nellyglass studioStained Glass Artist
This week, Nellyglass Studio expanded with the addition of a new glass storage unit and a proper light table both built by my friend Glenn Ketchum (awesome carpenter). You cannot imagine how much this improves my handling of the glass; the storage unit allows me to see in a glance what inventory I’ve got in various colors and the light table let’s me see the grain and true colors in the glass. Both wonderful and long dreamed-of additions. Thank you, Glenn.
Monica and I took a walk this morning around the Saint John uptown area. As luck would have it, we found the doors open to St. John’s (Stone Church) at the top of Germain Street. Build in 1824, it is one of the oldest Anglican churches in Canada and is so named for the gothic stone tracery. Inside is filled with stunningly beautiful stained glass on two levels; angels in the upper level windows and biblical stories in the lower level windows.
Here is the photo gallery of Stone Church (Taken with my phone camera so there is a bit of wash-out in some shots).
As Monica and I are preparing for the “Road Trip of a Lifetime” to the United States in the near future, I am researching how best to organize my photos. I’ve always used (because it’s easy) and liked Google Photos and Google Albums. So to experiment, I’ve organized my previous photos of stained glass windows into albums organized by country and city. You will find the links to each album on my main menu under Gallery/World Windows. As I continue to travel (God willing) I will add to this list.
On this very cold late March morning (-12C) the sun shone brightly into our living room and through the Schiffer Panel at an angle. The birds twinkled as if they were alive. It was lovely and worth sharing.
We (Monica, Sarah, Matt and I) feasted today in honor of St. Patrick; born 385 AD in England, captured as a teen and taken to Ireland as a slave, escaped to the mainland as a man, converted to Christianity at a time when it was outlawed, returned to Ireland to spread the word, created his first church in Armagh (Mon and I were there), and has been ever since the Patron Saint of Ireland. Plus, it’s Matt’s birthday today… double the celebrations!! I ended the day with sushi from Superstore. What a wonderful family food day.
On this cold and beautiful Sunday morning in mid-March (2017), Monica and I did some church sightseeing to get a few window shots. We visited two of the city’s oldest and most beautiful; Trinity Anglican (uptown) rebuilt in 1881 after the Great Fire and Assumption Catholic (West side) built in 1842.
The sun was bright and the windows sparkled in all their glory. I was in heaven for a few minutes. Here are the highlights.
I can feel it. I’ve got the Celtic blood. Scottish and English by genetics as far as the family tree has been traced but Irish by heart so more than likely an ancient mix of all three.
This time of year especially invigorates me! For more reasons than one… some of which only Monica might know.
Nevertheless, having recently been to both Ireland and Scotland, the celtic designs are calling to me. Perhaps it be St. Patrick himself.
A picture is worth a thousand words. Here’s two.
The day started at 5:00 am with a rigorous session of driveway snow-blowing… didn’t care for that so much 😐
Then a couple of hours of soldering in the studio (really love that) turned out two celtic knotted crosses…. one for CraftologySJ and one for my sweetheart.
Lunch was a happy gorging uptown at Ta-ke Sushi… and then home with feet up for an afternoon of blogging and sipping great Tempranillo from Spain ☺ and making plans with Monnie for our spring road trip.
Isn’t life grand?
Here it is, January 29, 2017 and we have grass showing through on the lawns… no snow. Strange winter but most folks are bracing for something still to come. We’re lucky here in the city. Outside of Saint John, the recent ice storm really put a lot of folks in the dark and cold for several days in some cases. However, today maybe a bit of promised sun will get Monica and I out for a walk.
I’ve been beating the winter blahs with some blogging (got some new dollar store glasses to try out) and getting lots of studio time, loving every minute. I recently completed a couple of sunflowers and am now working on some cardinals. All these birds and flowers have me yearning for spring. I can’t wait. Monica and I have a fun adventure planned if all goes well so stay tuned in April and May. Should be AMAZING!
Cheers and happy winter from Nellyglass Studio.
Monica and I were running errands uptown and felt hungry. We found the perfect solution at Ta-ke Sushi on King Street.
It doesn’t get any more basic or delicious than home-made California rolls and saki in the microwave. Happy New Year indeed!!
I was blessed to have three stained glass panel commissions this Christmas. These three panels are of my own design and were made for three important people in my life. As I said, I am blessed.
Here are links to each of the stories of their creation with photos.
Cardinal and Chickadees (for our friend Cindy)
Cessna 172 (for my cousin, Sharon)
Sharp-shinned Hawk (for our friends, Ron and Deb)
Thanks for taking a look. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Monica and Nelson at Nellyglass Studio.
Up at 5 AM and enjoying the crisp Saint John air. The grass is still showing here three days before Christmas but there’s a promise of a dusting coming. I couldn’t resist taking a photo of the pretty lights along with a zoom in of Monica in her morning ritual of coffee and i-pad surfing. Family is nearby, presents are gathering under the tree, there’s a wonderful feeling in my heart. Merry Christmas everyone!
What a wonderful season leading up to Christmas and quite possibly the best ride of my life so far. For me, the past few months have been all about, as Pink Floyd so eloquently puts it, “Marching cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream”. Monica and I are having a ball watching Nellyglass take off especially through CraftologySJ on Prince William Street. I’ve met many interesting people from the cruise ships and have seen some of you personally in the store during Uptown Sparkles. We want to send a huge THANK YOU to everyone who purchased something from Nellyglass this year. You’ve made my dream come true.
In addition to my Craftology sales, I’ve completed a few exciting commissioned panels as Christmas gifts for people. I can’t show these yet for risk of spoiling Santa’s surprise, but, Im sure I’ll share their stories and some photos after the big day.
I am so looking forward to 2017. One thing I will be doing early is upgrading my nellyglass wordpress site. In January, my website address will be simply nellyglass.com (no longer with the name wordpress in the address) plus the upgrade will remove all WordPress ads from the page and give me 3 more gigs of storage space 😏 … only waiting until January because it’s a new fiscal business year.
Until then, we’re wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year from Monica and Nelson at Nellyglass Studio.
I was delighted to have just finished and deliver a panel to my former mentor at NBCC, Linda Brownrigg, who is retiring at the end of the month as Regional Director of the St. Andrews campus. With nearly 34 years of service, Linda has always been a driving force for the Community College and I know she will be dearly missed. We all wished her a happy future of travelling, curling and enjoying some well deserved peace and quiet.
Titled “On Permanent Vacation”, the panel depicts Linda and her husband, Bill, riding toward the Portland Head Lighthouse on their motorbike. I had great fun creating it and was honored to present it to her myself. You can read the full story of its creation here.
Happy retirement, Linda, and safetravels.
Monica and I took and couple of days through the week leading up to Thanksgiving weekend to see the fall colors up the Saint John River and photograph some more of NB’s historic covered bridges. We drove to the northwest tip of New Brunswick to Lac Baker, home of our dear friend, Johanne Noel, and where I saw my favorite bridge to date. You’ll see why in the photos (hint: I was kissed in this bridge). We chased the bridges down the river staying the night in Perth-Andover and continuing next morning. In total we saw nine bridges and some of the most stunning fall foliage in the province. Here is the photo journal of the two days.
This is what I love to do the most… experimenting with art. It really drives the creative juices through me. Last night at 2 in the morning as I lay awake imagining glass possibilities, I had an idea; using my etching tool to create images on clear glass. So, today was a thoroughly enjoyable day in the studio trying it out. It worked great! I’ll focus on some well known Saint John landmarks to create little suncatchers and take them uptown to CraftologySJ. Hopefully the cruise ship tourists will like them.
Artistic inspiration is all around this week in Saint John and I’m in pursuit with my camera, dragging Monica and others along with me. I see it everywhere; in glass, in stone, in food. It really lifts my spirits to look and find the beauty in this city so easily.
Starting with stained glass, my latest Nellyglass endeavor is producing and selling my work through CraftologySJ on Prince William Street. For the past three weeks, I have been in the studio designing and making Christmas trees, angels and other suncatchers to tempt the cruise ship traffic. There are more than 60 boats scheduled into port this fall, so I’m optimistic.
CraftologySJ features the arts and crafts from over 50 local artisans.
You can find just about anything here for a one stop gift-shopping experience. It’s very cool and I’m excited to be part of the art scene in Saint John.
Just down on the harbour front beside market slip, the international sculpture artists are finishing up their masterpieces for the 3rd Sculpture Saint John symposium. The finesse of the work is breathtaking partly due to the mass of the rocks themselves but mostly because of the talent (eight artists from Canada, USA, Greece, France and Italy selected from over 150 applicants).
These pieces are destined for permanent public display in various communities throughout NB. We strolled on Saturday with good friends from Moncton, met some of the artist’s and took lots of pics.
Art is not limited to traditional media… at our favorite sushi restaurant, Ta-ke Sushi, the chef takes great pride in presentation and the fish is always excellent. We’ve eaten here many times and always leave satisfied and happy…especially when you can get a great lunch like this for less than $10.
We love Saint John. It’s got lots of character and that means lots of artistic inspiration. I hope you find some here, too.
Monica and I headed to Halifax with our good friends, Maneau and Jake, to enjoy and celebrate the labours of life and the harvest rewards. We packed a heap of fun and entertainment into our 48 hours including strolling along the Halifax boardwalk in the beautiful sunshine, eating and drinking many delicious things and an all-day 3-vineyards winery tour including lunch through Grape Escapes of Halifax. Highly recommend that. Great time. Great weather. Fortunate, we are. Here are the photos of the weekend.
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