Monica’s sister, Marlene, turned 65 this year and decided to treat herself with a piece of stained glass for her newly renovated kitchen. A large east-facing window called for something artistic but not so large as to block the view across the Sussex landscape. Marlene decided on a full width (40″) but narrow (10″) panel that would hang in the upper portion of the window. Below it would still leave clear viewing across the fields where she, and husband Leigh, watch the deer that come to feed.
Marlene likes the concept of “Tree of Life”. She also likes watching the humming birds at her feeders. So, we combined the two ideas and the resulting pattern shows a wide-spread tree with two little hummers. The male is on the left and the female is to the right sitting on the nest, about to welcome new life into the tree. How appropriate! And, to commemorate Marlene’s milestone birthday, I drew 65 leaves on the tree making the final design truly sentimental.
Total construction time was about 50 hours in the studio but it took over 4 months on the calendar as I was continually distracted by other time-sensitive projects and family commitments. Marlene was very patient with me. In the end, it turned out as beautiful as I’d hoped and I was pleased to see it hanging in her kitchen window. Happy Birthday Marlene, from Monica and Nelson. 😃
nellyglass studio 