Christmas is coming and I wanted to create something special for Monica. She loves Santa and has a lovely Santa collection already. So I thought one more (in glass) would be a nice addition.
I found a pattern online that we both really liked and ordered/purchased it from Dodge Glass Studio in New York. The original pattern is 32″. 146 pieces The image shown here and photos below of the pattern show the actual image I found on the internet which I then blew up and sized to 18″ to fit our living room window. I’m sure I will do the full sized 32″ Santa also someday.
Selecting the glass meant a trip to see Brenda at Downey Stained Glass in Maugerville, NB. There we got just what we wanted for the red, white and brown. Brenda has a great selection of glass and is always engaged and helpful with her customers.
Got Santa’s toy bag contents plus the cardinal and lantern cut and ground to fit on Sunday (Nov 8). What a pleasure to cut and grind glass again…I love it! The white trim on Santa’s coat was especially tricky and I broke a couple of attempts. Perseverance did win out in the end. Cutting and grinding continued through the week until Wednesday, Remembrance Day. (I took time to pause and remember for awhile, especially my Grandfather Keith from WWI- he was 23 in 1913).
I finished cutting and fitting the entire panel on Friday Nov 13. Estimated 20+ hours into it, so far. I foiled on Saturday and soldered on Monday. Total hours, about 30… maybe more. It’s easy to lose track of the time when doing glass. The little pieces in this panel are the smallest I have worked with this far in my career…very tricky to handle but my fingers behaved well and little pieces do add a nice degree of detail.
nellyglass studio 