Arthur Mathews Dancing Girls Stained Glass Project

My latest project is to make two large stained glass panels for two windows in my living room.  The windows are side by side with seven inches in between them.  I decided to use two of one of my favorite painters, Arthur Mathews' dancing girls paintings as the design.  I had to flop the images and do some cropping, but here is the proposed design.

I will carry the golden sky of the picture on the left over to the right - lovely!

So the first step was to scan the photo into PhotoElements and size it for the windows - each window is 35 1/2 by 30 1/2.  Then I printed it out bit by bit on my laser printer and then taped all the bits together.  Next I took some large tracing paper and created a squared-up version and began to trace the design.  I had to figure out where the cut lines will go and am almost done with that part on the right side image.  I am creating what is called the "cartoon."

 Here is the right side on my light table with the taped-together bits underneath.

 And later, taped up on my bookcase.

Next, the left side picture on the light table.  Putting in the cut lines and sketching in the details on the cartoon.

 

 

 There are some really gorgeous dresses on these dancing girls and I can't wait to choose some amazing opalescent glass for them!

 I had the scan open on my computer next to the light table for reference.

 So that's it for now.  More to come ...

The Adventure Begins!

I have taken up doing painted stained glass and this blog will document my little adventure with this process. I have always been an artist and I really gravitate towards the decorative arts. I did stained glass back in my early 20s, using copper foil. I think I only have one small piece left from that time period, but I did a lot of beachy things, including a life-size self-portrait that was stolen from a storage unit I had it in. The original sketch survives though ...

I used a real sea shell for where I'm holding the shell.

I didn't do anything more with stained glass until we built our studio apartment over the garage.

For this project, I used my glass cutting abilities (ha ha) and learned how to do leading to create colored glass panels for the salvage casement windows.

So now here I am taking up stained glass again.  This time with glass paints and a kiln!  Here is my first test piece done on a broken piece of clear glass.

It is a Christopher Dresser design and it was fun to do!

A picture of my kiln - it is a Skutt kiln.

And Miss Pandora - the curious cat.  I keep her away from the toxic paint.