Chinese Culture Center Donation
Each year the Chinese Culture
Center (whom I work for as a Chinatown Heritage Walk Docent) hosts an
benefit dinner and silent auction. I made a small panel for the
auction. My inspiration was a traditional Chinese painting that hangs in my mother's
home.
I selected a flower and a bird and rearranged them to fit my small panel.
Shown at the right is the original painting and my design and the final
result are below.
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Original painting
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Design:
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Completed panel:
Value: $450-$550
Size: 14" x 14" |
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We replaced our old boring front door with one based on
a tree of life quilt pattern by
Susan Boss.
In 2008, I started working on transforming it to glass and got
permission from Ms. Boss to use an adaptation of her design for my entry. We felt we needed to coordinate the door with a huge obscured glass window also in the entry. This
floor-to-ceiling window overlooks our neighbor's back door, which we
couldn't see due to the obscured glass. (see below for before and after on
the window.) I simplified Ms. Boss' design to make it appropriate for glass and
changed the horizontal orientation of her color changes to diagonal to improve
vertical strength of the panel, especially since the window is more than 6
feet tall.
My original intent was for both windows to use colors,
but I later decided that the door should be more generically appealing, so
I switched to several textures of clear glass to replace the colored
panes. I did use the same glass as an inner frame in both panels and
replicated how the inner frame dropped on 'legs' to the bottom of each
piece. I also was able to find bevels to be the leaves on the door, which
gave it some additional 'bling'.
While I had designed these panels as came projects, both
ended up as foil instead, which is lighter, though not normally considered
weatherproof. However, since California building code requires door glass to be tempered,
we added a plain tempered panel on the outside and installed the stained glass
on the inside. This meant that weatherproofing was not a concern and the
lighter result with foil would be an advantage. I was also keen on creating an arch within the
companion window, like I had for the door, but concluded that it didn't work well.
Left: design overlaid on
photo of the entry hall. Right: the finished panel before installation.
One thing that is difficult to reproduce with the overlay technique is the
transparency of the glass, especially when the base photo is not
transparent (the door on the left is solid wood).
Left: Original window; Right: Clear replacement window
Just removing the
obscured glass increased the visual depth of the hallway (and gave us a
nice view of the neighbor's cat on his cat door perch!).
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Completed door panel (inside/outside)
Installed window
Completed panel from back with rebar to support its height.
Comparing the two photos above, you can see how the color washes out in
the light.
Value:
Door
Window
$1800 $3000
Size:
26" x 35" 28" x 75"
Above: Design inspiration.
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The clients for whom I created
the trumpet flower requested a set of four cabinet panels for bookcases that
have been installed on either side of their living room fireplace. The
plan was to create a pair of panels that flow together and reverse the
design and change the flower colors for the other side of the room. The
final designs are shown below.
Value: $1200 each
Size: 20" x 33" each
Right, Top Two: Panels installed in the cabinets, which
are on either side of the fireplace, which is the lower right photo. The
cabinet doors slide to provide access to books, but hide them the rest of
the time
Right Lower: A wall, fireplace, and painting used for the color inspiration.
Below: Design
with proposed glass. The orange set shows 3 possible glass options.
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Whenever the Angel Island Association has a live or
silent auction, I have donated a panel to raise funds for this cooperating
association that supports Angel Island State Park, where I also volunteer
as a docent. My theme for each of the donated panels has been some aspect
of Angel Island.
In 2008, the Baywood Artists, a talented group of plein
air painters who selects a non-profit environmental group to support with
their work, chose Angel Island as their project and painted wonderful
scenes on and from the island. As a person relatively new to the art and
design world, I thought I might use one of their works as an inspiration,
and found several interesting paintings to choose from. Unfortunately, not
all paintings translate well to glass, but one by Sherrill Miller had
great potential and I got permission to recreate her painting in glass.
Value: $600
Size: 19.5" x 15.5"
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Original painting
Completed panel |
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A local cabinet maker liked our
kitchen cabinets when he came to install our new stairway railing, and we
created a design for his entry door.
The flower is from a photo I took of a neighbor's iris and stylized for a
more formal, antique look. The image below is the design, and the
one at right is the finished panel before installation in the door. It has
survived a winter without problems and he and his wife like having their
privacy back (visitors frequently peeked into the house thru the original
clear window.)
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Value: $750 - $950
Size: 24" x 16" |
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A client found my website and invited me to discuss a small
panel for a remodeled bathroom. We met at their house, discussed the
siting and design preferences. They wanted to a trumpet flower and use
colors in an area rug that are used throughout their home. I emailed them
a design based on this discussion and made minor adjustments. We met to
select glass at a local shop, and found a wonderful piece that included
both the right colors of coral-orange and greens so that one sheet of
glass was used for several different areas of the panel. Because the
window is in the shower, I recommended installing it on the outside of
their awning window.
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Right: Closeup of installed window inside.
Bottom Right: from the outside.
Left: Positioned in the room.
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Value: $475
Size: 12.5" x 18.5" |
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A client replaced their kitchen
cabinets and added a peninsula with a cabinet and appliance garage. The cabinets are white,
and the counter and backsplash are mid-tone neutral taupe tile. They
did not want the interior of the cabinet to be visible and didn't intend
to back light. They initially had wanted the panels to be only neutral
colors (Left pattern below). After looking at a full-sized
printout of the first design, they went back to the drawing board. We
intended to add only a bit of color, but got more bold (Center pattern
below). They are very pleased with the results (Right side photo below).
They also like how the panels look with some light coming through them,
and may change their minds about backlighting. Glass was chosen for its
appearance in reflected light, but a bit of backlighting would emphasize
some of the glass choices.
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Above: Panel in progress
Left: Original design, colors added, end results.
Value:
$800 for the pair
Size: 8" x 32" each |
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When we replaced our kitchen, I planned to make stained
glass inserts for 2 cabinets (3 doors) but was convinced by the kitchen
designer that 2 more cabinets (4 more doors) with glass would be better.
While doing seven of the same design seemed a bit overwhelming, it went
much faster than anticipated. Given the nature of the design, I did it in
lead came instead of my usual foil process. I found this to be a good
exercise to improve my skills with these materials, as each panel was
a bit quicker and better than its predecessor. The design and first
finished panel are below. The largest pair is shown at the right.
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Approximate sizes: 11" x 35,
15.5" x 35, 12" x 35", 12.4" x 36
Value for all 7: $2800-$3500 |
