barneysglass

patty and angie visit

2011-12-14T09:38:00.000-08:00

Patty and Angie have been friends forever, and their panels illustrate that though their styles are way different, they are both talented and creative. we had fun creating Angie's mermaid, and Patty's five-pointed star challenged my geometry skills! I can't wait to see what they do next time!!

Calvert Art Guild class

2011-11-07T15:47:00.000-08:00

every time I post on this blog, I am horrified at how long it has been since I last posted anything! so much going on, and I procrastinate and dither when it comes time to get the photographic evidence posted.

so here is the latest - I went up to Calvert County MD last Saturday, Nov. 5th, to conduct a one-day class, armed with loads of pre-cut pieces of glass, soldering irons and assorted paraphernalia. the six who attended were fantastic! they were all artists in their own right, wanting to dabble in another medium. it was just a blizzard of creativity!!! Linda, Gerry, Deb, Lonnie, Joan and Mary Ida - thanks for a terrific experience. Deb, you know what image I can't get out of my head!!!

kari's sunflowers

2011-07-13T11:21:00.000-07:00

isn't this great? Kari finished this beautiful panel in a personalized workshop here at Zekiah Glass, coming for half-day sessions for the past several weeks. she had completed the basic two-day class a couple of years ago, and now wants to learn more, and do more complicated pieces. She brought in the painting you see on the left as a guide. I drew it up, simplifying it some, but not too much, and we managed to retain the feel of the original with 66+ pieces. Kari selected some gorgeous glass - and some of it came from the "difficult and expensive" section! but it was well worth it for the final product. we even added another dimension by applying the three inward turning petals at the center on top of the framed glass. tricky!

Anne and Mike's magnificent osprey

2011-05-30T08:21:00.000-07:00

what a great Memorial Day weekend I have had! Anne and Mike came to celebrate Anne's birthday, and decided to create a panel together featuring an osprey. Luckily, Mike had a great photo he had taken that we used as a starting point on their design. Look closely at that bird - this is the absolute perfect piece of glass that we used for most of his body and one wing. Anne and Mike searched for the exact right section of this glass and found it - we didn't even realize how perfect it was until we had completed the panel and held it up to the light!

as always, my photography skills (unlike Mike's excellent ones) leave a lot to be desired, but I think you can get an idea of how beautiful this panel turned out.

Thanks Mike for bringing Anne. Bob and I had a great time with you and we hope to see you back here sometime.

still alive in Farnham

2011-03-10T08:55:00.000-08:00

I had such good intentions when I started this blog, and as I look over it now I see that I must be more attentive. So far, 2011 is shaping up to be a much better year than 2010, thank goodness for that.

I have had several great groups of guests, but no good photos to post. I am in the process of asking them all for jpgs of their masterpieces so I can get some current pics on the blogsite.

I did another mermaid, with some absolutely gorgeous glass, and that photo is forthcoming. many more projects stacking up in my brain. I brought Starry Night home and hung it in one of the guest rooms, where it looks fantastic. This one is too near and dear to my heart to sell.

Back to the grind for me, but look for more SOON!

Fish Lips surfaces again!

2010-06-19T04:31:00.000-07:00

Bub chose one of my favorite whimsical designs as his first glass panel. He is a natural! what a pleasure to explain a technique and see that he instantly "gets it". I am hoping that Bub will find time to do more glass and become another permanently smitten glass aficionado. Great work!!

May class

2010-05-24T10:25:00.000-07:00

What a great weekend I just had! Three wild and crazy guests for class, and a fourth equally w&c along for the ride.

Monique had been here last summer, and was returning for more glass cutting tips. She began a really really cool design that she will complete at her home studio. It's hard to describe, but photo will follow, when I get one from her husband David who took some class photos that I know will surpass any of my feeble attempts. Can't wait to see this one in the light! Mo used some of the most beautiful greens, and we found a perfect clear for the bottom part of the panel. It is a bunch of radishes with a lot of clear glass in the bottom half of the panel. Now I am inspired to do a series of fruit and vegetable panels.

Ben surprised Robyn with the class, and she came up with a beautiful and unique design that we all loved - even Bob is still raving about it. Can you believe she found a piece of glass that looks so much like our big blue marble?

Ben loves lighthouses, so he brought lots of photos of one at the easternmost point of the continental U.S. - it's in Maine but Ben you will have to identify it properly for me. anyway, I think he captured the essence of the red and white striped brick structure. with only a two day class, we had to reduce the number of actual stripes. but look at that sky and the water - aren't they gorgeous?

We got all this accomplished, and still managed to laugh ourselves silly for most of the time. The two couples were sharing a boatload of inside jokes by the end of the weekend. We all totally understand what a piece of kissmeass glass is now. btw, Robyn, Casino Royale was on TV last night and you are so right about Daniel Craig!

2010-05-10T07:48:00.000-07:00

Here's the crab - before framing in wood. I couldn't wait, so it's already at Connie's Wide River Gallery in Colonial Beach VA. I will replace this photo with the framed finished one soon. Meantime, here he is - I am calling it "En Garde". He looks ready to pinch, doesn't he? This Uroboros glass is so beautiful! Look for new photos soon of my garden stones!

back to mermaids

2010-03-14T17:17:00.000-07:00

as always, the photo doesn't do the glass justice, but this mermaid was so much fun to build. she will go to Wide River Gallery in Colonial Beach, along with my Starry Night panel. Next project is a crab - with a twist... stay tuned!

time MARCHes on

2010-03-06T07:24:00.000-08:00

this blog started with such good intentions, and I see that I haven't posted a thing since early February. good news is that this means February is over at last... my least favorite month of the year. I started a mermaid and am soldering today. I got so excited about doing the mermaid that I didn't take time to post a thing.

I had a beautiful piece of Uroboros that I used for her tail, but had to cut almost every piece on the ring saw. I love to do pieces like that - where you really have to find the exact right area of the glass to give the shading and texture that looks best. Photo coming later, maybe tomorrow, but right now I am going to fire up the soldering iron.

is anyone out there working on anything that they'd like to share? BTW, I just got an email from a new glass website that looks very interesting.

www.glassartnetwork.com

check it out - lots of good info

Starry Night interpreted in stained glass

2010-02-17T17:49:00.000-08:00

finished at last! Two weeks of hard work but it was worth it. I am happy with the completed panel, and now Bob will frame it for me. It was really a challenge to build a panel using all opaque glass. My usual method is to think about both sides as I work, and this time I concentrated on the top side only, completely disregarding the back of all the glass. You would think it would be easier, but it really wasn't. But when I held it up in the light, it was even more beautiful.

we will frame this one to hang on a wall without backlighting. It is my homage to Vincent van Gogh's painting, with my own variations. Next I think I'll try one of his sunflower paintings - nice and bright and summery!

I used a lot of Uroboros and Kokomo, and a few Spectrums. Lots of ring saw work because of the extreme textures and curvy lines. I welcome any questions or comments.

photo at last

2010-02-13T07:59:00.000-08:00

Here's proof that I really have been working on this panel, when I'm not shoveling snow!

It's about 3/4 done, as far as glass cutting and foiling. the overall size is about 18"h x 40"w.

Then on to soldering (you can see I have already tack soldered some of it), framing and the Big Flip, rinse and repeat. Bob is going to make a nice wooden frame for this one and we are going to design the hooks so that it will be a wall hanging, not a window panel.

Pretty bizarro, huh? Vincent is turning over in his grave, with delight I hope.

post-blizzard update

2010-02-11T15:28:00.001-08:00

Blizzard over, no power outage this time.

I've been getting lots of email with snow jokes. maybe by May I will have a sense of humor about this...

meanwhile back at the studio, doing many many tedious teeny pieces to depict the village and surrounding trees, and I will be so happy to get back to the sky, the fun part!

I took a couple photos last night, but they turned out so blurry that I'm not going to publish. I will try again in the morning when I've got sunlight. I keep promising a photo, are you all beginning to doubt me? I don't blame you, but I promise that I am working diligently and that tomorrow you will see progress.

zglassgoddess

2010-02-09T08:20:00.000-08:00

one snowstorm done with, only a few inches to clean up this time but very heavy. still plugging away at the glass panel, with not much progress. hopefully by the end of today I will be able to post a photo that looks like something.

weather says we are getting another blast, starting today and going into tomorrow. we are ready - stocked up on staples at the grocery store yesterday and Bob just got more diesel for the tractor.

we lost power for about 5 hours during the Saturday blizzard, but thanks to NNEC we had heat and electricity back on before any catastrophes. I've taken the frozen stuff out of the frig in the garage and put on the deck; it's so cold that the frig isn't working properly but the outside air is keeping the stuff nice and frozen.

enough snow talk, down to glass business. this panel is really a piece by piece project. I am working in three areas at once, trying to get a feel for the overall color scheme. I am using so many different colors and textures and hoping it will not get too confusing, but keep to the spirit of Vincent's painting. The stars are a huge pain - a center orb of bullseye sunflower yellow with two concentric bands of lighter yellow spectrum, for a total of 7 teeny pieces of glass... and you know the rule: the smaller the piece the more work it is. anyway, you can see for yourselves when I post the first photo.

back to the grind...

2010-02-08T04:37:00.000-08:00

Another snowy day but at least there's sunshine. making progress on Starry Night #2, but not ready to post a photo yet. I am not following my usual procedure, breaking all rules, and it's terrifying. At Bob's urging, I am making this one with the thought of hanging it on a wall, not in a window, so I am strictly looking at the "primary" side and not even thinking of the back side or how light transfers. feels really weird and I don't know if I like it; my favorite part is trying to visualize the light transference.

not enough coffee yet... more later

February - first post

2010-02-05T08:20:00.000-08:00

Here goes! I am so resistant to new technology; always drag myself into it kicking and screaming and full of angst... but at least I try. and it does seem that the geeks keep making it easier for us old fogies that were not born with a cell phone attached to our head and fingers that naturally text all the right buttons.

Brief background: I am obsessed with stained glass. I have had a glass business for 20 years, and have been doing glass for over 25 years. I teach others how to do it, and occasionally have a student who gets as excited as I do over the medium, and continues on with it as an avocation or as a business. The more the merrier!

I have a website www.zekiahglass.com where I have photos of panels I have done and panels by my proud students. But I wanted a more fluid way to communicate my passion for glass, and a way to instantly publicize class panels, so here I am.

Here on the Northern Neck of Virginia, in a very remote but lovely spot, I am working on an adaptation of van Gogh's Starry Night. I am using all opaques (a difficult task for me; transparents are more appealing to me) and it is quite a challenge. But amazingly I am finding lots of glass in my inventory that seems to work together. I'm not trying to copy the original painting exactly, but I want to capture his vivid colors and sheer intensity in glass. I'll publish photos as I go along.

With the predicted blizzard, I have stocked up on groceries and just hope that the power doesn't go off - I need those grinders!!!