Designing, Designing, Designing

As stained glass artists, we find that one of the clarion calls to success is that we have to design work for clients so that we can build it. There's no escaping the process unless we become "fine artists" and build windows simply for our own delight and show them in galleries, selling one every five years, splitting the commission with the gallery.

So, we choose to meet with commercial clients who might see the advantage to installing stained glass in their facility. This can prove to add value, atmosphere and will freshen up a stale space. We just presented a great design for an entry to a public building. They liked it and scheduled the next meeting, asking for color designs and warning that they would be wanting one or two of the iconic panels changed to something that would be more closely related to their center. The downside is that we will make many different designs, trying to appeal to a committee (sometimes a daunting task). The upside is that we could get work that will be purchased over a four year period.

Now we're working with a church at the same time to create a panel for the sanctuary. This is another important project for us because we want to do work in the community that's meaningful, and folks often ask us if we've done work for churches (or temples) and now we can say we have!