reaching

The central concept behind “Reaching” is to illustrate a long-term process of reaching for something higher — for help from a higher being, and for a higher version of yourself. Finding a way to express that concept beautifully in stained glass feels like a substantial achievement. The time spent in the design stage alone for this piece almost equaled the entire time spent on my previous largest stained glass project.

Design began with the goal of creating a piece made curving lines. One little sketch, then another. Then a full-size drawing which I thought had a pretty solid design, but which ended up being surpassed several times over as I finally crafted the design on a computer. Allowing the top border of the piece to climb higher from left to right was what made me think this could be the right opportunity to capture the idea of reaching.

Then the glass work: selecting, cutting, grinding. Selecting alternatives for certain pieces, re-cutting, re-grinding. Then wrapping the edges of each glass piece with copper foil. If you’ve done stained glass work yourself, you may agree that this is the step where an artist might lose heart if she isn’t careful.

Lastly arriving at the soldering stage, then finishing touches: edging the overall piece with zinc for stability, applying a patina to the solder, and cleaning and polishing every surface. The bespoke frame built by Ashby Frames with a matte black inner level and a lustrous metallic outer sets it all off so well.

This isn’t the first time I’ve made an effort to express the idea of reaching in art, but it is the first time the medium, concept, design, and artist have matched so well with the task. No regrets on bringing this to completion.