All Hallows Eve!!!

What a better time to write about the window we're building for the Saint Francis Of Assisi Catholic church in Orem, Utah. It's a beautiful window! I've particularly enjoyed cutting the brown border pieces that are rope-like and thinking about how Christ said he was a "fisher of men." So that has some meaning and the entire panel is packed with symbols and meaning in the shapes and the colors. I'm sure that those who view the panel in the sanctuary where is is installed will find even greater depth and meaning in its' content. Stained glass artists I meet often try to avoid doing religious works because they don't want to be held to the past. They want to break free of the religious nature that were the beginnings of stained glass. Jeanne and I feel that religious inspiration is one of the beautiful aspects of stained glass. We love to include inspirational elements to all of our works. The interaction between glass and light is a sometimes miraculous result and we love the way the natural beauty of glass can drive us to be inspired. This inspiration is a very personal feeling and I think that artists who try to avoid it must have some underlying suspicion of organized religion. But if they were to step back and analyze the nature of glass, they would find that all glass work can fill us with inspiration. Yes, even the dopey suncatchers your grandmother likes!

The folk angel appears in this blog because we're entering her in the Springville religous and inspirational show.

Stained Glass Quilt

You probably know that we created a "Stained Glass Quilt" several years ago and that you can get the patterns for the panels at http://www.betterstainedglass.com/Patterns/p-page.htm
We are now making a video on how to build the stained glass quilt. It shows specific techniques that are required on several of the panels to build them. I think it will be a useful video.
While getting ready to film, I discovered that some of the stained glass panels needed to be cleaned and I created a short instructional video on how to clean a panel. You can see it  at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCVtv0iLVXQ
This is part of our new premium video instruction that is no charge (right now)

Repairing a leaded window using a Dremel tool

This month I wrote a newsletter article about doing a repair to a leaded window using a dremel tool. The panel was perfect for this type of repair. It was small, in good condition and only one piece of glass was broken.

The steps are interesting to read about, but if I had to repair windows to make my living, I'd either have to raise my prices or change my occupation. It's not very rewarding work, since the object is to complete the repair so that no one even notices your handiwork.

Adding Metal Framing To A Panel

I wrote an article about putting metal around an octagon frame (you can see it at http://www.betterstainedglass.com/Newsletter/Archives/042-8-11-Nov-metaloct/addmetal.htm

The image to the left is from that article. The other night we took some video of how it's done using 1/4" zinc outer bar. The technique is quite different and should be valuable if you ever build a octagon or other polygon shape.

Chasing The Cash

I'm an artist not a bill collector and I don't enjoy having to chase money. I'd almost rather walk away from an unpaid debt than have to work to get paid. This is why we ask for 50% up front and then we get the other 50% just before we ship or install. If the client has paid 50% up front, they are unlikely to walk away from their investment. If we get paid the full amount before we ship glass, we don't have to worry about collecting our fee.

But occasionally, things go wrong. A few years ago, we got our 50% up front and billed for the second half with the decorator who we worked with. The window was delivered and installed and then both we and the decorator had to wait for payment. The clients held final payment back from everyone who worked on the project for a year and a half. At the end of that time, the house was sold at double the asking price when we were due to be paid. They had used all the contractors as the bank, doubled their money and then happily paid us all later on. That's the only time I came close to filing a lien on a property.

Recently we delivered some panels that we agreed to trade foe half the value and get the remainder in cash once they were installed. But somehow, when the install happened, the deal started to change, we weren't paid anything, other windows were added into the deal and the whole thing became a mess. Now the client treats us like bill collectors, we've used up our solder reserves on the project and we feel abused. I'm going to try not to let this happen again, but until it gets resolved, it saps energy away from us and makes the creative process a little less enjoyable.