Things that fly....and things that swim

For the past week, I've been working on this custom order Snowy Owl suncatcher. I was on a role, half way through having all of the glass pieces foiled up when I realized that there were things about the face that I really didn't like, but I couldn't put my finger on what those things were. I left the project alone for a day or two while I went over the problems in my head and finally came up with a solution. So, back to work today--I fixed the problem pieces and I can continue onward.

Here's another custom project that I did a few years ago. I was contacted by someone interested in my work~they had seen a different Largemouth Bass glass panel that I had designed, created and listed on ebay at the time.
There were a couple of requirements by the buyer-first, they wanted this panel to be 1/3 sky and 2/3 water. Second, the bass needed to be in pursuit of a frog that had made its way onto a lily pad~with the question remaining of whether the frog made it or did the bass snag it off the pad. Third, they wanted the letters 'H' and 'L' built into the panel somehow~these initials signified the pond that was on their property. Forth, it need to be built to fit into an existing enclosure.
I set about including all of these elements into the design and would email sketches to the client for approval since they were out of state. Once I had the final 'cartoon' drawn up, I sent a carbon copy to the client for their final approval and to make sure that the measurements were correct. I'm so glad I did this since I was given the wrong measurements but could easily make the corrections before I started cutting the glass. Because of this I still remember the measurements off the top of my head--this piece measured 20 9/16" wide by 29 9/16" tall. By the way-in this large overview you can see the letters 'H' and 'L' worked into the design--to the right of the bass in the swaying grass.

The thing about this project that kind of bums me out is that I didn't take a whole lot of photos of it like I should have. Here's the bass with all the glass pieces cut. I've used a taxadermy glass eye--just like what would be used in a mounted trophy catch.

Here's the detail of the frog--before the poor guy was given an eye.

My husband has been trying to convince me to redo this panel for our front door. As soon as I can find 2 months of free time to spare I'll be right on it~in other words I would love to redo this but I doubt I'll ever find the time.