So, I've started my next big project at the studio....
On May 6, Michele's studio is on the list of studios being featured in a private tour for Magrit Mondavi and some friends. This is a big event! Michele's studio is filled with marvelous pieces of art, but she has been wanting to display some pieces more prominently for quite some time and this is just the kick in the pants that she needed. (You know, the house always gets the cleaning it needs when guests are coming over!)
So, she's had some Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie Glass Stained Glass Window Patterns that she has wanted to hang and has graciously allowed another assistant and myself to learn leaded glass on the pieces. So, we each have our very own pattern to use in creating a beautiful art glass window with Chicago Art Glass, no less (That's antique glass that Mr. Wright used in his windows.) It's like our own private leaded glass window class!
I've begun to cut my first pieces for my pattern (the name I cannot recall right now - I can't even find a picture of it on the web!) Let me just tell you, the Morton board and cutting system is my best friend just about now!!! Can you believe that the diamonds he cut for this window are not 45 degrees, but an even 44-1/3 (or something crazy like that)! So, the cutting of the diamonds (mind you, they are not even all the same size) has provided me with the inspiration I needed to more fully understand and appreciate the inner workings of the Morton glass cutting system. Granted I was just learning, but it still took a good 2 hours (or slightly longer) simply to cut the fewer than 20 diamonds! Of course, seeing as how the pieces I was cutting are from the very limited supply of antique Chicago Art Glass, I was extremely precise and made sure that my diamonds were just so, cutting up scrap pieces of clear glass first and fitting them to the pattern.
I'm looking forward to going to the studio again tomorrow to begin cutting some squares. Much, much, much easier! I should whiz through those in no time at all. Before you know it, I'll have finished pictures up:)
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