Stained Glass Pieces Made in 2009

FACELIFT PIECES

The following three pieces of glass I had made were returned to me this year for various reasons, so I decided to give them a facelift.

Marilyn Munroe from "Seven Year Itch" - 2009

In this scene Marilyn's skirt was blown up by a blast from a New York subway. This piece was made for my brother Johnny several years ago as he was a great fan of movie icon, Marily Munroe, one of the most famous movie stars on earth. I brought the glass back from New Brunswick in 2008 after my brother passed away. The clerks in the air port check through were calling everyone over to see her on the scanner.

I loved the red in this piece but always felt the background was too dark, so I gave the piece a facelift by turning the background into an oval and then adding a clear border with faceted jewels in red and blue to pull the piece together.

Art Deco Lady - 2009

The naked lady in this pattern strikes a delightful pose as she dons her red hat and ear ring. A tantalizing blue lipstick colour matches the exquisite baroque swirled background glass. I made this for my cousin Steven who later returned the piece to me when he had new windows put in his house. Turns out he wasn't too fond of naked ladies!!! It was such fun to make this piece. Since it no longer needed to fit exactly into a window, I decided to frame it in bevels with a strong zinc border so it made a more attractive stand alone piece.

Red Cardinal in Circle - 2009

I actually purchased this cardinal from the store in Bloomfield before I did glass and gave it to my aunt Glenora who was an avid bird watcher. When I bought the cardinal I was very impressed by the delicate quality of the work, hoping I would some day measure up myself. After my aunt died in 2007 the piece came back to me. Since the piece had some cracks I decided to make the repair and also perk it up with a bright green border. It holds some precious memories for me.

Pinwheel Chimes - 2009

It was great fun making this piece and choosing colours that worked together in this geometric pattern. The bevels and faceted jewel will bring rainbows into the room when the sun passes through. The unusual blue spotted glass is called spirit glass. It was a challenge to drill through the multi-coloured chimes that hang below to give the piece kind of a Chinese feel.

I was hired to make the piece as a thankyou gift from our Waterloo Region Newcomers club for our outgoing President, Cecilia Gilbert. She has recently had a new grand child and we wanted to make something colourful for the grandchildren to enjoy when they came to her house.

River of Life - 2009

This piece was made as a wedding gift for Alex and Shaila, July 11, 2009. I made the stained glass and my husband Arthur and daughter Amber made the frame.

My second cousin Alex, was brought up in a Christian environment but converted to the Muslim faith in order to marry Shaila. When contemplating what to make for them I came across this pattern entitled River of Life. It was originally designed for the Tampa Ronald McDonald house, a place where families can stay when their children are undergoing difficult treatments away from home. They call it the house that love built. The window was commissioned in memory of Sheila Savage who loved water and lived a life immersed in the lives of others.

I wanted to make a piece that would symbolize their journey through life as well as the merging of their two faiths. Following is my wish for them:

May your River of Life also flow continuously in a house that is built and sustained by love and immersed in each other.

In this modern symbolic piece the sun is a central focus. I thought the sun would be very fitting since it emanates warmth which is the cherished feeling of love. From a religious perspective I thought it could stand for the merging of your faiths. I know that Christianity is in your background Alex, though you have converted to the Muslim faith. Christianity focuses on the saving grace of Jesus the SON of God, while the Muslim faith is sometimes symbolized by similar celestial bodies, the star and the crescent moon. The crescent symbol has a long spiritual history. It suggests an empire stretching from one end of the earth to another, or perhaps an all embracing faith which is the kind of love I hope you will know as the years go by. I see that the 5 pointed star represents the 5 pillars of Islam, but isn’t it interesting that the star is also a symbol of the birth of Christ, the coming of a message of love that would change the world.

The turquoise ribbons flow through the centre of this piece passing through our lives like an unending stream. Water is life giving and restorative. It nurtures all that we are and all that we may become. Perhaps the golden globs sprinkled amongst the ribbons represent light (another essential ingredient for life) epiphanies in your lives, or incredible moments like the birth of children, the realization of dreams or spiritual awakenings. Some of these ribbons are textured as a reminder that life will always have rough spots and the colours will change as our lives ebb and flow and eventually carry us into another dimension.

Pencil bevels simulate down pouring rain and evaporation in the water cycle, which sustains life. You will notice that these bevels come together at midpoint to create one continuous cycle. Today you are joining your lives together into a similar cycle. May you continue to grow and flow together while embracing each other’s uniqueness. These bevels should bring rainbows into your room when the sun passes through and as the rays bend and become many colours, may you appreciate the colour in your lives. There is so much beauty to behold, so much hope in each day. The rainbow is a symbol of this hope and brings such joy in the morning!!!

The clear baroque background glass adds a swirling dimension of time to the River of Life. May your love be timeless and eternal and may your time together be blessed beyond measure.

Celtic Star in a Circle - 2009

This intricate Celtic Star piece was created as a wedding gift for Laura and Mark Beasley, August 8, 2009.

Geometric pieces are hard to do because there is no forgiveness for lines that are not perfect and the colour choices are critical. I agonized for hours holding up different sheets of glass trying to choose the right colours. I was told that Laura had light green walls and liked orange. The 4 piece flower bevel in the centre is unique and the clear glass has footprints in it, if you look closely. This is also the first time that I was able to use zinc for an outside circle. The people at the store in Breslau let me use their tools to bend the zinc and I was thrilled as this gives the piece, which is 25" wide, a lot more strength and allows it to be hung without a frame.

Tequila Worm on Margarita Glass - 2009

Merle Hadlow approached me about making a piece of something to do with alcohol for her daughter's new bar in her Calgary home. I came up with this unique, cutesy Tequila worm wearing a sombrero wrapped around a Margarita glass. It was quite a challenge grinding the eyes out in a coated piece of black glass so the etching shows up as the eyeball. I had to grind half way through the glass and the pieces were quite small. The background is done in an irridescent clear glass that has a bubble like texture. The piece was carefully taken to Calagary on the plane at Christmas and her daughter was thrilled.

When I was trying to choose the colour for the small circle for the first piece, my friend Evelyn was here and she was excited about the piece because she had a daughter named Margarite. In the end we made a deal to exchange the repeat piece for her sewing me PJ's to give Arthur for Christmas. With the second piece I decided to tackle making the eyes white with black centres. It was very tricky as I had to grind right through each small eyeball to create the space for the pupil. While holding this tiny piece of glass I managed to grind right through the top of my finger nail and didn't feel it because of all the vibrations until it was too late. Well OUCH!!!! It is still growing out. This time I changed the sombrero colours to pinks and mauves to go better with the background glass. Since price was not an issue this time, I decided to put in numerous globs to imitate bubbles rising up around the scene and I made the circle larger. The winey mauve faceted jewel brings the shades of purple together. These were fun, whimsical pieces to create.

William Morris Peony in a Circle - 2009

I made this pattern again as an order for Kyle’s parents, Fred and Marlene Stokowski in Edmonton. Arthur was great at making up boxes for me to ship my glass in. Sometimes people were more impressed by the box than the glass. Actually we found it best to ship by bus.

Fred and Marlene

Arthur making the box

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Wasting Away in Margaritaville

For those who do not want to read any further, photos can be seen at my Flickr site link.

Click on photos to enlarge. Hover mouse over top of photos to elicit description.

WHERE IS MARGARITAVILLE ??

"It's in the tropics somewhere between the Port of Indecision and Southwest of Disorder, but no parallels of latitude or longitude mark the spot exactly. You don't have to be a navigator to get there. Palm trees provide the camouflage. Ocean breezes bring the seaplanes and sailboats, tourists and travelers. Passports are not required. Island music rules. No waiting lines for anything. There is a beach and a thatched roof bar perched on the edge of the turquoise sea where you can always find a bar stool. There are lots of lies and loads of stories. It's a comical concoction that blends together like tequila, salt and limes. Where is Margaritaville? It's in your mind. When you are there, you will know it."

What a fitting prologue to my blog about our recent trip to The Grand Mayan Resort in the Riviera Maya, on the Yucatan Peninsula close to the little town of Playa Del Carmen.

When Arthur lost his job last fall he wanted to go on a destress trip but we had been wafting in indecision. Being somewhat parsimonious and certainly NOT seasoned travellers, we had done nothing, when lo and behold my dear friend Joanne, became our navigator. She invited us to spend a week in her own little Shangri la time share in Mexico and made this a special 60th birthday gift to me. She handled all the arrangements and kept us apprised of the "way things are done" in good old Mexico. Unfortunately her husband Gary was hospitalized the day before the trip and could not go so she became our lone guide and companion and did so in her inimitable plush style..... never leaving a thought unspoken or a glass not refilled!!!!

Since we had different flights Arthur and I had the first day together until Joanne's flight arrived. We rented a car and explored Cancun, one of the most popular tourist areas in Mexico, expecially for the young people.... and this being March break.... glasses were overflowing all down the beach where the above photo was taken. However this beach had been de-sanded in a hurricane a few years back so it was very steep and full of undertows ...... a good place to visit but not a place I would want to stay.

I felt like a princess when we arrived at the Grand Mayan Resort. From the stunning open air lobby to the unbelieveable 32 acres of swimming pools, this was a top class five star resort with all of the amenities and then some.

The rooms were gorgeous, spacious, comfortable and ours had privacy, a beautiful granite kitchen, marble floors, jet tubs, luxuary showers, a private dipping pool on the balcony and a lovely view of the pristine tropical landscape. The service was excellent, the restaurants fantastic and the staff most helpful and pleasant. This was a true oasis unto itself and if Arthur had his way we would have just vegged here all week. It had the palm trees, thatched rooves, ocean breezes, island music, turquoise waters, sailboats, para sailors and unlimited underwater bars dreamed of in the Margaritaville of the mind above.

We accomplished a lot in just one week. The village of Playa Del Carmen was just a 20 minute drive away and what a charmer. This could be considered the New York of the Yuckatan. Once you survive the speed bumps and get parked beside a chicken "farm" in the heart of town, you can enjoy several miles of shopping along the picturesque, tourist hounding 5th Avenue. I was blown away by all the silver stores and since I can rarely get past a jewellry store I only covered about 1/4 of the shopping district!! The guys got shopped out pretty quickly so we joined them later on the public beach where we enjoyed cerveza and a few topless beauties!!! Hounding is putting it mildly. It was great fun buying presents for everyone and if there were two words for Mexico I would say they would be "colour" and "pestering" to buy. I actually found it quite intimidating and would have bought a whole lot more if they would have left me alone to reconnoitre!!!

Arthur's favourite part of the trip was our outing to the world heritage site of the Mayan ruins at Chitzen Itza. Due to our inexperience with the language and dotted roads, we ended up on a two hour detour en route to this famous site so after 5 hours we were very happy to arrive. It was amazing to think that this site was first established in 600 AD and was the thriving religious centre for Mayan culture for over 800 years. It was eerie seeing the cenote where worthy sacrifices such as silver, gold and humans had been made. When wandering through the town square with it's 1000 columns, or the ball arena where the losing side had to sacrifice one of it's members, or gazing at the central 9 tiered pyramid you felt another sort of Margaritaville, a place lost in time with its own story to tell. We wished we had been able to go there a few days later at the spring equinox as we would have been able to see the sunlight reflecting diamonds onto the pyramid in a way that was called the descent of the serpent. Suffice it to say that when you clapped your hands 50 feet from the pyramid, you heard a resounding unearthy echo that made you marvel at the ingenuity of long ago.

We had two other adventures worth mentioning. Joanne and I took a 40 minute ferry ride one day across from Playa Del Carmen to the island of Cozumel, which is famous for it's lovely beaches and amazing diving sites. Joanne and Gary have dived there several times but this time Joanne and I just enjoyed the shopping ambiance in the town of San Miguel where cruise ships harbour and did I mention hounding!!!! I had one man want to charge me a dollar for taking a picture of him standing there with a parrot and someone else wanted to trade some piece of tourist crap for my lovely rainbow watch!!!

Puerto Aventuras is a lovely condo community where people go to enjoy the restaurant ambiance and swim with the dolphins. We spent a lovely afternoon there watching people ride dolphins, and viewing seals, seal lions and legendary herbaceous sea cows called manatees. This lovely harbour was home to pelicans and other colourful birds and iguanas were everywhere!!!

During our last night at the Grand Mayan we attended a special Mexican show and buffet. This included a very entertaining dance and musical extravaganza featuring rope shows, acrobatic feats, toe tapping music and elaborate, sometimes racey costumes and hilarious head dresses. Note the delightful watermelon costume below. In the end the audience was invited up on the stage for a grand finale.

And speaking of grand finale...... I had heart burn for a week.... what with the delicious but spicy mexican food and free flowing wine and margaritas. Ah to return to Mexico one day is in my heart. I can't say I exactly wasted away, having not had the courage yet to get on my scale, but what a great place to relax and retreat to another world, to bask in the sun, to become one with the azure sea, to let your mind be at peace with itself.... for that is the stuff dreams are made of and this trip was indeed a fantasy come true.

Thanks so much to my long time friend Joanne who has been there for my family and I for as long as I can remember.

Follow this link to my Flickr site to see additional photos or check out Jimmy Buffet singing Wasting Away in Margaritaville if you'd like to sign off with a tune in your head. Here's a toast to you all!!!!

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Newcomers Got Talent

Creativity on Display was the theme for our March 4th KW Newcomers monthly social meeting. Members were encouraged to share their talents by bringing in their creative works for display and conversation. It was a wonderful evening for friendly conversation and getting to know those presenting members in more ways than one!!!!

Who would have thought that Sandy Clyne was such a great Watercolour artist? She told us that "she paints because he has to and the flowers that speak to her in her gardens must find their way to her canvas."

Anne Gilchrist wowed us with her wonderful knitting, mostly done out of love for family members. Her sweaters were unique and made with interesting yarn. You will never find Anne sitting idle as she will either have cards or knitting needles in her hands.

Shirley Dorton is also an amazing knitter and crocheter who sells her wares far too cheaply!! Jockie could not resist trying on one of her brilliant red hats. She loves making colourful slippers as well. Shirley claims that knitting keeps her calm and is the best manicure going. She will be found either with knitting or her dog Candi in her arms.

Carmen Eick claims to not be a creative person, but has found a fun outlet for her imagination by making Sand Art. She finds various shaped glass containers and fills them with coloured sand and found objects such as sea shells or paper tequila umbrellas. The container on the left is in the shape of a Christmas stocking!!!

Joan Ellis's creativity knows no bounds. Her display featured quilts, cross stitching and scrap booking. Joan brought in her very first quilt as well as one that was made from a sampler course. She recommends getting a few instructions!! You may not know but Joan belongs to the writer's group and is cateloguing stories to go along with photos from her life experiences to leave for her children and grandchildren.

Now you get to see our club president in a new light!!! Cecilia Gilbert has a family tradition of making Ginger Bread Houses at Christmas time and later sharing them with other children in the neighbourhood when it comes time to partake. What a unique way to let those creative juices flow. Nothing pre fab here. She bakes and carves the walls and makes a special builders icing to attach the candies. Well with the recent birth of a new grandchild, Cecilia will be doing this for years to come.

Jockie Loomer-Kruger, who never lets any little treasure pass her by, brought in a display of rug hooking, writing and whimsical folk art. Most of us had never heard the term "Naive Art". This is the genre in which Jockie has painted for years. She calls it "art by and adult through the eyes of a child" and yep, Jockie is a big kid!! You could not go to see her current art show at the Kitchener Library without smiling and recalling your own childhood memories. Although most of her naive pieces were at the Library show, Jockie showed us a collection of naive art calendars produced in Quebec that featured her work for many years. Each of her pieces tells a story and gladdens the heart.

You could not imagine the wonderful collection of quilting and rug hooking produced by Lynda Cunningham. She is one prolific lady and yes, another big kid amongst us. Like Jockie, Lynda loves to incorporate found objects and a huge variety of fabrics into her work, and many of her quilts also have a whimsical, naive quality to them. Each piece has a story to tell and Lynda says she never has idle hands either as there are many more stories just waiting to be told!!! Lynda quilts for family and friends but also volunteers a tremendous amoung of her time making lap quilts for community groups. Lynda is indeed a skilled needleworker with an amazing imagination and a big heart!!!

Did you know that we have an incredible weaver and seamstress in our club? Sandy Hostetter brought in several articles of clothing that she had made, some weaving and a photo album full of pictures of her work along with sampler illustrative pieces. She has worked with a huge variety of yarns and fabrics over the years and is self taught. Sandy has been a member of the Weaver's Guild as well. Her clothing shows a huge amount of patience, labour, love and creativity, not to mention the signs of a skilled craftswoman. Did I say hippe??? Well take a look at her picture, which I had to implore from her I might add, and you can imagine how unique her pieces are.

This where I get to toot my own horn!!! Stained Glass has been a huge passion in my life for over 27 years. I have made pieces for Roberta Bondar, the first Canadian Woman Astronaut and Governor General Lincoln Alexander. It is a joy to think of my pieces spreading to many different countries in the world. In getting ready to particate in this event, I decided to make a book of all my work over the years. It ended up being a 150 page full colour book with over 450 photos and took me more hours than I care to remember. I made a similar book for our family of my mom's quilting and rug hooking after she passed away, so with that experience behind me I decided to produce this book for my own children down the road!! It was great fun writing the stories that went with the pieces. I also had fun developing a slide show of all the photos, which you will see in the above photo running in the background on a lap top computer. My business is called Hooked On Glass because once I started doing glass it became a huge passion. Out went the photos of my kids from my wallet and in went the photos of my glass pieces. One of my greatest joys is seeing the expression on my client's faces when they receive their unique orders. I rest on the pleasure I know people feel watching the light play on their glass as the suns rays pass through it at different times of the day. Click here view the complete slideshow photos of my stained glass pieces to date.

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I think this was one of the most interesting and rewarding programs I have experienced at Newcomers during the three years I have been a member. Thanks so much to Jockie and Sandy Hostetter for organizing the event. There was a lot of work going on behind the scenes and also with set up the night of the event. Thanks to all those members who put out such an extra effort to lug in all their work and share their stories with everyone. We are a friendship club welcoming new people into the area and opening our hearts and our doors to each other as we laugh and share the joys and sorrows in our lives. Celebrating creativity is one of life's greatest pleasures. This was indeed and evening to be remembered.