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Wow! I love this artwork! I have
the ability
to hang any of my artworks that are not out in galleries in my living
room window, and I used to hang this one much more than many of my
other stained glass artworks. I say "used to" because I gave this
artwork to a cousin a few years ago.
This artwork is a rendition of one of the many Chinese
characters for Long Life. The colors are subtle, and the line values
(the different thicknesses of the leadlines) make this a truly stunning
artwork.
The picture above shows this example of Chinese art
hanging in my window with the
blinds down. I chose this as the primary photo because it shows how
well the subtle colors work together. They do so when the blind is up,
too, but only to the human eye, not to a camera. Below are two
pictures that show the artwork with the blind up.
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As you can see, my camera cannot
make the
colors all come out evenly. In the photo above on the left, the outer
green border is
perfect - more accurate even than the main photo at the top of this
page - but the purple is too dark near the bottom and the blue is too
light near the top. The photo on the right shows off the artwork even
more poorly, but gives a good sense of the size of this artwork and how
well it fits my living room window.
The artwork is 30" in diameter, and the
light oak frame (that doesn't show up well in ANY of these photos)
makes the overall size just under 34".
I used 1/4" lead for the tiniest lines in
the artwork, 3/8" lead for
the thicker lines in the outer border, and 3/4" lead for the thickest
lines that define the long life symbol in the center. 3/4" lead is very
hard to work with, especially where the lines had to be perfect looking
arcs, that is, parts of circles. Overall this simple-looking design
was
incredibly difficult to lead together. Study the shapes of the pieces
of glass and factor in the precision necessary for a geometric design like this and
you'll start to get an idea of how challenging this was to make.
Some of
the 3/4" lines are overlays, that is, they are laid on top of
the artwork only. This I do when it would have been impossible to
achieve the right look any other way and still have an artwork that
would not break over time.
This is an example, I believe, of an artwork
that could not ever be
achieved in copper foil, and still exhibit the precision necessary to
make this the completely effective artwork that it is. Sometimes, I hear people who do
only copper foil or mostly copper foil tell me that they can do everything in foil
that another artisan could do in lead... Seeing is believing! I'm waiting... This
artwork makes me glad that I have both foil and lead in my bag of
tricks.
Originally, this artwork was priced at $4400.00. I mentioned above that
I gave this artwork to a cousin; I forgot to mention that she lives far
away from me in Atlanta (I live in Denver). So I am no longer able to enjoy this artwork directly, but I
love knowing that someone else I love is loving it.
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Stained Glass Artworks. |
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