Zen Alphabet Heart for Baby Alastair
This piece was a welcome baby gift for Laura Northey’s new baby, Alastair. He was born Jan 11th, 2018 just a few weeks after Amber also had her first baby, Kiera. We attended welcome baby parties for both children.
Making those toes was harder than it looks. The semi clear mauve-blue glass blends well with the pink toes, blue hammered glass background and the mauve and clear beveled borders. The lime green in the corners makes the piece sparkle.
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Evan’s father, Alastair’s grandfather, painted the portrait below for the parents. I think this painting is very poignant and unusual. It depicts a painful birth cry rather than soft beauty.
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Wave and Sun Abstract
This piece was made as a 65th birthday present for my friend Ginny Alviano who spends her summers at Sauble Beach. It really captures the feel of being on the Blue Waters of Lake Huron. Clear globs are used to suggest bubbles while various textured blue, green and turquoise transparent glass swirl around a textured clear conch sea shell. This is my own design.
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Memorial Horse and Daisy Bevels
This piece was a gift for my friend Bev Chris and her husband George. At one time they had asked me to consider doing something in stained glass, on the theme of daisies as a tribute to George's sister who loved daisies and had passed away recently. At that time I could not figure out a pattern that worked with the shape of the windows at their cottage. A few year's later George's brother also passed away and I learned that he loved horses.
I then created this piece of glass using horse and daisy bevels in my own design. The crazy rainbow like rondel brings a swirl of colour to the piece and works nicely with the baroque swirled mauve-clear glass used in the background.
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Bev and George had kindly lent their gorgeous Thornbury cottage to me one weekend to have some bonding time with my girls so I decided to show my gratitude and surprise them with this memorial piece of stained glass. They seemed to love the piece and sent me the following photo of it hanging at their cottage with a glorious Georgian Bay sunset in the background.
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Rainbow Greyhound - Willa
Years ago I made the stained glass piece on the left for Wade and his family in honour of their dog, 'Irish'. The Wilsons have always had dogs and Wade has been especially attached to them.
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When it came time to make Wade and Amanda a wedding present I enquired what to make from his brother Rory, and he sent me a rather poor photo of their newly acquired greyhound dog, 'Willa'.
When I came across the graphic below of a very colourful greyhound, it reminded me of dog fundraising paintings I have seen around town. The realistic colours in Willa were not very attractive in glass, so I abandoned that idea in exchange for art and fantasy. I figured Amanda's daughter would also take more pleasure in seeing lots of colours in the glass piece.
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It was great fun choosing the various transparent colours and textures for the dog. The eyes and nose are done with coated glass so the white dots are carved into the coating. The blue-clear background glass is picked up in some of the blues in the dog. I used specialty glass as well to carve in the bridge and groom's names and wedding dates.
Inukshuk and Northern Lights
Our church, Grand River Unitarian, holds an annual dream auction to raise funds each year and people offer items, talents or services for people to purchase of bid on. I usually offer stained glass workshops but in 2019 I decided to donate a piece to be bid on in the action.
I decided to combine the glue-chip beveled Inukshuk with the background from a northern lights pattern I had made previously.
It was great fun making this piece and I think it sold for over $500.00.
