Little kiss at the W.A.V.E.

This week-end I will be working at the W.A.V.E. Festival at Lourdes College in Sylvania, Ohio.

WAVE: Women, Artists, Visionaries, Entrepreneurs
4th Annual Celebration of Women Festival
Saturday, March 26, 2011
11 a.m. – 4 p.m. (NEW TIME!)
Franciscan Center Commons, Lourdes College
6832 Convent Blvd., Sylvania, OH 43560

I will be taking my newest product, SendOutCards, to this show and am very excited about it.  This is a tool that allows you to create your own cards for any purpose.  I originally bought it for Christmas cards for my business, my husbands business, and to create graduation announcements for my son's upcoming high school celebration. 

I have since found it to be such a wonderful product for almost anybody, that I have added it as an item I sell as well.  The card you see here is a fun example of one I created as a campaign for a company at a show I recently attended.  They took photos of guests walking by and sent them an email of their photo.  I took it one step further and sent the picture back to them on a card... I know they are hanging on to this and not just pushing the "Delete" button when through.  I know, because I talked to them.

Women, Artists, Visionaries, and Entrepreneurs.  This Saturday.  Should be a good show!

Pat Deere

LINKS:
W.A.V.E. Festival
SendOutCards.com/PLDeere - Send A Free Card

I don't count the money till it's in the bank and cleared!

Sometimes even a sure thing doesn't pan out.

I have been working with a church in Massachusetts.  One of the committee members called me and was very excited.  She came from a church where 4 churches were combining into one and they were trying to make the building they would be celebrating out of, reflect all of the church members.  She gave me the dimensions, the budget, the fact that all of the members on the committee chose my design - actually, the design of Pamela Shapiro fabricated by my studio.  They were sure this was a go ahead.

How it came to be that they called me in the first place was this:  The committee had been deliberating for a long period of time over what to use for stained glass.  They could not come upon a decision.  So the pastor told all of the member to go out and find some stained glass that they like and bring it back to the next meeting where they would vote.  Pamela's design was voted on by every member on the committee.  They thought it was a done deal.

Because the church wanted to be sure all of the members were on board, especially because they were trying to bring the members of 4 churches together, they felt the need to offer them a vote which included another design.  I was told, they did not expect the other design to be chosen. 

But, this sometimes happens.  What is the reason for it?  I am not sure yet.  But I have learned to be excited about new projects, but not overexcited until I have the check cashed and the money in the bank.  Something else will come along, I am sure of it.

If your church is looking for inspirational glass work, you know where to call!

Pat Deere

LINK:  Custom designed stained glass for churches.

Moving right along...

I'm pretty excited about what Brian is doing here.  Today he was able to finish cutting the glass and grind/cut the pieces to fit.  There are still some final adjustments to make and approval from Great Ideas to be sure we are fitting within the theme of this customers room.

Keep up the great work Brian.  I know she is going to be thrilled.

The rest of the story about this window is in my previous blogs!

Pat Deere

Brian's Progress

I probably should have taken another photo after this one because he has a lot more done, but I love the progress on this window Brian, my student from Vo-Tech is working on.  We are trying to keep it obscure since it is an outdoor window and she wants some privacy.  Right now laying on the pattern it looks a little dark, but there will be a lot going in with the light behind it.  The design is coming together nicely!

Pat Deere

A kitchen window I created featured in Beautiful Kitchens, Spring 2009

This was kind of fun.  As I was searching the internet for information and, BOOM, up pops the picture I had been looking for and forgot about.  I created the stained glass window above Tiffany's kitchen sink using a simple design element she was using throughout the room.  If you click on the link below, you will see on the second page there is a hanging lamp fixture with the same simple design.

For this window I used a clear textured glass that complimented glass in the built in cabinets with the border including a natural, stone-like glass.

The article reads, "At their best, architectural details are like intriguing people- never showy, slow to reveal themselves, and full of surprises. Take this kitchen addition to Tiffany and Mike Kapnick's 1920s-era home in Adrian, Michigan: Many of its distinguishing features are so discreet they produce a whiff of quality sensed first, processed later."  Tiffany Kapnick is owner of Persnickety in Adrian.  Click on the link below for more information.


Pat Deere
Links: 
~Thinking about custom designed glass for your home, click HERE.
~Better Homes & Garden "Beautiful Kitchens" magazine, Cover article from Spring 2009 Edition
~Persnickety, Adrian, MI

For a good cause...

I got a call from Julie at Great Ideas last week to see if I would be interested in helping out with a project she is involved in.  Somebody she knows has a child who got sick and is not recovering the way they had hoped.  From what I understand, the community is coming together to redo this teenagers room for her.  My first thought was, perfect timing.  I have Brian, a student from  Graphic Imaging Technology program and the LISD TECH Center, with me for a few weeks.  He is in the Graphic Imaging Technology class and picks up very quickly.

So, I asked him if he would be willing to work on this project, and he said yes.  Together we looked at patterns and decided on this one.  We made a few variations to fit our design.  I showed Brian how to scan the image into my glass pattern program, use the auto trace command so we wouldn't have to draw a pattern from scratch.  Then he was able to take the tracing, clean up the lines, and we had the pattern printed out in duplicate.

From there, we started looking at glass.  They wanted the window to be obscure on the bottom and lighter on the top for privacy purposes.  We used a lot of squirly shaped glass globs because they will let light in but you won't be able to see through them.  Browns will be at the bottom and the further up we go, the more we will add golds and ambers.  We are trying to work with the colors of her room.

So, today Brian was foiling globs and bevels, altering the pattern where needed, discussing glass selections, and cutting the duplicate pattern to get ready for tomorrow.  So far so good, don't you think?


Pat Deere

Link:  Interested in Custom Designed Glass?  Click HERE.