New glass for this week--How about some red

I've been wanting to build something red for some time now, but I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do--if I wanted to recreate something I've already done or something brand new. Since I've got square geometric panels in my shop already I figured it would fun to put together something round.
This is a brand new design for my Etsy shop-- it started out as most of my creations do--scribbling and doodling, erasing and scribbling some more in a very small size and then recreating a pattern in a larger size.

Late last year, I ordered some beautiful glass teardrop jewels from the great folks over at
Harmony Glass. I've dealt with them for a few years now and they are just fantastic--super fast shipping and excellent customer service. So, the idea was to use the jewels and alternate them with bigger pieces of glass in the same shape as the jewels.


The center is a smooth round glass jewel surrounded by textured cherry red glass--textured side facing forward. I like this effect-it gives the finished piece some added interest when its hanging up, especially at night once the sun goes down and there's no light coming through it.

The alternating red glass pieces are wavy Waterglass with a gentle texture resembling slow moving water. I've also included 3 different textures of clear glass for this piece.

I've used the same textured side up effect on the border for the red glass, I've left the clear accents textured side down.

41 inches of lead? Even though this piece measures 13 1/4 inches diameter that's what it took to wrap this piece up. Once it was wrapped up with lead, I soldered two loops to the backside of the lead--one at 10 o'clock and one at 2 o'clock for the chain to attach to.
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While I had the red glass out I thought I would put together another diamond shaped beveled panel. These glass bevels are so lively, when you walk past this piece the bevels just shimmer and shine. The center is a 2 inch bevel surrounded by 1 inch bevels and cherry red glass cut to 1x2 inches. For the outer border I've used 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 inch bevels in the corners along with 4 x 1 1/2 bevels. I had this piece hanging inside my house for day and it was fun when the sun hit it just right--I had little rainbows all over the floor from the prismatic effect of the bevels.

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Spring is slowly starting to make its way here. Its been such a long cold winter but today we were finally able to open the house up for just a little while. Actually, just one window. Then it got too chilly and we had to light the woodstove back up! But, the kitties were very happy to fight over the window to get a sniff of the outdoors.

Wherever you are, have a safe and happy week. My daffodils are popping so I'll be taking some pics of them soon.

New glass in my shop-Cobalt Blue Star

While I'm waiting on a glass shipment for a custom project that I'm building, I decided to create and add this Cobalt Blue Star Beveled Stained Glass Window Panel to my Etsy shop. This design is truly my favorite to create, I have yet to come up with another pattern that I enjoy building as much as this one.
Shortly after listing this piece, I was notified that it had been featured on the Etsy FDL team's blog post on jewel tones from various Etsy sellers. Wow, how exciting for me, I'm really flattered that my piece was chosen to be included.
The following pictures show some additional details on this piece.

The center focal point is a clear glass bevel. I've surrounded the bevel with textured cobalt blue glass with the textured side facing forward. I tend to do this with much of my work, I think it adds just a touch more sparkle to the piece. The center 'petals' are surrounded with a different textured glass both in cobalt blue and in clear called Waterglass. Waterglass has a flowing texture that resembles water on a lake's surface. I've also used a pale blue textured glass in the background and textured cobalt blue glass with clear glass bevels in the border.

Once all the glass pieces have been cut, fit and foiled I will cut my frame for this piece. For square/rectangular panels I use rigid zinc came or frame.
This is cross section of the zinc came showing the 'U' channel. The outer edges of the panel fit inside of this channel.
I measure my came and hand cut the pieces using a hacksaw and a mitre box.
Here is the piece tacked down to a board using horseshoe nails along with the items needed to solder this panel front and back. From left to right: solder, flux, solder iron and a damp sponge to wipe the tip off during the process. Once soldered the panel is cleaned and polished and stored in my workshop while it awaits to be shipped to a new home (hopefully).

Purple Passion

I've done it again. I've taken my favorite design and this time I've created it using 4 shades of purple. The center is an amethyst colored faceted glass jewel surrounded by a darker purple textured glass called English Muffle. Two more shades of purple are used in the body of the panel along with a textured clear glass. The 1" border is a deep dark purple textured glass with clear glass bevels used as accents in the corners and within the border.
Overall measurement of this piece is 10" or 25.5cm. This piece can either hang as a square as shown above or it can hang as a diamond. Available now in my Etsy shop. Colors not right for you? Custom orders for this design are gladly accepted.

Here you can see more of the different textured used in this piece.





Since glass is so tricky to photograph (at least I think it is) here I've shown 3 of the colors used-these are images directly from the manufacturer's website (Spectrum Glass). The first two samples are what I've used in the body of the panel. I couldn't find a good image of the glass that surrounds the center jewel, but it is a shade darker then the second image. The bottom image is the type that I've used for the border of this piece.