To the left is this itty bitty picture of the design I have been working on today. Ever since we moved into our house, about 4 years ago, I wanted to create a piece of stained glass for the side window next to our front door. I could see parts of the elements in my mind, but had an awful time getting them on paper. I wish I had a better image for you to see...sometimes the worlds of Apple and Windows do not blend very well.
So this morning I started again and went back to the GlassEye software I have. It can be hit or miss using this software. The thing I really like is I can easily take ideas and mix them up through copy/paste in the program. Saves tons of time when the paper and pencil method is failing me.
This result is after a lot of iterations today. I'm ready to print this out full size and then start refining the drawing even further. This is the really GREAT part of this software...I can put in the dimensions of the piece, in this case 7" x 63" and start working with the actual finished size. As I add more elements to the design and can resize them accordingly to get the right look and feel I want.
The floral, leaf, vine pattern was adapted from the pattern on my mother's fine crystal in the photo shown above. It has such an elegant, graceful flow that I wanted to transfer that to this window. The colors are only rough approximations so it is easier to see the design elements. I'll start pulling glass and putting the pieces next to each other on my light table when I'm actually ready to start cutting this out.
I find that it takes a little while for a pattern to completely gel for me. I'll look at the lines and see things that work well or won't work at all. Now I will continue to refine the drawing by hand, only on the actual scale it will be. Once I've printed out the full scale drawing, I use tracing paper to create my additional templates with the changes I will make. This can take a few iterations, but now that I have the design to this stage I find refinement to be lots of fun and relatively easy.
No title for this piece yet....I'm sure it will come to me during the process.
This is one of the pendants I finished, with Lexi's help, on Thursday evening of last week. My homework for this lesson was to design two pendants, do all the preliminary work necessary to set a bezel in class that evening. This is the first of my two designs. The three leaf outlines on the bottom right are variations from the crystal pattern I mentioned in my last post.
Here is the original design template that evolved after a number of drawings.
And this shows how the sterling blank looked prior to setting the stone in a bezel. I also wanted the bail to fold over and carry that leaf look.
To the left is this itty bitty picture of the design I have been working on today. Ever since we moved into our house, about 4 years ago, I wanted to create a piece of stained glass for the side window next to our front door. I could see parts of the elements in my mind, but had an awful time getting them on paper. I wish I had a better image for you to see...sometimes the worlds of Apple and Windows do not blend very well.
The floral, leaf, vine pattern was adapted from the pattern on my mother's fine crystal in the photo shown above. It has such an elegant, graceful flow that I wanted to transfer that to this window. The colors are only rough approximations so it is easier to see the design elements. I'll start pulling glass and putting the pieces next to each other on my light table when I'm actually ready to start cutting this out.
It's the 4th of July weekend and one of the traditions around here is the Cherry Creek Arts Festival in Denver. My husband and I have never been, however this year my dear friend and mentor, Lexi has invited us to join her, her husband, and some of her friends. 
