When Avalon Stained Glass School & Creativity Center’s Glass Guru, Carl Correll got his issue of Stained Glass Quarterly he was stunned by the picture on the cover. He was further enthralled to discover a free pattern inside provided for anyone who wanted to reproduce it. So the work commenced on May 20th, 2010.
This piece has majesty and Carl felt the pattern size needed to be enlarged to a majestic size so the pattern was enlarged to 32″ x 32″ and that means a 120 mile round trip to the nearest copy place that has the ability to reproduce a pattern this size.
This is no mean undertaking since this pattern has 550 pieces and each piece will be handled a total of 4400 times before completion!
Prior to enlarging the pattern one has to number each piece in the pattern so one knows where each piece will go. Once the pattern is enlarged it has to be copied so there are two exact copies. One is laid out to be worked upon and the other one is cut up with a special pair of scissors called glass shears. One blade of the glass shears fits inside a hollowed out section of the other side of the glass shear thus allowing a cut that will compensate for the copper foil that is wrapped around each piece of glass thus allowing the pieces to fit precisely on the pattern.
Prior to cutting the pattern, Carl will take the pattern that is to be cut up and laminate it so the paper pieces are easier to handle while cutting and easier to work with as he uses the pattern pieces to cut and grind each piece.
It is important to note here that the stained glass artist must know what color the glass will be prior to starting and where he or she will be placing those colors.
Since this pattern is so large Carl will only cut the outside and edges of the pattern so he will not have too many cut pattern pieces lying around his workbench.
The picture below shows the center and the remaining pieces to be cut and it also shows the blue handled glass shears used to cut on the black lines of the pattern thus eliminating the black lines.
The picture above shows the start of what will be an incredible piece of stained glass art!
The first thing Carl will do is cut, grind and add all of the red as the first color. Once he is done with each pattern piece he will return them to his work table upside down so he knows he has all ready cut those pieces and once he is done will all the pattern pieces of the same color he will put them in a small plastic bag labeled with the color to be saved for use in the event he decides to create a similar panel.
The next thing Carl does is select the second color and repeats the whole process all over again.
As you can see in the picture below the second color is added and the patterns used are turned upside down and the patterns to be cut are still right side up with their numbers showing. He does this to avoid confusion and mistakes. As of this stage it is now May 27 th and he has been working on this for a full 7 days!
It is now May 31, 2010 and he has added 3 more colors. He had to stop for one day and go to the closest city to buy the exact shade of red he wanted. Plus he is now waiting for a shipment of special glass he ordered.
It is now June 9, 2010 and time has passed with a lot of interruptions such as a small commission job and some night student classes.
However Carl has not chosen another color and finished one corner.
Choosing the correct color for that corner had to be seriously considered so it would not detract at all from the center of this work as the center is to be the focal point. Now he will begin working on the second corner.
June 11, 2010
Two full days of work results in a second corner cut, ground and set into the pattern, plus the pattern for the third corner cut and ready for creating that corner.
June 15, 2010
A full 8 hours work on Monday and Tuesday produced the remaining two corners cut, ground and in place with only the middle to cut and grind
June 19, 2010
Carl has finished cutting and grinding all 550 pieces yesterday and he will start taking it apart to copper foil each and every piece and put each piece back into its place for soldering.
Putting the copper foil on each piece is time consuming. It is needed in order to give the solder something to adhere to and connect the foiled pieces to each other. Once the copper foil is put on each and every piece that piece has to have the foil flattened down on each side with a small tool called a fid.
June 20, 2010
Today Carl spent all day foiling two corners of his piece. This is what the foiled pieces look like in one corner. Each piece is removed, foiled, flattened down with the fid and replaced so it can eventually be soldered together.
June 22, 2010
Today was spent foiling more corner pieces on the third corner and eventually working towards the center of this magnificent work of stained glass art.
June 23, 2010
Today was spent on foiling and using the fid on the other two corners and the outer edges of the square.
June 24, 2010
Today was spent on completing the foiling on the outer edges of the square and the inner part of the square.
June 25, 2010
Today Carl starts the soldering of the panel.
June 26, 2010
Today Carl finished up soldering one whole side of this piece.
June 27, 2010
Now there is a dilemma and that dilemma is trying to turn this large piece over to solder the other side. Picking up a piece this large at this point will cause it to cave in on the center so Carl has to create the ability for one person to try and do a 4 person job and he has to do it at the least possible expense in order not to have any added expenses to the project which will increase the gallery price when he puts it up for sale.
With all that in mind he has to scrounge though his odds and ends of wood and create something. What he creates is a temporary addition to his work space at a slightly lower level so he can put down a piece of plywood, slide the piece onto it, put another piece of foam based plywood on top, strap it all together, turn it over, take it all apart and slide it back onto his work table to be able to solder the other side. This basically takes most of Carls day and by 5 p.m. he is finished and ready to turn it tomorrow.
June 28, 2010
After all of yesterdays full day of preparation it only took less than 60 seconds for Carl and I to turn the piece over. Once turned over he undid all the packing materials and started 7 hours of soldering. By 5 p.m. he was almost finished, but called it a day.
So far the piece has taken 12 one pound rolls of solder.
June 29, 2010
Carl finished up his soldering by noon and then it was pack the piece up and turn it over again.
July 3, 2010
Carl is back to work on the piece and it now continues out of doors where he will wash it down in order to remove all the magic marker numbers on each piece of stained glass. Usually he washes the pieces down in a special sink for stained glass work, but this piece is too big. The following steps will all be applied to one side and then when finished he will turn it over and apply all the steps to the other side.
The next step is to remove the flux from the piece or as Carl calls it ” de-fluxing ” .
After that is done on both sides he now applies the copper patina and once it is dry he buffs off the patina.
You can see the difference now when all the silver colored soldering turns to copper.
Next he applies the finishing compound, allows it to dry and then buffs off the finishing compound.
Now the piece is ready to be set into the oak wooden frame.
July 10, 2010
The oak framing finally arrived on the 9 th of July and today Carl cut the pieces to size with mitered corners, stained them and put it together.
Tomorrow he will hang it where I can get a better picture of it.
July 11, 2010
George came over to help Carl take the finished piece over to the Creativity Center as that is the only place we currently have with windows big enough to hang it in.
Here is the finished piece photographed from the inside of the center.
The project is now complete except for finding a buyer for it.
Again the photos do not do it justice as the piece is magnificent.
Here is Carl with his finished work of art titled “Splendor in the Glass”.
“Tread the Earth Lightly” and in the meantime… May your day be filled with…
Peace, Light and Love,
Arlene Wright-Correll
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i use a combo of shea butter and aloe vera moisturizer. Works great. I use shea butter on my lips, around my eyes and nose (dry areas), My father swears by vasoline.
p.s. I dropped your name on Gina's post, Barb. ;)
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