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

For one of our sons and family we made this transom window. It measured some 66 inches wide by 10 inches high. It was recently installed over their front door in Leduc Alberta.

We incorporated the East Coast Bud design from our Glass Eye 2000 stained glass computer program from the initial design by Jan Williams. This was a Victorian Panel design Circa 1837 -1901 originating on the East Coast of the USA.

For the border glass we used Youghiogheny 900DSR a Dark Blue Waterglass. This is a beautiful art glass however for the inexperienced stained glass artist it can be difficult to cut as well as foil but the end result is well worth the effort. The East Coast Buds were made from Bullseye 2311-30 a Cranberry Pink & White Double Rolled.

The clear glass was Spectrum’s SP – 100B Barnwood, which we were able to procure prior to their selling of their business to Oceanside Glasstile in Carlsbad California. Fortunately we were able to match the barnwood across each section of the 3 Buds and the way it ended up the panels blended extremely well together across the full width of the design.

The first photo is taken from inside the home and one can see how the Barnwood glass matched across the window.

The next photo was taken from the outside of the home.

The next photo shows the transom above the main entrance beveled door and it’s beveled side panels.

After printing off the design from our Glass Eye 2000 program we bordered the pattern using the Morton Layout Blocks system. We had to make sure that all of our measurements were exact and would fit the inside of the window frame. As well we used In-bedded strengthening braid to ensure panel strength and longevity.

The following photo shows the panel all ready for soldering. Once soldered we use Kwik Clean to remove solder flux. Then we cleaned the solder seams with #0000 Steel Wool applied Jax Pewter Black Patina, then cleaned the panel again with Kwik Clean. Finally we apply Clarity Stained Glass Polish and once dry use soft clothes and tooth brushes to clean and polish the panel and it’s solder seams.

Adaptation East Coast Bud design by Jan Williams

from Glass Eye 2000 computer program by Flory & Bob Wilkins