"Spring" in Stained Glass

      In the past year and a half I've taken over 28 hikes at nearby and not-so-nearby nature preserves. I've taken over 36 hours of technical stained glass classes. And my family and I have visited museums and galleries seeking out glass art in 3 states.  The time has come...

Let's get this party started!
The "Spring" panel contains 4 smaller stained glass designs, each containing springtime flowers.  This panel with the Giant Swallowtail butterfly will become the focal piece of this panel. I draw each design, then photograph it to create a small "coloring book" style sheet.  This way I can experiment with my color choices before I buy the glass.

...to begin putting all this inspiration to use!  As my culminating project for the 2012 Lilly Teacher Creativity Fellowship Program, I have been designing and creating 4 large stained glass panels, each depicting one of the four seasons.  

This design features the Prairie Rose, a very common wildflower in Indiana.
Each design in my panel is an original interpretation of a photograph, sometimes a few photos, drawn by hand and outlined in Sharpie.  Outlining with Sharpie is important because it effects the size of each glass piece later.   

     My designs have been inspired by Indiana's natural splendor experienced during my hikes and have relied heavily on photos that I have taken, several of which have ended up on this blog.  I have used different glass methods and construction techniques that I've picked up during my year and a half of stained glass classes, and have even experimented with different styles of art as a result of being able to see famous stained glass works by some of my favorite glass artists during museum visits.

The smallest design within the Spring panel features a White Trillium.  

      I decided to begin my stained glass panel making journey with the "Spring" panel because, logically, I began hiking in the springtime and had many photos ready to inspire my designs. Coming up with the designs for the 4 smaller designs within Spring was easy and quick.  (Little did I know that this would be the ONLY panel for which design ideas would come "easy and quick"!)

The final design within the Spring composition features these very recognizable Tiger Lilies, or Ditch Lilies as they are sometimes called due to their prevalence in the ditches of many Indiana roadsides.  The design for this section came easily enough, but I had a couple go-arounds with the color pattern of the flowers.  Interpreting a color-fade using glass can be tricky.

      Once the designs were laid out, I was off and running.  I constructed the Spring panel using the copper foil technique that I've used for the past 15 years. (At this point I had not yet taken the leaded glass class where I re-learned how to use lead came instead of copper foil.) 

After the design is created, each piece of the pattern gets numbered, then cut apart.
Earlier I stated that tracing with Sharpie is important for the pattern's size.  When each piece gets cut apart, the marker line must be removed, too.  The thickness of the marker line translates to the thickness of the future copper foil.  If I didn't use the marker line to allow for the copper foil, my design would "grow" out of its pattern and become mighty confusing!

All those marker lines removed, whew! What a tedious job.  
It's a good thing I enjoy cutting "on the line" and even find it somewhat therapeutic.
I'm weird like that.  

      I first had to cut my pattern pieces, then trace them onto the glass and cut the glass to fit. As with any form of art, there are sometimes instances when the design must change a little from the original plan. In a couple of my Spring designs I had to occasionally make two or more tiny glass pieces into a larger single piece simply because tiny glass pieces will disappear under the copper foiling and solder later.  

The piece of yellow glass labeled "33 34 43" (in the center) was originally supposed to be three separate pieces.  Call it economy or laziness...those 3 became 1!  

Later, I added wire where the separations should have been to maintain the original design.

      When all the pieces were cut, next comes the grinding.  Grinding is like sanding the glass edges smooth (for a good adhesion when applying the copper foil tape later), and at the same time perfecting the piece's shape. I have a special glass grinder that I use for this.  (It also works nicely for filing your nails in a hurry!)  

You can see that my pieces do not fit together very well after rough-cutting using pattern pieces.  

Everything lays flat and fits into the pattern after grinding.

      On this particular section, the Tiger Lilies, I discovered that a couple of my glass pieces were really not the right shape.  Sometimes with the copper-foiling method large gaps of space can be filled in with lead during the soldering process. However, on this piece the gaps where either too large, the fill would alter the overall look I was going for, or the pieces were just altogether wrong.  So...

Pieces 38, 30, and 25 had to be completely remade.
The challenge: all the other pieces are already solder-tacked in place and nothing can be moved.  

...I had to figure out how to re-do several pieces with everything else already in position.  It was a crapshoot, but I got the job done!

I positioned a scrap of paper over the 38 space.  I then did my best to trace the exact shape. Since the paper wasn't see-through enough to just trace it, I rubbed around the edge with my finger just enough to depress the paper into the space and create a line for me to trace with pencil.  

Once I had my new pattern piece, I transferred it, cut it, and ground it as usual.  A perfect fit!  

      When all the cutting and grinding is done, next comes the foiling process. Copper foil comes on a large roll and is adhesive backed. Each individual piece of glass is wrapped with the foil and positioned onto the pattern.  You can see a more detailed description of the copper foiling method here. 

The gold areas are the copper foil wrapping the edges of the glass pieces.  

      On the butterfly piece, I decided to do a foiling experiment.  The design of the butterfly's wings was so intricate, I knew I would send myself to an early grave if I tried to interpret it strictly with glass. So I decided that the black lines in the butterflies wings would be patina'd solder rather than black glass. This meant that my foil lines would need to be wider in some areas than the usual small strip. In the photo above you can see where I added extra copper, and in some areas I cut the copper to form specific shapes or curves.  

      

Tacking all the loose pieces together with solder to prevent shifting.

      Once everything is foiled and positioned, it's time to solder. The first step is to tack all the pieces together using a little blob of molten lead.  This holds everything steady when the precision soldering takes place. Because the solder hardens instantly and is almost impossible to remove, shifting during soldering would create a disaster worthy of a Titanic-sized nervous breakdown!  

After the precision soldering.

      After the tacking comes the precision soldering. The goal is to get the lines smooth, slightly rounded, even, and perfect.  It's tedious work requiring a steady hand and an affinity for the smell of burning flux.  And just when you think you are all done...you remember you have to flip it over and do the entire back side.

Remember the special foiling experiment I did to replicate the butterfly's design?  This photo shows how the solder spreads out and covers the foil, no matter what shape it's in.  

      After many designs, cutting, grinding and foiling hundreds of pieces of glass, and sucking in more than my fair share of solder fumes, all four of the Spring sections are done!  Now, I must join them all together into one grand panel.  

There they are: Giant Swallowtail, Prairie Rose, White Trillium, and Tiger Lilies. 

      I decided to add a small border of clear textured glass around the perimeter and between each section to complete the composition. There's nothing quite like seeing a large project come together in the end!  
      

Dad clamping Spring's frame in place.

      At this point there's only one step left...framing!  I had a good mentor for this step, my dad.  Dad made the frames for all my panels, and between the two of us we got them stained, varnished, and constructed around the glass. With the frame in place the finished product exceeds my wildest expectations!! I am completely thrilled with how this glass creation has turned out.  I've never made something so meticulous, so detailed, so intricate, or as BIG as this.  It's one of those accomplishments that really makes you feel like you can do anything!    

"Spring"
Completely finished!  One step I didn't get photos of was the application of the patina.  All the soldered lines that were once silver are turned black when I brush on a chemical to artificially patina the surface.  The atmosphere and time would eventually do the same, but who has 50 years to wait for lovely black solder lines?

This Giant Swallowtail, photographed at Dygert Nature Preserve in Whitley County, was good inspiration!

Detail of Giant Swallowtail.
Antenna and legs were added by attaching shaped copper wires. 

Cypress Meadow Nature Preserve in Allen County was were I found the Prairie Roses that served as my unwitting models.

Detail of Prairie Rose.
The yellow center was layered atop the pink flower, and the bumpy texture around the flower's center was created using a technique I learned in my creative soldering class.

The yellow in this flower is another example of altering the original plan.
The four yellow pieces you see are actually one single piece with wire attached on top for the illusion.  Those pieces would have just been too tiny!

This White Trillium was photographed at Bock Nature Preserve in Kosciusko County. 

Tiger Lily inspiration courtesy of the Tom and Jane Dustin Nature Preserve in Allen County.

      ONE down, three to go! 

Stay tuned to see what seasonal glass creation I came up with next.

Dygert Nature Preserve, Whitley County

     The true name of this site is the Evelyn and Wendell Dygert Nature Preserve.  So my own Evelynn was my sole companion on this outing.

http://www.acreslandtrust.org/templates/System/details.asp?id=44551&PID=635752

By the end of our hike, Evelynn was vowing to never hike with me again. Ever.  More on that later.

One of the many picturesque trails running throughout this preserve. 

This steep sided ditch has water running through it.
I was glad to see that ALL the water in Indiana hadn't yet dried up!

     As Evelynn and I explored the trails and paths running through the preserves, a common theme kept popping up...food!  (It didn't help that we had not yet had lunch.)  One of the first things we happened upon was a cluster of cherry trees, ripe for the picking.  

So red and looking delicious!
Unfortunately most of the cherries were already claimed by the little white larvae worms of the Western Cherry Fruit Fly. In the spring, adult flies lay eggs under the skin of the cherries, and in a larval form, the maggots feed on the meaty insides of the cherry. 

     My family is full of anticipation for the opportunity to collect the season's first haul of ripe black raspberries.  Soon...

 Wild Black Raspberries.  Give these another week or so and Dygert Preserve will have some very happy birds and critters!

     This Stiff Dogwood bush was covered with clusters of pretty blossoms...providing yummy nectar for lots of bugs!  (Although Evelynn and I agreed they smelled pretty stinky to us.)

I didn't see him at first, but this cluster of flowers is providing a smorgasbord for a tiny beetle. (He is near the lower right of the cluster.)

This Giant Swallowtail butterfly appreciates a helping of the Stiff Dogwood as well.

     Our own rumbling tummies kept us painfully aware of the evidence of eating going on around us. 

This Red Admiral butterfly enjoys a sip of Prairie Fleabane nectar.

These squiggly whitish lines are created as the larvae of a leaf mining insect eat their way through the interior of the plant's leaves.  

The bark of this Ash tree has been ripped away by birds desperately seeking to make a meal of the Emerald Ash Borer insects inside.  

The Emerald Ash Borer has eaten his fill of this tree.  This small D shaped opening is his exit hole.

Even this tree appears to be eating a strand of barbed wire.  Yum.

      I am certain this lovely Scarlet Catchfly flower would make an appetizing meal for some hungry butterfly or bee.  However, it was in pursuit of an eye-catching photograph of said flower that Evelynn got the chance to test out a recent hypothesis.

Scarlet Catchfly

She was so excited to snap a pic that she threw all hiking-caution to the wind, veered off the path and struck a course toward the flowers...straight through a patch of Stinging Nettles! 

Stinging Nettles are covered with tiny hollow stinging hairs called trichomes on its leaves and stems.  These hairs act like hypodermic needles, injecting histamine and other chemicals that produce a stinging sensation upon contact with skin.  

     This was not Evelynn's first run-in with stinging nettles this year.  Last time, her Mamaw told her about a simple treatment to take away the nasty sting and itch of the attacking nettles.  So today, Evelynn had the opportunity to test out her hypothesis...MUD!

Evelynn poured her bottle of water out onto a mound of turned up soil, and mixed it to make thick mud.  
She then rubbed the mud onto her itchy, burning, nettle infested legs.

 "Thanks for the tip, Mamaw!"  Much to Evelynn's relief, the mud-method of nettle stinger removal worked!! However, any possibility of hitting the first quality restaurant we passed on the way home was now reduced to fast food drive-through options only!

The theory is that as the mud dries, it shrinks and pulls those little nettle stingers out of the skin.  

     Despite their painful sting, nettles are actually an extremely nourishing leafy vegetable known for their nutrients and pleasant flavor.  When simmered in a little water for ten to twenty minutes, the tiny stingers dissolve leaving a completely edible spinach-like vegetable.  Nettles are rich in protein, iron, calcium, vitamins A, C, and B-complex, and many essential trace minerals.  Even the water used for cooking the nettles can be sipped as a hearty, healthy broth or tea!  Find very helpful Nettles info here... 

http://suite101.com/article/stinging-nettle-a22028     At this point Evelynn wanted no more to do with nettles, mud, or even hiking with her dear old mom.  And still hungry (make that ravished with abominable appetite!) she was ready to eat anything she could find.  And that included sucking the nectar from the florets plucked off the head of this Red Clover. I remember doing this when I was her age. 

Red Clover can be used in many ways, for many reasons.
http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/red-clover-herbal-remedies.htm

     We eventually ended our hike, and even though she says she will no longer be my outdoor adventure partner, I think Evelynn will find it hard to stay away.  Especially if she knows there will be Red Clover available!




"Nature provides a free lunch, but only if we control our appetites."  ~William Ruckelshaus