Glass: Windows
This section has two parts with the beach windows first followed by Merry’s octagonal window.
Beach Windows:This section includes a set of 4 windows I made for the beach. Each window is two panels. One large panel with a symbol in a small circle and then a smaller panel with a “scene” depicting the lake in each season. A very large project and my plan was to make the large (simpler) panels first and put a solid panel in for the smaller panels to get them all up. Then with covid I ended up also finishing the design and fabrication of the seasons since we couldn’t get to the cottage. There is more on the fabrication process in my blog post from 11/6/2020. The final installed windows can be viewed here in the wood-glass section.
The first large panel viewed on a cloudy day. Canada will be the theme for the Autumn window.
The large panel viewed with more interior light
This is the large panel that will be the Spring window with a clear blue sky behind
Ireland and Canada themes on clear sunny day
Spring and Autumn panels with structure in background
The French Canada themed panel viewed on a overcast day
The Summer (USA) panel backlit
The Summer panel with room light
Detail of the bald eagle
This is the first of the upper panels. This Fall scene shows a somewhat idealized view of the lake from the cottage. The grass is from some old glass described in the 3/3/2020 blog post. The oak (orange), maple (red) and aspen (yellow) are roughly the size and location of the trees on the bank.
The second upper panel is an idealized view of a little piece of the back forty where a path of sorts leads back into the woods. I've clustered the Trillium, Jack in the Pulpit, and May Apples in bloom together. We have all of them but they don't bloom at the same time in the Spring.
This summer panel captures the bay to the west with the sun behind the two points.
This view of the summer scene more effectively captures the texture in the glass.
This winter scene finishes the glass portion of the project showing the ice mounds, the creek, driven snow and the giant broken shards of sheet ice. Cousin Karen helped with some of the foiling on this one.
Another view of the winter scene showing more of the detail in the lake and a hint of the sand caught in the ice mounds.
Merry’s Window: This section contains a joint project I did with our friend Merry spread over a year or more. On one of our regular visits I noticed again the beautiful clear octagonal window in her first floor full bath that faced the street. Beautiful, but not very practical. I asked if she had any interest in a stained glass widow for that space. “I was hoping you would ask” was her immediate response. During that visit we started talking about designs. The windows on the front of the house had shutters with some patterns reminiscent of lancet windows in them which she wanted to draw on. Over the next month or two I sent Merry several designs as we tried to come up with something she wanted and I felt competent to build. Then one of us saw a Celtic knot somewhere and I remembered seeing a Celtic trinity knot kit made of clear glass bevels. The one I remembered was too small but after some looking I found one that would fit inside about a 14 inch diameter circle. We agreed this would make a great center for the window, then we started iterating on the outer part. We ended up with two rings with some arrow heads in the corners of the octagon to add more character and continue the lancet theme. Then on her regular visit to join Pam’s Allentown art festival weekend, we went to Sunshine glass to pick colors. Merry had a strong sense of the color scheme she wanted and I wanted to do it in opal (diffuse) glass as the front walk was right in front of the window. This further limited our selection. With Pam’s help pulling colors we eventually found the three we needed. That fall and winter I built the window and in spring 2024 we took the well packaged window with us on our Spring east coast odyssey. The installation included two layers of molding to dress up the inside and thankfully the window fit well and looks pretty nice.
The trinity knot bevels laid out
The inner circle
Starting the outer rings
Foiled and pinned out ready for the stiffening needed due to the large size
Soldered and copper patina applied to glass and black to came
Installing window and trim
Inside view during day with lights on
Inside view at night
Inside view at night with lights off and outside lights on
Outside view with inside lights off
Outside view with inside lights on
I love the way the window changes in all the different light conditions
Outside view with one of the shutters that got the design started