Day 127: Silouettes - Patina them in black or leave them silver?

Day 127: Growth Idea: Standing my ground can pay off!

Day 126 Donations: $ .55

Donations Running Total: $189.6622

My History: A funny story about my old studio.  I inherited my moms organ.  I kept it in the front of my studio and it was fun to have kids come in after school and sit down to play it for a while.  One day, I heard noise coming from it but nobody was sitting there.  Then I realized it picked up the radio station 2 doors down.  Kind of spooky!

Today's Business:  Well, I am back on track.  Delivery of my first window for the Flint Bus Depot will be June 8th if all goes well. 

Today's Photo:   Women's Rights, silouette section.  The silouettes in this picture are in the top section. Tonight I was playing around with the patina on the lead, changing it to black on one of the silouettes. Think I'll do that with all of them. What do you think?

Pat Deere

Day 111: Back to the blog and an update...

Day 111


Day 110 Donations: $

Donations Running Total: $180.333

Today’s Growth Idea:  Back to the blog and some kind of order. I get off track and think this blog takes too much time. I am finding, it actually keeps me on track and helps me put some kind of order into my day. So... a more concerted effort starts again.

My History: While renovating my new building, I had a lot of help.  My boys, although they were still young (in elementary school), came and helped every day.  They had a lot of energy and pulling up carpet and playing "carpenter" was fun for them... for periods of time.  In between, they would go up to the second floor and treasure hunt.  We had some unusual things left in the building.  One of them, which was actually left in the basement, was a foot xray that one of the previous businesses used to check the sizing of a persons foot before they sold them shoes.  Hmmmmmm.

Today's Business:  It is only Tuesday and already a busy week.  I am following up with paperwork and designs for a church I met with yesterday who wants new windows installed.  I also met with a

kitchen shop yesterday who will be displaying my crushed glass/beveled glass in one of their kitchen displays, and finally a residential customer who is looking for transom windows and sidelights for their entry way is something I need to finalize.  Brandi is in the back crushing glass and I am at the computer.  That will change in a minute.

Today's Photo's:  I have posted some of these photos here before or on Facebook, but this is a glimpse of 3 of the 5 sections for my Women's Right Window for the Flint Bus Depot.

Today's New Product:  Brandi is fast becoming my fused glass jewelry person of choice.  Here is one of the necklaces she created.  More are on my web site.  These are currently introductory products sold at introductory prices... they probably won't be able to stay at this price for long!

Pat Deere

LINKS:  Jewelry... earrings, necklaces, broaches.

Flint Bus Depot - Women's Rights Window

My current commission is one for the Michigan Transportation Authority. They are installing a series of stained glass windows, about 4.5'x16', in the Flint Bus Depot. I will be fabricating 5 windows total and designing 2 of them.

This computerized drawing shows, roughly, what the window will look like. The background will be an assortment of Youghiogheny glass rectangles arranged into a sunrise color scheme. The 5 women I was to highlight + Maya Angelou (my personal favorite), will have their silhouettes in heavy lead in the background.

Now, where your help comes in... I would like to include pieces of glass from women in your lives who helped you personally, like the pioneers of the Women's Rights Movement helped all of us, through their own strength, courage, and wisdom. Immediately I thought of the grandparents in my life that I was so blessed to have. Growing up, both my husband and myself, were fortunate to have parents, grandparents, and great grandparents who were positive influences on us. I am going to incorporate glass pieces from as many of these strong women as I can, into the scale which will make up the central part of this design. I prefer to have clear glass but will include others where I can.

For example, my Grandma Schmuckal kept a lot of stuff. I was able to acquire a glass shade from her that had a crack in it. The picture you see here is a scan of the edge of that glass. I will be cutting this off of the broken shade with a diamond band saw, flattening it in the kiln, and cutting it to the size I need. I have a broken crystal glass of my mom's. As you can see, I don't throw much away if it is glass. I will be using some of the pieces from that glass in the scale as well.

So... if you have a female in your life that had an impact on you, like women from the women's movement had on society... and you want to include a piece of their glass (preferably clear) into this design. I would love to hear from you. I may not be able to include all of it but if you send it, I will try to fit it in.

LOOKING FOR: Glass from influential women in your life!

Pat

Women's Rights - Flint Bus Depot

I am in the process of designing a stained glass window, about 4'x16' for the bus depot in Flint, Michigan. The subject assigned to me is women's rights. The committee has given me a list of several key events and people they would like me to include in the window. Through many of the organizations I belong to, I have met many strong women who have made significant differences in peoples lives that may not necessarily be written about in history books. If you have an idea, or a story to tell about a woman you know of who has made a difference to continue the efforts of some of these early historians, I would love to hear about it. Even if the individual person cannot be included in the design, perhaps the ideas they embody can.

For more information regarding the Greater Flint Arts Council, go to http://www.greaterflintartscouncil.org/ . They are the organization I have been working through on this project. They have a lot of wonderful art opportunities, galleries, art walks, etc.