Making Waves Stained Glass Panel

Following a weekend trip to San Diego and Coronado Island I felt inspired to create a stained glass panel using the ocean and waves as the focus.

This panel represents the various colors of the ocean and the curves of the waves. A small nugget of purple glass represents the pretty Mother-of-Pearl shells found along the sandy beaches.

Additional photos of this piece can be viewed here.

Air Force

Using the Air Force Insignia as inspiration - I crafted this stained glass panel into the shape of wings.

Each piece is gut, ground, surrounded with copper tape then soldered into place.

Living near the airport in Phoenix, I really love to listed to the sounds of the airplanes take off and land.

Available for sale here.

Glass for a Fireplace

I really enjoy making the bubbles stained glass panels from colored glass.

The panel shown above will be installed near a fireplace. A woman had seen the circular bubble panel in my etsy shop and decided that the openings near her mantle needed to be filled with circles of glass.

How exciting for her and for me. I'm anxious to see the panels installed in her home.

Another Studio Shot

I realize that I've posted photos of my studio but I couldn't resist taking a photo today. The sun is shining brightly today and all of the glass is lit up.

You'll notice all the little birds in the far left corner of the photo. Most of these little birdies are going to a small boutique in downtown Phoenix.

Otherwise birds are available for sale here.

Soaring Hearts

Ahhhh -- the feeling on being in love for the first time.

Remember that?

It feels like your heart is soaring above everything.

This panel was made into the shape of a heart-shaped balloon which is filled with helium and soaring above the clouds. A string-shaped solder line is attached to the heart to keep it grounded.

Available for sale here.

Copper and Butterfly Bookmark

Working with the copper wire and glass beads has really been new and challenging.

Although I have a lot to learn through trial-and-error, I'm looking forward to the end results of bracelets, necklaces, jewelry, home decor and little copper bookmarks with little green butterflies made from glass.

Currently in my etsy shop here I have stained glass panels and other glass art.

I have started another etsy shop to highlight my other creative pieces. The copper and butterfly bookmark is available for sale here.

Let me know what you think.

Custom-Made for a Military Wife

A woman living in Kentucky has asked me to make some stained glass panels for herself and other military families. This symbol represents the branch of the military their husbands are serving.

A Rainbow Circle

I enjoy creating something in glass that may appear to be difficult.

For instance - making a circle out of glass.

Using the six colors of the rainbow I cut and shaped each piece of glass to fit snuggly next to each remaining piece.

The colors of the rainbow are so bright and so vivid it isn't difficult to find which colors to use.

River of Confetti

This stained glass panel was crafted using the copper foil method. Each piece of glass is carefully cut and shaped to a very specific shape.

A thin piece of copper tape is adhered to the outside of each piece of glass then soldered into place.

A thick frame of zinc is attached to the circumference of the entire piece before hoops are applied.

This piece reminds me of a river flowing through the forest picking up flowers and leaves as it flows.

Christmas Tree in the Moonlight

As I was in the studio last week listening to my iTunes (Van Morrison) I was inspired to make a moon-beam and Christmas tree stained glass panel.

If you look at the photo just imagine five pretty evergreen pine trees lined up in the forest. You can also imagine the light of the full moon casting a shadow from the trees onto the amber-colored forest floor.

Shades of Green

This stained glass piece is crafted from various pieces of green, clear, white and confetti-style glass.

While chatting with my grandmother last week about her trip to Ireland, I felt inspired to make something using the green color of Ireland.

In addition to the customary rectangular stained glass panel - I've attached four distinct pieces of square-shaped colored glass to the bottom of this panel.

The result is a window panel that boasts the colors of green but also offers an eye-catching array of sparkle when the smaller pieces move with the air current.

Wheel of Color

While shopping at the glass warehouse last week I stumbled upon some very interesting architectural glass.

Although it is completely clear - the architectural glass is sculpted or designed in such a way that makes it as pretty as the colored glass also available.

This particular wheel of color is surrounded by the clear morisco style of clear glass.

If you look closely you can see the lines of floral-like sculptures embedded within the clear glass.

Lining them up in perfect little rows around the six-sided stained glass panel adds a touch of class.

Glass Rainforest

I watched the movie Apocalypto by Mel Gibson one evening this past week and was moved by the actors, the dialog, the costumes but mostly by the set of the rainforest.

The colors of the trees, flowers, rocks, animals, people and their habitat inspired me to try to re-create the essence of the film into a piece of stained glass.

The first photograph shows the pattern drawn out on the cutting table with the corners of the piece being precisely cut to include a flower in the center of each square.

In the second photo, you can see that most of the glass has been carefully chosen, cut and placed based on the color of the glass and how it will contribute to the overall piece.

During the making of a stained glass panel, I will often times change a piece of glass simply because it doesn't fit into the theme. This is shown in the third photograph. I replaced the square piece of green glass with a square piece of yellow glass to represent the sun.

Next you can see the finished piece. The dark blue glass represents the rivers flowing through the forest. Trees and plant life is shown in the confetti glass which holds specks of blue, purple, green and strings of black. The nuggets of glass are similar to the rocks which line the bed of the rivers and streams. Obviously the dark lime green frame around the entire piece is the color of the leaves on the tall trees.

The last photo shows a close picture of the glass nuggets in the left side of the glass piece.

Blue Bird of Glass

I was looking through a History book of my daughter's and saw some beautiful old windows made from separate panels of glass.

In addition to the pretty old windows - a bird was sketched into the picture.

So - I made a large stained glass panel of a blue bird flying outside.

Bell Boys

Boys will be boys.

This photo was taken during a recent trip to the local arcade to celebrate a birthday.

Left to right: my brother-in-law Rod, my father-in-law Carol (a.k.a. Grandpa), my husband Craig, and my son Tyler.

There was a bank of racing car games lined up along one of the walls in the arcade that caught the eye of all the men in the birthday party.

They all grabbed a spot next to each other and raced the night away.

Tyler had a blast. Although he didn't quite understand the concept of keeping the car of the track. He got a bigger kick out of running the fans over in the stands.

Craig is trying to explain to Tyler that running fans over is not the ideas behind the game.

Tyler is trying to explain to dad that running people over is much more fun than following another car and making right-hand turns.

Oh well, Bell boys will be Bell boys.

Great-Grandma's Quilt Pattern

Almost every person in our entire family has a hand-made quilt sewn by hand from our great-grandmother who lived in Yakima, Washington.

She would make a quilt to give as a gift every time a baby was born or brought into the family.

I have my quilt. My brother has his quilt. My sister has her quilt. Both of my children have their quilts. And so on.

Well - grandma is no longer with us but her hand-made quilts and the patterns she used still are.

I don't sew all that much but I do make items from colored glass.

So - what better way to pay tribute to my great-grandma that to continue the use of her patterns in my stained glass panels.

The first photo shows the selected glass pieces uncut and ready to go.

Second photo is all pieces are cut, numbered and in place.

The third photo is the finished piece being photographed in the bright Arizona sunshine.

A Dozen Squares

A dozen square pieces of glass.

What to do with a dozen pieces of glass?

Well - one could make them into a small window panel that would look nice in the bathroom window.

I really like to make the square stained glass panels. In order to get the finished piece to fit together perfectly - all of the individual square pieces of glass must be cut exactly the same size and shape.

This is where the fussy Virgo tendencies help me out.

I'm currently making a larger square stained glass panel that will be sent to Interlaken, Switzerland.

Orange and White Fish

I recently spent a day at the shopping mall where I was drawn to the pet store.

After petting the puppies and kissing the kitties I wandered over to the aquariums to see what was swimming around.

I saw some beautiful orange and white fish swimming through the water, darting between the fake seaweed and trying to catch each other. Their colors were so vibrant. The color of orange in their stripes would catch anyones eye.

These fish seemed like the perfect model for my afternoon project in the studio.

Copper Coil Pendant

(sold)

This was an interesting pendant to make.

I wasn't sure what was going to happen when I fired up the kiln earlier this week.

First I found a small piece of copper wire in my husbands work shop and coiled it around itself.

Then I took a black piece of glass with a glitter-like background and placed the copper coil on top of that. Then I placed a clear piece of glass on top of the copper and fired up the kiln.

This time I set the kiln so the glass would simply drape over the copper instead of completely fusing together entirely.

The result is the copper coil is nestled tightly between the glass pieces. I've attached two bails to the top of the piece to form a pretty pendant.

Funky Sun Catcher

This pretty little sun catcher is made from three circular bevels of glass surrounded by emerald green and dark teal blue glass.

The rainbows of color that come out of the bevels are absolutely amazing.