Our long time and very dear friends, Johanne and Reg Noel, are new grandparents 😀 …again! And they wanted to celebrate baby’s arrival in late 2018 with a gift of glass. When they shared their idea of a small (6″) bedside cube lamp, I was instantly motivated. We have known the Noels longer than many of our friends. Monica and Johanne went to Cytology School together in the late 70’s and Reg (an accomplished artist himself and owner of Reg Noel Design ) was my original inspiration for opening Nellyglass Studio. I was incredibly honored for the chance to make a lamp for their granddaughter.
Johanne and Reg thought about what subject matter they would like on the lamp, and sent me their suggestions via email. Otherwise, they gave me absolute freedom to design the patterns and choose the colors for the five panels (four sides and a top) that comprise the body of the lamp. Carte Blanche… I loved it!
The chosen subjects for the five panels are;
- cat
- daisy
- ladybug
- sun and moon
- dragonfly and cattail
Taking about 60 hours and involving more than 200 pieces of glass, this project was an intense pleasure artistically because of all the design work and equally as satisfying technically to work in both flat and 3-D space. Plus the added challenge of how to light the lamp made this a journey to the unknown. (life-long learning 😀) In the end, it turned out great and I was pleased to present it to Johanne and Reg. The greatest joy was watching their faces light up with a special story about each image on the lamp.
Here is a photo gallery with shots from the various panels showing the chronological process from initial pattern making to final assembly:
nellyglass studio 