Sandra Creates Tiffany-style Irises with Gallery Glass

 

Once in a while, a reader will "blow me away" with her tenacity to figure out the Gallery Glass Technique on her own, although there are few instructional materials that survive in the marketplace (in spite of my ongoing efforts to preserve the GG body of knowledge). But Sandra has done it once again. I am over the top about her creative experience that she agreed to share with us. Here is her story--along with some wonderful step-by-step images. She really did this people--in only 3 projects! Unbelievable!

 

"I've been doing lots of painting; my 3 front door windows, the long transom glass over my French doors in the master bedroom (on Plexiglas); I drew/designed/created an underwater coral and tropical fish design over the living room transom and used some paint direct methods and created some on blanks and moved to the glass (it's a long 3 pane window) did the 6 pane glass window on a back door; and then started on this project, which I really love."

 

(comment from Carol) Many people start out with a small project before they do a window. 30 years ago, when I first started glass painting after taking leaded glass classes (cutting and soldering), I used one of my 8x10" frame-able art patterns that I had done in my leaded glass class--as my first project. I outlined the design and filled it in with similar colors of paint--having very little faith that it would be acceptable, since I was a newly born glass snob and was only looking for the "real thing". The next morning I got up and put the two projects side by side in the window--and could not believe my eyes. The painted glass and my leaded glass project looked almost identical from half way across the room! That's the day my passion for glass painting took root and it's been growing ever since.

Sandra continues: "Actually, I wanted to do the bathroom window so no curtains were needed; I started searching for a pattern and between the Tiffany peacock and this one, I choose the iris's. I didn't know about the kit, I just was so enthralled with your creation that I downloaded your picture and googled to find the template, I can't remember where I found it, either on the blog or somewhere on the Internet. I downloaded Carol's finished picture to compare it to and searched for the colors of paint to match the template after finding the index of colors on your site. I ordered those not found locally at Michael's, and guessed on the ones I couldn't read from the blown up template, I think there was one no longer manufactured; I did add a couple of new ones like the hologram paint."

"I had a piece of Plexiglas cut to the exact size of my bathroom window, and taped the template to the back. I made the template by downloading a software program that would blow up the standard letter sized template to any designated size, in this case 3 by 4 ft. It printed up one 8x11page at a time (4 pages wide and 6 pages vertically) and I painstakingly trimmed and taped all the pages together to make the 3'x4'print line up correctly. It wasn't until after it was done that I noticed some of the outside edges didn't quite come through in the end product, but you'd have to be as picky as I am, to notice."

"It took me a couple of weeks to complete this in the evenings and weekends, I took pictures of the process from beginning to end. I used the pre-made lead (Redi-Lead) lines since the project was so large and the leading so perfectly even in width; my hand leading is not nearly that good!"

And here's the finished piece in the window. Love it, love it, LOVE IT! Isn't her story amazing? One of the most admirable steps was figuring out how to make the blow the pattern  up to 3'x4'--incredible. I'm still not sure how she did it. I have a huge Cannon copier at my elbow that I can blow up patterns on, but patterns that are larger than one 11x17" sheet are tedious--to say the least. The next thing I can't imagine--is doing this huge, intricate design--with Redi-Lead strips. I used the Liquid Leading, which is so much faster (for me), but whatever it takes, to get the finished result.
Sandra, you are one smart cookie! Keep sending us photos of your fabulous work. I would love to follow your journey into our enchanted Gallery Glass world!

Amanda's Gallery Glass Enchanted Entrance

 

It is wonderful to know that our blog is read around the world. I got an inquiry from this lovely lady, Amanda, a few weeks ago and swapped emails for a couple of days, to discover that she lives in Australia. Here's how she found us and what she was encouraged to do--based on the information on our blog. Amazing, I couldn't have done it better myself!

Amanda writes, "Your site is what made me choose Plaid, when I was researching on the net to see what I should use! I’ve thrown myself into the deep end, choosing as my first project a massive stained glass window for our entrance. It’s almost done… just the rest of the sky to go (going to be a mix of clear, hologram glitter and etching)."
"I think the hardest bit was printing my design on a bunch of paper sheets and then sticky taping them together. I do all my design work on the computer so it made sense to do it with this one too."
It’s going to be facing inwards, in a little entrance to our house. So… not exactly inside like inside a house inside, but definitely protected (roof, walls). We don’t freeze down here, but it can get pretty hot. Hopefully it’ll cope. We don’t get very humid down here in the south either (not like the north of Australia) so that sounds like a good thing. I’ve got some redilead (that’s how I did the octagon) so I’ll see if I think the outside would look better with (the design outlined on) it. I will definitely send a photo when it’s in place. (I have told hubby I’m going to be ‘away’ that day - I don’t think I could cope with seeing it go in!!) I can’t wait to see what it looks like with light coming through it! By the way, Hubby’s grandmother wants to play with my paint now that I’ve told her about it - you may have another convert!"

 

"Here it is, I designed and painted the dragon for the new entrance to my house that we've just finished (the window edges are coming-- but I couldn't wait to send this!). I love 'real' lead-light glass but I didn't have time for classes and I definitely wanted to make something myself. After a bit of internet research I thought Gallery Glass would be my best go. A huge thanks to Carol for her blog and YouTube videos that made me think, eh, this might not be to hard! It was a super fun project and I'm itching to do some more."

Amanda's story is not typical. People often start with a small project, and gradually work up to their target - a window in their home. But occasionally a new beginner will just "go for it" like Amanda did--with incredible results. So what are YOU waiting for newbie glass crafters--start today, planning your next project. Good job, Amanda! We love it!