June 2024. My final stained glass project.
Monica has a long standing fascination with Vincent Van Gogh and has seen many of his works in person. One of her favorites is ‘Almond Blossom’ at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Vincent painted it in February 1890 for his brother Theo and wife Jo, on the occasion of their newborn son. Theo and Jo named their son Vincent, after his uncle. Just six months later, Uncle Vincent was gone.
Monica envisioned a lamp to showcase the art. I was inspired. I had a 2-bulb base tucked away in my studio for such a need. It is 16″ up to the sockets with a hexagonal foot. That meant a 16″ wide hexagonal shade. For maximum show, I wanted the sides to be steep but not vertical with a shallow cap. I enjoyed the geometry in figuring out the dimensions. When developing the pattern, I tried to simplify Van Gogh’s original to make it more “glass friendly”. Nevertheless, the finished lamp still has 700 pieces of glass.
As I did not have the right glass in stock for the project, I ordered 4 square feet of Oceanside Aqua/Cyan wispy. The teals really come out under illumination. For the almond flowers, a tail end piece of Youghiogheny white/pink ring mottle and for the tree branches, Youghiogheny green/brown ring mottle.
By the second week of June, I had finished all other projects on my to-do list and was anxious to start cutting glass for this lamp. Our 40th Wedding Anniversary was coming up at the end of the month and I really wanted to have it ready for Monica. On the calendar, I had 19 days to the deadline and I knew some of those days would be busy with other obligations. So there was no time to waste.
The cutting phase was relatively easy but the grinding phase was slow and tedious. Especially the blue glass. The shape of each flower petal had to be ground into the blue glass using 1/4″ bits. I went through three of those small bits and a couple of bigger ones by the time I was finished.
What slowed the process down even more was the foiling. Many of the pieces have multiple deep curves where the foil tends to split during burnishing. Thankfully, it’s a sit-down job (😉) and it’s dreamy work. I imagined Vincent spending many quiet hours lost in thought at his canvas.
In total there are twelve panels (six pairs of top and bottom). The full pattern only covers half the lamp and is repeated on the backside. I constructed each pair from start to finish; cut, grind, foil and solder. Long days were spent in the studio… longer than I’m used to lately. Afraid I would run out of time, I only took one day off (Father’s Day). Through it all, Monica was my constant support both emotionally (with expressions of empathy and delight) and physically (with good nutrition and routine walking).
The total build time was 17 days and I was pleased with myself to finish it a full day before the deadline. Monica was also pleased and teared up a couple of times over her gift. Happy 40th Anniversary, my Love. I’m delighted that my final stained glass project was for you and one with so much personal connection.
I am proud as a peacock to present the Almond Blossom Lamp.
nellyglass studio 