Stained Glass In The Bath?

Does it sound silly, putting a gorgeous Stained Glass window in the bathroom where so few people will be able to see it? It's certainly not the first room that comes to mind when you're thinking about a decorative window is it? But homes are getting bigger, and bigger homes have bigger windows and a window in the bath presents a privacy issue. You want the natural light but you don't want people being able to see in.

There are several window treatments that can solve the problem but many people are finding the most attractive one is Stained Glass. You can see some of the windows we have installed at: http//www.homestudioartglass.com/res and scroll down to Stained Glass in the Bath.

j

http://www.homestudioartglass.com

Custom Stained Glass II

Odering a window

Generally, when asked to do a custom piece, I like to visit the site where the window will be installed. In this way I can get a feel for the style of the home and see how the client's tastes run. Occasionally, I'll pick up a design idea from a piece of the architecture or some of the furnishings.

I'll also see how much light will be coming through and whether it is direct or indirect sunlight. Many people prefer cathedral glass (see the following paragraph) because it lets in more light and doesn't look as "heavy" as opalescent glass. But in direct sunlight, the color of cathedral can look washed out as if it has faded.

Opalescent or Cathedral?

The term "Stained Glass" originally referred to the silver stain fired onto the back of a piece of glass which gave it a color anywhere from deep amber to bright yellow. Now, however, it refers to any decorative colored glass assembled with lead or copper foil as well as to the sheets of colored glass themselves.

There are 2 basic kinds of colored sheet (stained) glass; Cathedral and Opalescent. Cathedral glass is glass that you can see through. The amount of the diffusion of the light can vary from completely obscure - where you can only perceive light and shadow, to glass that looks like clear glass with color. And while a lot of cathedral glass will appear to have no particular color without light coming through it, like when viewed from outside during the day, opalescent glass will show a color with or without transmitted light.

All of these factors must be taken into consideration when planning a Stained Glass window.

see also: http://www.homestudioartglass.com/your_window.htm

Custom Stained Glass I

It would be so nice to deal with clients on a regular basis for whom money is no oblect, to have a customer who says "just build me a gorgeous window". But usually, one of the first things a customer wants to know is "how much will it cost?". Often this question is asked before the design has been chosen.

There are so many factors that affect the price that it's impossible to say exactly what a window will cost until the design has been finalized and all the materials chosen. This is because;

• The cost of glass varies wildly. For example; the cost of a sheet of hand blown flashed glass can be 10 times that of a machine rolled sheet.
• Doing a window in lead is more difficult than copper foil and takes longer.
• Special order items like custom beveling, faceted jewels or special came will be an extra cost.

But the biggest single factor is the number of pieces. Obviously the more pieces the more work. Our final pricing formula combines the number of pieces plus the square footage.

Still the client needs to have an idea of the price to know if he/she can afford it. And we need to know before we spend a lot of time designing a window that the customer will be able to afford it.

So we've come up with a ballpark figure of $75/ sq. ft. Admittedly, this is on the low side and would represent a fairly simple piece. We want to do every thing we can to get a window into a clients home. We've looked around and feel this is as low a price as you're going to find in the industry.

We put a cost calculator on our website at http://www.homestudioartglass.com/your_window.htm

You just plug in your window's measurements and the java script will calculate an estimated price.

j

Designing with Bevels III

So I find a picture of a rural scene since this home is out in the country (actually, if I'd been smart, I would have taken a picture through the window and the homeowner could have a very realistic idea of what the window would look like, if I'd been smart) and I make it a layer. I've made my drawing another layer on top of it.

I'll start with the border. Since the upper facet reflects what's below, I'll place the target of the Clone Tool on a section of the scene below the bevel (A above). Then I'll place cursor where the upper facet would be (B above) and click and drag to the right. The target will move in a corresponnding manner. This effectively "paint's" what the target is moving over into the area covered by the cursor.
You can hold the shift button down while dragging to get a straight horizontal, verrtical or 45 degree angle line. Another way; you can click and then hold the shift button down. Still holding the shift button move the cursor to the other end of where you want to "paint" and then click. The image gets wiped in nice and straight. This is useful where you want a straight line but it's on an angle.

Well, like I said, I'm using a poor man's version of Photoshop but I'd bet it has a similar feature.

j

http://www.homestudioartglass.com

Designing with Bevels II

The drawing above illustrates what I was saying; the upper facet bends the light coming from below, while the lower facet bends the light coming from above. Almost as if they were angled mirrors. The program I use, Adobe PhotoDeluxe® is a poor man's Photoshop. It has something they call a "clone" tool. You place the target on a part of the picture you want to copy. Then you put your cursor on the spot where you want the copied image, click and drag and it will "paint" whatever the target is moving over into the area you're covering with your cursor.

More Later
j

http://www.homestudioartglass.com

Designing with bevels

I've always had a problem when designing beveled glass, how to show the client what it's going to look like.

I would draw it up and use colored pencils to try to give some idea but my artwork never quite captured the beauty of the glass and I always wound up basically asking the client to use his imagination. And it's hard to ask someone to hand you what is sometimes a fairly large sum based on a image in their imagination.

Well, I don't know what other software might get the job done more easily but I use a program called Photo Deluxe along with Photoshop Ltd. That's how I made the image here.

When a piece of beveled glass is installed with the beveled side towards you, the flat surface will, of course be just like any other piece of clear glass, i.e. you'll see what directly in front of you. The upper surface will reflect what below it and the lower surface will reflect what is above it. Likewise the vertical surfaces will reflect accordingly.

More later.

j

http://www.homestudioartglass.com

Covered Up

It's a common expression here in South Central Kentucky, when you've got more work than you can handle you're "covered up".

And they say that God invented time so that everything wouldn't happen at once.

And just a few weeks ago I was whining 'cause things were so slow! We even started doing repairs! I hate repairs. Now we have so many irons in the fire I feel guilty spending this time on the blog.

Be careful what you wish for. Heh heh heh

j

http://www.homestudioartglass.com

Blenko Glass

We went to Blenko Glass in Milton W.Va. on Monday. I think they're one of the last American companies still blowing sheet glass. It's amazing the way they do it. They blow a bubble of glass that they form into a cylinder with either iron or wooden tools. They cut off the ends and score the open cylinder down the side and put it in a kiln where it opens to form a flat sheet of glass.

Usually, they use iron shaping tools to form the glass into a cylinder but they had 2 sheets of red that they'd used the wood shapers on and they were incredible! Looking at this glass you can really see it's true nature. Glass is a super cooled silicious liquid. In other words, a liquid that has become solid without having a freezing point.

Blenko is a very strange company. If you want to buy their sheet glass you have to order from them or go to their factory, they don't go through a distributor. But if you go, set a limit to how much you're going to spend, cause you'll be like a kid in a candy store; "I want this and this and this..." and first thing you know, you're way over budget.

I'll talk more about the nature of glass later, but check out Blenko glass at www.blenkoglass.com

j

http://www.homestudioartglass.com

Re: What Have We Been Working On?

Re-reading that post I think it could be assumed that we are really depressed about losing several art shows and that's not the case at all. Granted, we - especially me, I don't deal with disappointment well - were very down for several days, but what I wanted to get across was that we are now much more energized and enthusiastic about our work.

I saw on a TV show - it's terrible when most of your information comes from TV isn't it? - that the Chinese symbol for crisis is actually 2 symbols, one being the symbol for danger, and the other being the symbol for opportunity. I don't know if it's true or not, it doesn't even matter, I like the idea of it. And I think it's true that some of our best work comes under times of stress and crisis.

So I just want to correct any impression that we're all down in the dumps with bleak thoughts and bad feelings. Life is good!

j

http://www.homestudioartglass.com

Fish On a Stick

Well, we came up with a new item. It's a free standing fish on a stick. It has a wood base and it rotates. You can see it at http://www.homestudioartglass.com/images/fishies.jpg. We're going to try to get this item juried into the Kentucky Crafts Market.

I'm also finishing a church repair. We had a real bad hailstorm a few weeks back and it damaged a lot of windows. Even buildings with storm windows had quite a bit of damage. But this poor church didn't have any protective glazing and the 2 windows on the windward side of the building got really hammered. They had to be completely dismantled and rebuilt. I hope to get them installed by the end of the week.

j

http://www.homestudioartglass.com

What Have We Been Working On?

What have we been working on?

Well, we lost 2 of our shows (almost lost a third) this year. It focuses the mind you might say. I hope to say at that it was the best thing that ever happened to us but that would be premature at this point. It definitely makes you take a long hard look at your work and where you want to go. There's no doubt when you do the same shows year after year and you get to know what sells and what doesn't, that you become complacent. We've re-evaluated our work and added some new stuff that I hope to have on the website soon.

The thing is that you don't get any reason why you were rejected from most of these shows. all they'll say is "there were a limited number of booths available and the competition was strong". It's difficult in this business to really get any constructive criticism from qualified people. So we decided to try to enter the Kentucky Crafts Marketing Program, http://kycraft.ky.gov/

The program was started back in the 70s to get the work of Kentucky's craftspeople to a larger audience. The idea being to introduce artists and craftspeople to the owners of galleries and shops all over the country to whom they could wholesale their work.

We were in it either the first or second year, I forget, but the entire wholesale thing really threw us; you have to either cut your retail price in half to the shop owners or double it to the retail customer. We felt we had gotten our price as low as it would go for our retail buyers. And in our business, it takes just as long to make a particular piece if we're making 12 as if we're making 1. Mostly we want the feed-back. So we're going to Frankfort for their jury session on Monday.
Hey, if anyone wants to comment on our stuff and tell us what's right or wrong with it, feel free. http://www.homestudioartglass.com

j

St James Court Art Show

Well, we just got our acceptance letter from the St James Court Art Show, http://www.stjamescourtartshow.com/ This will be the 21st year we've done the show.

"The St. James Court Art Show is a juried fine arts and fine crafts show produced by a consortium of five non-profit neighborhood associations: Belgravia Court, South Third Street, 1300 South Third Street, St. James Court and South Fourth Street; and the West End Baptist Church. Always held the first full weekend of October, it hosts an impressive 650 plus artists from all over the Americas. Held in the heart of historic Old Louisville among the country's largest collection of Victorian homes, the St. James Court Art Show has for over four decades provided our neighborhood, city and state with a rich cultural and artistic legacy" -quote.

For the first 10 years, we were on Belgravia Court. Then there was this big shake up and we moved to 4th Street. After 2 years we moved to 3rd Street and now, this year we're back on 4th.

We only do about 3 or 4 shows a year but they are all high quality shows with excellent work being displayed. Each of our shows require you to be juried in, in other words, you have to submit your work for acceptance. Back when we were only making a few hundred dollars per show, it was no big deal - other than the blow to your ego - to be rejected. Now that we make a significant portion of our income doing them, it's pretty nerve wracking to go through the jury process and not know from one year to the next where your money will be coming from.

But this is a very impressive show, both from an artist's and an audience's perspective. The quality of work here is amazing. But be prepared to walk. And walk. And walk.

So I hope to see you there.

j

http://www.homestudioartglass.com