Gregory Morris-Young, son of our life-long friend, Ellen Morris (owner of Autumn Arbor), is building a gothic-inspired workshop on his Fredericton property. In the gables, he incorporated two small square windows (front and back) placed on their diagonal as diamond-shapes. Gregory wanted something in stained glass for his window… something that would represent his philosophy on work and living in general.
Gregory envisioned a fruit tree with something extra. He suggested the tree have plums, apples AND apricots. Greg and his wife, Katie, are passionate gardeners and have grown all these different fruit trees on their property. They also believe in self-sustainability as much as possible: work the soil, grow your own food, use the wood from the trees you grew to… build your own workshop, for example.
I had a wonderful time creating this piece. Gregory provided me with the actual window frame which was invaluable during the designing phase. The main artistic challenge was making sure the pattern was in alignment from panel to panel. The main technical challenge was working with hyper-brittle glass (green and clear ripple). More than once, the glass broke along an unintended line.
In the end, I was very pleased with the look and feel. What a wonderful commission purely because Gregory was fully engaged in helping me transform his vision into glass. Monica and I delivered it in late fall ’22 when building season was closed and snow was on the ground. I would need to wait for a photo of the installed window.
The following photo gallery shows the chronological process of making Homestead Trio with shots taken from each of the four panels.
nellyglass studio 