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Sylvan Lake Landscape 2019

This wonderful door insert began with humble beginnings as our client initially had made a rough sketch on a piece of paper (see second picture below for the drawing). We then made several trips to our clients home on the shores of beautiful Sylvan Lake located in Central Alberta west of the city of Red Deer.

Once again we enlisted Martha Hanson and her design team at Paned Expression Studios Inc in Edgewood Maryland USA for their stained glass design expertise.

The door insert is approximately 20 inches wide by 63 inches high and comprised of some 400 pieces of stained glass.

This is how this window was first conceptualized by our client.

After visits and further discussions our client enhanced his ideas in more detail.

Shown here is the Fall view of Sylvan Lake from our clients property.  The jut out on the left center is called 3rd point.

This is the view from the door going out onto our clients deck and where the stained glass insert was made for.

This next photo shows a window view of the various birch/popular trees on the property.

On the property were Red Osrser Dogwood and Purple Leaf Sand Cherry bushes, together with birch and evergreen trees all of which our client wanted incorporated into the stained glass panel.

View of one of the many evergreen trees on the property.

Our clients are excellent purveyors of art and from this original painting came up with the basic idea for their stained glass door insert.

The following picture shows the design pattern on which we constructed this panel. We used Spectrum, Uroboros, Bullseye, Kokomo, Wissmach and Youghiogheny glass in the panel.  Here is an interesting fact it required over 208 feet of black backed copper foil.

We started at the top of the panel and worked our way down to the bottom. We use the Morton Layout block system and one has to make sure to measure corner to corner diagonally to ensure squareness of the panel in order for it to fit properly.

The next series of photos are some closeup pictures of the panel construction using the copper foil method. One has to be very careful all the time to ensure the correct flow of the glass.

Next photo shows some of the soldering using 60/40 solder.

 

Designed by Paned Expression Studios

Birthstone “I Love You” Christmas Gifts 2019

Long time local clients have us make suncatchers as Christmas gifts for their grandchildren. This year they wanted a smaller version of the Valentine in Glass ” I Love You” with the heart glass being their grandchildren’s birthstone colors.

We reduced the original design to measure approximately 4 inches wide x 5 inches high. By reducing the size Flory had to make some slight modifications of the original design.

In total we made 10 of these, which included the birthstone colors for the months of March, April, May, July, August and December. The picture below represents from left to right the months of March, July and August.

Design by Glassmagic, Snohomis, WA

Original Design modified by Flory Wilkins

Infinity Stars December 2019

For Christmas this year we made these 2 Infinity Star Christmas tree ornaments for our neighbors. In addition to the purple and mint green ones shown, we also made for another client 4 more using different blues. The clear glass used was Spectrum’s # 100 GGIR – Iridescent granite.

Design by Marianne Crivellaro as featured in Glass Patterns Quarterly Fall 2006

Lambs – Baby Gifts 2019

We made these lambs for a Great Niece and Great Nephew in the spring of 2019. They measure approximately 5 inches wide by 6 inches high. For the niece we attached a small pink flower and for the nephew a small blue heart.

Once completed we applied black Novacan patina to the solderlines and after cleaning with Kwik Clean we then polished with Clarity Polish. The very strong hanging silver chain was soldered into the back solder lines before starting to finish them.

The next 2 pictures show close ups of each one.

 

Original Design by Donna Schulze from her book titled “Sunshines”

Heirloom Lamp Repair 2019

This lampshade was made some 43+ years ago by a family member. It survived many moves over the years but eventually suffered 3 broken panels. Our client who lives in Central Alberta brought it to us in the fall of 2019 and fortunately we had the exact same glass to complete repairs and restoration.

The first photo shows the restored lampshade now being enjoyed by our client on a daily basis.

The next shows the 3 broken panels – 2 of which were beside each other and the 3rd one was over to the left with the faint black check mark on it.

In order to put new glass in this lampshade we first used a small hacksaw and cut through the lead came removing the broken and unbroken pieces. As 2 of the panels were together we had to replace the center piece of lead came. When taking out the broken pieces we ensured that each broken panel piece was then taped together so we could use it for a pattern when making the new panel pieces.

A problem we encountered especially with the 2 broken panes beside each other was that after fitting and replacing the glass along with the one new piece of lead came in the center of those 2 broken panels was that the lamp had sprung apart. Rather than trying to have Flory hand hold the shade together while re-soldering the joints we used some larger rubber bands which after some maneuvering held the lampshade back together quite nicely before soldering the new joints. The original lead came used was handmade and over the years we have come across several old repairs with this type of came. The difficult part is trying to match new came to the old came as close as possible.

This last photo shows a top view of the restored lampshade. We cleaned both sides of the lampshade with Kwik Clean using toothbrushes and then repolished it with Clarity Stained Glass polish. We used a combination of soft polishing rags, toothbrushes, X-acto knife blades and paper towels to complete it along with lots of elbow grease.

Built by a family member in the mid 1970’s

Original Lamp Designer Unknown