Treasure Trove

Posted on March 28, 2016 by Maggie C

We’re up to Day 16 of the Blogging U’s Photo 101 course. The subject today is “treasure.” The instructions given in this lesson tell us that “any object or experience that is deeply meaningful can be a treasure. Items, places, people — we all cherish something, or someone.”

No surprise here: one of the things I greatly treasure in my life is having the space, time, and capability to follow my love of working with stained glass.

The photo I took for this lesson shows the partial contents of a drawer containing scraps of glass left over from previous projects; scraps that are just waiting to become part of some new project sometime down the road.

My family used to put together jigsaw puzzles occasionally, and it was considered “cheating” to look at the picture on the box cover to figure out placement of the different components of the image. It was more of a challenge to figure it all out without knowing exactly what the finished puzzle would look like.

With my glass scraps, the “picture on the box” may not even exist yet, and yet the puzzle pieces do. Sometimes a small glass scrap may be just what I need to fit into a particular design I’ve drawn up, but sometimes my design evolves from the particular scraps on hand.

So maybe what I treasure most is the creative process and the potential of the raw materials. I wonder… is it cheating to make the puzzle fit your pieces instead of having the pieces fit the puzzle?

Photo 101, Day Sixteen: Treasure + Close-up

Dog Imitates Art

Posted on February 12, 2016 by Maggie C

The theme for this week’s Daily Post photo challenge is “Life Imitates Art.”

When I created the “Canid” panel (pictured below), I had a fox in mind. Some folks commented that it looked like my American Eskimo dog, except for the coloring of course.

I’ve been thinking about tweaking the design to make a similar panel to represent my Eskie. Might have to add that to the queue of projects.

In the meantime, enjoy my entry for the “life imitates art” challenge:

Chules, my America Eskimo dog

“Canid” stained glass panel by Maggie C.

Seasonal Transitions

Posted on November 27, 2015 by Maggie C

It’s fun to make series of panels on a theme. I have one in progress that I’ll share more about later.

The topic of The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge this week is Transition.

Here I have used some fun background glass to help depict the four seasons. Hope you enjoy.

Click on photo below for larger images of each panel.

Grid: Optical Illusion

Posted on September 19, 2015 by Maggie C

Taking part in The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge. This week’s theme: Grid.

This optical illusion is an oldie but a goodie… how many cubes are there? Is it the tops of the cubes that are purple, or the bottoms?

A fun and simple stained glass panel.

Reflecting on Reflecting on Glass

Posted on September 3, 2015 by Maggie C

The interplay of light and glass can be quite fun and fascinating, and lighting designers, photographers and stained glass artisans can all take advantage of the unique relationship between light and glass if we just “reflect” on it a bit.

This chandelier makes a good example. Just looking at it straight on, you already notice how the reflections and shadows cast a pleasing starburst pattern on the ceiling.

Looking up from beneath the chandelier, the lights are reflected off each pane of glass, as well as the shiny brass portions of the fixture.

Here’s even more fun: The chandelier with its lights reflecting off the glass panes, all being reflected off the clear glass table that sits beneath the chandelier.

And lastly, the same chandelier as reflected off a sheet of iridized stained glass that’s sitting on the clear glass table beneath the chandelier.

The takeaway here is that the more we reflect on glass, the sooner we will come to see the light. Or something like that.

In response to Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Reflections & Shadows AND The Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge: From Every Angle

Symmetry in Design

Posted on February 14, 2015 by Maggie C

Weekly Photo Challenge Symmetry

To some extent, I try to avoid exact symmetry in my stained glass panel designs. The biggest reason is that I’m not very good at being exact about anything. So chances are that – even if I try – the left side will not mirror the right.

So instead, I have fun coming up with designs that I like to call “Symmetrical… But Not Really.” Like the koi in these photos. A fish eye on the left, a fish eye on the right. A fin on the left, a fin on the right. The orange koi even goes so far as to sport matching wing tips – er, fin tips.

The other chap, while having the symmetry of matching anatomical bits and pieces, shook things up a bit when it came to body art. A splotch of orange here, two splotches there… maybe not as soothing and peaceful to look at as his pond mate, but interesting and worthy of contemplation in his own right. *

An example of my SBNR technique can be seen in the geometric design of the panel below. The nine white-looking pieces (they are actually clear glass; photography’s not my strong suit) are from a pre-cut bevel cluster, meant to be assembled into a symmetrical pattern. But they are incorporated into a larger design that – while still pulling everything together in a balanced scheme – is not a match of left and right. To me, it gives the panel more vibrancy and greater interest.

And, of course, it helps avoid that whole exactness deficiency of mine.

I figure if it’s good enough for Mother Nature and her koi chaps, then it’s good enough for me.

* The assumption of male gender of the koi is based strictly on my desire to use the term “chap.” I do not have the wherewithal to determine fish gender based on an aerial view. Nor am I particularly interested in acquiring that skill set. Sorry, I have to draw the line somewhere.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Symmetry

Depth Finder

Posted on January 31, 2015 by Maggie C

Close up of light reflection on stained glass panel.

In my little corner of the world, it seems that interest in glass work is swinging greatly towards the direction of “warm glass,” or kiln-formed glass. Which is very understandable. There is so much potential for creativity in the three-dimensional forms that melting glass allows.

Even the vocabulary of fused glass is fun: slumping, frit, draping, stringers, confetti…

And the vocabulary of my work with flat stained glass panels? How about “fid?” It’s just not a sexy word, although it works well in Scrabble when you’re really stuck. Or “lead,” which elicits sayings like: get the lead out… lead-footed… lead poisoning. Also not sexy.

Of course, there is some dimensionality in panels – in glass bevels, for example. Or in textured glass. And a flat panel doesn’t exclude the incorporation of three-dimensional objects.

Just because a panel is flat, however, does not mean it lacks depth.

“Depth” has so many meanings beyond the concept of a dimension. From Dictionary.com:

a dimension taken through an object or body of material… [the extent, measurement, or distance downwards, backwards, or inwards]
the quality of being deep; deepness.
complexity or obscurity, as of a subject: a question of great depth.
gravity; seriousness.
emotional profundity: the depth of someone’s feelings.
intensity, as of silence, color, etc.
lowness of tonal pitch: the depth of a voice.

So a flat stained glass panel can be complex – either in design or in abstract meaning, can emote or evoke a sense of seriousness or profound feeling, and can incorporate intense colors. And if it could talk, who knows? It might just sound like Morgan Freeman.

Not bad for only two dimensions.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Depth

Serenity: Weekly Photo Challenge

Posted on January 16, 2015 by Maggie C

This week’s Daily Post photo challenge is about sharing one’s interpretation of serenity.

It got me thinking about how I would depict serenity in stained glass. Not a serene setting or scene per se, but the actual quality of serenity. Or how would one interpret happiness, joy, sadness or anger in an abstract manner using glass as a medium?

Anger, for example, could be done up in shades of dark or flaring reds and slashing lines and sharp angles. But then it could also be the cold, icy blue calmness of the type of anger that says, “I don’t get mad; I just get even.”

Makes me want to play around with such concepts and see what kind of designs and color schemes might arise.

But on to the photo challenge:

Serenity can be about finding a calm, peaceful setting in nature where one can slow down and restore their sense of balance.

Or serenity could mean spending quiet time in the company of loved ones.

But to me, serenity comes mostly from allowing myself to

be who I really am

wherever I am

in the moment…

… and to have that be perfectly okay.

Serenity

Visual Fodder

Posted on January 14, 2015 by Maggie C

Coming up with ideas for stained glass panel designs is perhaps the most fun part of the whole creative process. Someone asked me once about how I get my ideas. I told him that they just kind of evolve. I just wait, and they show up.

That’s not entirely true. I don’t just sit around waiting for an epiphany. I’d be waiting a very long time if that were the case. What I really do is feed my imagination.

I take walks in nature. I take walks in urbania. (I know, urbania’s not a real word, but it should be, don’t you think? Like, inclusive of cities, suburbs, towns, strip malls… Maybe there’s already a word for that. I’ll give Merriam Webster a call someday to find out.)

I take photographs everywhere I go. Well, not everywhere. That would just be creepy. But by consciously looking for photo subjects, I am training myself to notice things that might otherwise be overlooked. Basically I’m gathering images to study and play with and ruminate over.

And then all that visual fodder begins to shift and sift and coalesce into an image that can be translated into glass. Not to make this sound all ethereal and pretentious (or like a cow chewing its cud… “ruminate?” “fodder?”)

Sometimes the “image” is as simple as a brick-like pattern.

Sometimes it’s as silly as “Three Penguins on Ice.”

Maybe someday I will experience an epiphany. But until that day arrives, I will continue to feed my imagination. There’s not much worse than a starving imagination.

Where do you find your ideas?

What Rhymes with Stanza?

Words at rest, words at play

Category Archives: Design