Fastest. Comp phase. Ever.



It started off as a freehand drawing and then was finished in Photoshop. Yes, I did take that Illustrator class last month, but I have not yet seen fit to actually spend four hundred dollars on the software, so.

Challenges or experiments I have built into this project include: working with clear textured glass; using two widths of lead came (3/16" for on-purpose edges, 1/8" for "cut lines" where edges only exist for the purposes of making the project buildable); building with the intention of adding a wooden frame around the panels themselves; tweaking one design to create two end products differing in width by two inches; working with individual pieces up to 14" long; ordering glass sight-unseen from Warner-Crivellaro because Virginia Stained Glass had absolutely nothing that looked appealing for any of the colored glasses when I went scouting for materials today.

The nice people at Spectrum Glass deserve a shoutout for putting big, photographic, eminently usable color chips of all their glass on their website. I've been swiping those images for use in defining Photoshop fill patterns, so all the glass colors/patterns in the image above really do exist... I'll just order what I used to do the comp, and quite likely learn a little something about their chips + my monitor vs. real life. A small gamble, but I like the colors I ended up with a lot, and I know that Spectrum glass is one of the easiest kinds to cut, so I'm sold.

The best thing about this design? It's only 17 pieces. Times three is 51... which is still 18 pieces less than my crocus panel was. I'm hoping this means that construction will just fly by.

You might think that simply shopping for glass would be an activity which would not result in flesh wounds. You would be wrong. I have two or three fresh hairline cuts on my right hand, incurred by just flipping through sheets of glass in the bins. Can't see em, but I sure can feel 'em.

Posted by Michelle on November 11, 2002 05:57 PM