It's Stained Glass, That's What
The reason why I have let two enormous gaps of time go by when I haven't written anything in this weblog, and consequently have not read and responded to other people's weblogs, and thereby haven't paid enough attention to matters much beyond my driveway, is that I've been doing something else.
I have the rare privilege of living in a "green oak" house that I designed and built entirely myself. The only exception was installing the septic tank.
Since my designing of the house continued while I was sawing and hammering, I could indulge in a lot of whimsy, and that included installing a large number of small, fixed windows of many different dimensions and several shapes, including a diamond, a circle, and a trapezoid.
It was always my intention to finish off most of these windows by installing inner, second panes of stained glass. That would be a key part of finally finishing the house. But then I had let nearly 30 years go by without learning how to do stained glass. The sole reason for that delay was that I was badly daunted by the difficulty I anticipated in cutting the glass. I had never mastered cutting even plain window glass. Stained glass is harder, slightly thicker, and often textured, and the kind of designs I had in mind had few straight, easy cuts.
At the end of this past July, exactly marked by the beginning of the first of my weblog AWOL's, something suddenly drove me into finally launching the enterprise. As always I learned from books and by doing, and I also sprang for an expensive glass-cutting bandsaw. and I've been entirely absorbed in doing stained glass ever since, to the exclusion of all other things that take up a lot of time -- except cutting firewood, which is an absolute necessity.
In addition to several other items, so far I've made several windows, with more in prospect, and I think they didn't come out half bad. And you should see what I'm working on now -- a project that I had no business tackling, being still a neophyte. But isn't that the way!
As soon as I get my digital picture-making thing back together, I'll post some pictures here.
I have the rare privilege of living in a "green oak" house that I designed and built entirely myself. The only exception was installing the septic tank.
Since my designing of the house continued while I was sawing and hammering, I could indulge in a lot of whimsy, and that included installing a large number of small, fixed windows of many different dimensions and several shapes, including a diamond, a circle, and a trapezoid.
It was always my intention to finish off most of these windows by installing inner, second panes of stained glass. That would be a key part of finally finishing the house. But then I had let nearly 30 years go by without learning how to do stained glass. The sole reason for that delay was that I was badly daunted by the difficulty I anticipated in cutting the glass. I had never mastered cutting even plain window glass. Stained glass is harder, slightly thicker, and often textured, and the kind of designs I had in mind had few straight, easy cuts.
At the end of this past July, exactly marked by the beginning of the first of my weblog AWOL's, something suddenly drove me into finally launching the enterprise. As always I learned from books and by doing, and I also sprang for an expensive glass-cutting bandsaw. and I've been entirely absorbed in doing stained glass ever since, to the exclusion of all other things that take up a lot of time -- except cutting firewood, which is an absolute necessity.
In addition to several other items, so far I've made several windows, with more in prospect, and I think they didn't come out half bad. And you should see what I'm working on now -- a project that I had no business tackling, being still a neophyte. But isn't that the way!
As soon as I get my digital picture-making thing back together, I'll post some pictures here.
posted by Carl (aka Sofarsogoo) | 10:38 AM
2 Comments:
Welcome back to the blogs, Carl. I look forward to seeing the fruits of your labors. A friend of mine does stained glass professionally, mostly custom work for high-priced houses, so I've had some opportunity to see the work in progress, in the shop. I'll give you this: you have a lot of courage! Please do post pictures when you're able. And again, welcome back.
The Yellow Doggerel Democrat
Hi, Steve! Thanks much. I don't know how you notice such things, and so quickly!
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