Stained Glass

I am finishing up a stained glass class where I am making my first big piece!  It is kind of exciting, quite a process! You start with larger pieces of glass and a pattern- you proceed to cut the pieces to match the pattern. It seems simple enough but it is not!  Glass likes to brake in straight lines or where it is weakest (if it has a texture) so it is difficult to get the pieces to match the pattern.  You “Score” a line to show the glass where to break then use plier type tools to break and nibble away until you get your proper shape.  Then you grind the edges with a grinder until it is the right size.  They need to fit almost perfectly to make the design work. The pieces then get wrapped in foil and you solder them together.  That is as far as I have gotten, but we are doing framing and patina and whatever else this coming week.

Anyway- that is all besides the point- I am kind of anal about my art creations, so I planned out my piece to get all the colors exactly where I wanted them before I cut them.  Beautifully spaced colors evenly throughout… you know, “perfect”.  I had larger pieces of glass and I knew what color/texture glass was going to be used for each piece.  Class ended so we had to pack up and like the incredibly graceful lady that I am, I proceeded to drop all of my glass in transit.  My beautiful larger pieces which all had a spot on my pattern were now broken into much smaller pieces than needed.  Some were salvageable, but new glass was needed, new colors, new plan.

You don’t throw out those small pieces though, because they can be used to make mosaics or other smaller more intricate designs (than my beginner piece).  Often times I think that we look at ourselves like this glass.  We idealize the large, unbroken pieces.  They have so much “potential” and have it “all together”, but hanging a large piece of green glass in a window is nowhere near as beautiful as a stained glass piece, with its intricacies and varying colors and designs.  The original bigger piece needs to be cut and shaped… sometimes broken… into smaller pieces that can be used to make a more beautiful creation.  If we don’t let ourselves get shaped and broken down, we might still be “whole”, but we miss out on the beautiful picture and creation that we could be. And my goodness does that process take time!  And patience. And vision. But in the end it is beautiful and worth it.



Update- Finished piece: