My love affair with stained glass....

I have always been mesmerized by light coming through lovely colored glass and I have a fair amount of it.  And now that I started thinking of not having surround me I want to move it all.  Some will be easy as it is small but other pieces will take some thought.

 

 

A few times I have found small pieces at thrift stores such as these and I just prop them up in a window and let them brighten my day as they are...

 

But occasionally I have found larger pieces and tried  to do something special with them.  I used to incorporate some  in backs of benches... one of my favorites was this clear glass piece and I think it will be over the kitchen window in the new house.  But some of my glass came from the most unlikely places. 

 The oddest  was this glass I salvaged from a dilapidated railroad dining car in North Dakota.  While visiting family I spotted this relic of a railroad car in a field with sheep wandering in and out of it.  We stopped and was dismayed that most of the glass sections had fallen out and were broken.. But a few were mostly intact so my BIL knew the farmer and asked if I could salvage what glass was left.  Luckily he thought I was a bit daft and told me sure. I made this large overhead light fixture with part of it.  It will stay with this house.  It was over the door at the end of the car which determined the shape.

 

 

Genuine  antique glass has a special quality that can't be replicated in new glass.  This   glass was salvaged from an old chapel in a Catholic hospital. that was demolished in the 60s.  I was delighted to be gifted some of it about 30 years ago.  Some of it I used in a little hot house I built years ago.  I still have some pieces and it will definitely go with me  for a very special project....that is in the embryotic stage of planning. 

 

At some point I tried to do some pieces on my own.  I loved doing it but I have always had arthritic hands and cutting glass was just too painful  My first attempt were these small panels for little windows in the entry way.  They will go with me.

Then I did a piece for the gazebo and one for the tea room in the barn.  Not sure what I will do with them.  Probably will take the hummers.

The last stain glass I designed and cut was the chicken panel over the sink in the kitchen and it will stay with the house.

 

 

But now I get to the glass that is the purpose of this particular blog post.  This is a piece I bought at an antique store about 30 years ago and even though I had to hang it vertically when it was meant to be horizontal, it is my very favorite.. But as I have auditioned every single window in the new house there is nothing that would do it justice no matter how I fussed about it.  It is quite good sized (1' x 4') and an awkward shape.  Then last night about 1:30am I had a vision for it and was so excited that I had to get up and work out the details.  It will be the focal point for the whole house and will fit right in with my style.... shabby mismatch...

 

Now that I have sorted glass out I have to move on to a bigger  challenge ...all the rusty stuff...especially old rusty iron stuff...