The Family That Prays Together

What an honor to create a family cross for this beautiful family!

The photo below shows this glass work in several shots so you can see the final piece, a close up with the background glass, and another close up showing the very textured state the crushed glass was left in.

I love working with various sizes of crushed glass, including frit to give the frayed edge seen on this piece.

For my work, lately I have been using System 96 in sheets.  I cut them to size big enough to fit into my glass crusher.  From there, I sort out the sizes so I can layer the glass in the way it will work out best for each piece.  For things like this where I want a frayed edge, I use a simple mold cut out of foam board and layer the glass until it gets no thicker than the 1/2 board I am using.  Carefully, I pull up the mold, rearrange any stray pieces, and fire it to about 1300 degrees.  The background with names and dates was fired separately.  Next, the glass is glued using KOA 300 and an ultraviolet light to set it.  This gluing method has been working very well for me on transparent glass.

What a beautiful wedding gift for somebody special in your life, don't you think?  Elizabeth, thank you for giving me the opportunity to give you a gift I know your family will enjoy for a long time to come.  Because this has to go through 2-3 firings in the kiln, advance notice for gifts of this type are necessary.

Pat Deere

LINKS:  Click HERE For more information on custom designed stained glass by Pat Deere.

Glass Painting for Church In New Bern, NC

WHAT A FUN DAY!

I love watching the process of other artists at work and thought... maybe somebody is interested in how glass painting is done.

The first photo makes it look like I am ready to take off, but I am just protecting my lungs from airborne glass paint.

The whole process is not shown here but what you will see is how I am approaching this project.  The glass has already been through one firing where I outlined what I wanted to with simple lines.  That paint was mixed with clove oil, which is a medium I love to use when I need nice long strokes.  Once the lines were painted, fired to 1200 degrees, and the glass cooled overnight, I began the process for the 2nd firing. 

On this panel I chose to use a black tracers paint, mixed in a little gum arabic powder to stiffen it a little, ground the glass with water until I got the consistency I was looking for.  Actually, it came out a little stiffer than I planned, meaning it did not come off as easy with a brush as I hoped for.  Originally, I considered washing it all off and starting again but I like the look that I ended up with. 

So, to make a long story shorter... what you see here is Top Left:  Me in my mask, the next six photos on the right show the process of brushing off unwanted glass using a variety of tools and brushes, and the final piece in the kiln on the bottom left prior to firing once again to 1200 degrees.

Next posting will be my out of the kiln photo and my 3rd, and possibly final, firing.  Make it a great day!

Pat Deere

Students work donated to give back...

A while back during one of my free classes a student, Cal, worked diligently on this piece using scrap glass pieces I had in my studio and a few other fun findings.  When I was asked for an item to donate to the Art Affair in Tecumseh, I knew what piece to give.  This year I have made it a priority to to give a percentage of my income to charitable causes.  Part of the percentage comes in the way of donated glasswork.  So, thank you to my students for donating your time and for those of you who are local, be sure to check out the upcoming event:

CIS and CAT Art Affair - The Art Affair is a collaboration between Communities in Schools and Community Arts of Tecumseh
Join us on August 31st from 7-9 PM at the Tecumseh Country Club for a great evening of art demonstrations. There will also be art works available to win through a raffle drawing. Mary Rochelle Burnham will be doing caricatures. Tickets for the event can be purchased at the Art Center or at First Federal Bank for $20. Raffle tickets for the artwork are $5 each or 3 for $10.

Donated Item:  Above glasswork to the CIS / CAT for Art Affair Tecumseh.  If you have an event coming up, it is possible we can donate to your cause also.  Just let us know.

Day 163 Growth Idea: Letting people know what I do when I assume they should know already... is a mistake.  So today I am letting you know that along with free classes I give every now and then, I also give classes in bead making, traditional glass painting, sandblasting, stained glass, lamp making, and more.  Check out my classes website for more detail about what you can expect to learn in each class.  I also give private lessons which work out very well for certain customers.  Nobody goes home disappointed.
 
Pat Deere
 
Links:
List of glass classes
Communities In Schools
Community Arts Of Tecumseh:  Facebook, Blog
Art Affair Tecumseh (Article is at the bottom of the page.)
 

Blessed Savior Lutheran Church - Vandals at it again!

Painting on glass is one of my favorite things to do. Unfortunately, for this church, this was not a repair they are excited about.

Blessed Savior Lutheran is a small country church in Blissfield, Michigan. There is a small, but very friendly, group of people who attend church there.

In 2004, I was asked to repair/restore most of the windows in their church. They purchased the building and it had been sitting empty for quite a while. Vandals had their way with a lot of the windows. Some of them were completely releaded, some were repainted, and some of them were ok the way they were. We got them removed, repaired and reinstalled and they looked wonderful for about five years.

Recently, vandals were at it again. To the left are 3 pieces that were cracked in the process. You can see where they belong in the full size picture towards the bottom of the window. I will be painting these in two separate firings before reinstalling them into the panels. Somebody deliberately broke through the plexiglass with a brick before going back and throwing a rock through the hole they created. As much as I enjoy working with glass, this is not the way I like to get new projects. My hope is that people will look out for suspicious characters and report them. This is a large cost for a small church to bear.

This is the painted glass after it has come out of the kiln for the first time. The heavy black outlines and the veins of the leaves were painted in with Tracing Black 401 from Reusche with a little zinc added to dull it down a little. This helps it match the existing glass paint which has lost some of it's shine. More photos to come after the next step comes out of the kiln.

Pat Deere

Links: Interested in glass restoration for your church? Click here.
or Glass Painting Classes? Click here.

Crosses of Distinction

I am shipping this cross out today... with a little hesitation. I was given boxes of glass a customer salvaged from a church that had burned. Evidence is still in the glass that couldn't be washed off. It gives the glass a smoky grey color in areas. The appropriate thing, it seemed, to use the glass for was to make crosses.

Last month I set up for a spiritual art show in Orchard Lake. Somebody snatched it up and I am mailing it off today. This was the only cross I was able to make with this glass because I only had one piece with the beautiful painted glass floral pattern.

I am sure it is going to good hands and they will enjoy it. That makes it much easier to part with.

Pat Deere

Links: Glass Painting Classes