Thursday, November 6, 2008

This Is For You, Australia!

Happy Spring to the bottom half of the world!


Even though all the leaves are gorgeous shades of yellow, orange, and red around here (and the weather a balmy 74 F today), there is a part of the world where it's the opposite. It just seems weird. Christmas in the middle of the summer? What about all the snowflakes and everything that go along with Christmas? Do you have chili peppers and suns?

But, I digress. I hauled this window outside this weekend to photograph it. This is my first real project with stained glass. Unfortunately, I can't take credit for the pattern, although I did alter the colors quite a bit. (The actual size is about 24 x 30 inches)

In a later blog, I'll show you a window where I designed the whole deal. But this bouquet was quite an undertaking. It was made on our kitchen table. Now I have a whole, dedicated space to make things, but this was BS (no, silly, it means Before Studio).


Here's how it went down. It was right about the time my son was born. Our neighbor at the time owned a stained glass shop in town, and offered classes. One spring, I finally relented and took one. Very cool! I made the mandatory class project, but then had to go and do this as my very next project. 'Twas ever thus. I don't ever wade into a project or a new medium. I dive off the high dive!

So, with a small house, and no extra space, our kitchen (no dining room then!) turned into studio, with sheets of glass lying around, a grinder on the counter, and foil tape draped over the chairs.

But my wife was all very supportive (still is! - kisses, hon!) about it all. Not long after, I built myself a big 4 x 8 foot table in the basement. I still am using it today. It definitely was not part of the deal when we sold the house. That was coming with us!

So now I'm taking over part of the garage (glass and jewelry), and part of the playroom (pastels). I guess we're all hoping for the fame and accompanying fortune to set in....


Until tomorrow,
Pastel Guy

1 comment:

magicmyst said...

Hi Matthew, yes it is Spring in Australia at present. We are going through a terrible drought and we usually get a lot of rain in Spring. not this year though. I think our dams are about 1/3 full and we haven't even moved into Summer. We have been on water restrictions forevever and I think they are just going to get tougher. We have timers in the shower for a four minute shower, can't wash cars and can only water the garden twice a week between 6-8am. It has been like that all winter and I think they are going to have to tighten the restrictions. So Spring looks pretty at the moment but we are heading for a dry hot Summer. Kay