Starting Stain Glass

Last summer I finished a 12 by 12 by 8 ft textile tent called the Cathedral (and upgraded it to 15 ft shortly after). I set it up at a few music festivals and plan to do so several times this summer, and more once I finally get my own license (sue me; I like walking and the world has normalized the speeding tin cans). A comment I got over and over is how it looks like stain glass, which was half intentional. I have always been obsessed with the Sagrada Familia, the way that light exists in it and how it looks like it grew from the ground. I wanted to weave and make something like it…. then I did.

While sitting in my own small cathedral I both felt like magic but realized I had kind of exhausted the whimsical discovery era of textiles for myself; that feeling will come back with time but I needed to grow this feeling in a new medium. I decided after playing with the idea for a long time that I will be going back to school for carpentry. It will take a few years to get off of a wild waiting list, but I welcome this time for me to learn the other half of my plan; stain glass.

I began to collect broken glass and buy glass from thrift stores, stuff no one would use because it’s tacky; I like to use and reuse as much as I can. I am only a few projects into cutting glass, and soldering is….. interesting, but it’s coming the way any other skill does; by practicing and being bad at it for a while. I also recently ordered a microwave kiln for all of my excess glass, so I can fuse it together using stainless steel cookie cutters and kiln paper. Say what you will about social media but if you bully your report and hide button enough, it will only show you what is useful to you.

I’m sure all of this will take me a long time to get good at but that exactly what I have before I upgrade my practice to window making and stain glass structures. I have images in my mind of stain glass geodesic domes, throw in a swing; some ornaments hanging from the heavens. It is a little made of tree like wood, a little more organic looking than anything else. I have always loved the idea of how a sunset looks like stain glass through trees. like shards of glass.

echo echo echo.