks about my Grandfather and his ability to do just about anything. In his pursuit to fix a stained glass lamp for my grandmother he picked up a love for the art and spent a lot of time with my mother in their garage scoring, tapping and foiling away. One of the sweetest parts of this project was working with all of his old tools. Having never met him, it was like I was getting to know a part of his character through the creative process of this piece.

I had taken a stained glass class before with my mother and sister back in my first few years of high school, but never attempted anything this intense. The complicated process of this art seemed to rear its head at every stage. First came the design. Sketches of sunburnt turned into a meticulous line drawing on a few pieces of graph paper. Many drafts of the design had to be done due to the fact that you can't cut a curve into a piece of glass over a certain degree or it shatters.

The next step was to cut the pattern into pieces. In total the design contained 65 pieces, the smallest being the size of my pinky fingernail. (At this point I learned that I was indeed insane). Our garage soon became a stained glass studio where my mom and I would spend hours together a few nights a week.

The paper pattern then had to be placed onto the corresponding glass, traced, cut and then ground. We quickly came to understand that different kinds of glass called for different score and tap techniques. Score, tap, SNAP... bummer. Every step seemed to be done while holding our breath. Every piece had to fit together, and a little extra glass here, and there made a big difference to the whole piece.

It seemed surreal when all the pieces were cut out. You still had very little idea what the end product was going to look like with light shining though it. It was now time to foil, then solder, then led, then the patina, and then finish!

Altogether it took three months to complete. The truly magical moment for me was seeing it with light through it for the first time. Hope you enjoy!