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This picture frame was my first piece I worked on.
The picture of the Dali Lama
was cut out from a magazine.
I liked how the green glass swooshed around the entire piece, as if I cut out the center out of the glass.
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The Planets was fun and a perfect first large piece.
The large pieces of glass was fun and easy to work with.
This was originally for a sky light, but instead, we boxed the piece in.
Inside the box are florescent bulbs, so everything that is not black glass literally glows.
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I call this next one The Story of Tai Chi.
The picture quality is not the best.
It does not show all of the small scaly green pieces of
glass that makes up the snake in the center.
Here is the story:
Fall back to somewhere between 1279 AD and 1459 AD.
One day, Chang San-Feng, a Shaolin monk, was witness to a snake and a crane in combat with each other. He watched as the crane swooped down from a tree with its wings fully spread, the snake hissed a challenge which the crane took up by using its sharp pointed beak to initiate an attack. The snake used its deceptive coiling movements to evade the danger and responded by lashing at the crane with its tail. The crane lifted its leg to avoid the strike and then used its claws to attack. Again the snake evaded this by twisting and turning, whilst instinctively countering with its mouth. The crane curled its neck to escape the venom and beat its huge wings to force the snake away.
Eventually, after tiring themselves out, the two combatants called a draw, the snake slithered away and the crane returned to its tree perch.
Mesmerized and exhilarated by this contest, Chang realized that he had been witnessing a perfect exhibition of the I Ching principles of adapting to change and the ability to blend soft and hard, strength and yielding. The continuity and flow of the circular movements seemed in accord with Chang's Taoist observations of nature.
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Next is Lord Krishna teaching Arjuna.
This piece won 1st place in a stained glass competition in Miami Florida.
It has a real peacock feather, real jewelry and a cubic zirconium soldered on the piece.
Arjuna is one of the central figures of an ancient story in the Bhagavad Gita. Arjuna was a member of one branch of a royal family which was divided over who should rule the shared kingdom. The dispute between the opposing branches of the family had escalated to war. Arjuna asks Lord Krishna to take him to the middle of the battlefield to survey the two armies arrayed to clash. Even though he feels he is on the side of righteousness (and has God incarnated as Krishna "on his side"), he is totally dismayed at the prospect of going to war against his cousins, his beloved uncle, his revered teachers and countless other relatives. He is shocked, saddened and outraged at the evil that has brought things to this state, and at the carnage which will inevitably follow.
It is Arjuna's 'dharma' or duty to fight for righteousness. Yet he refuses. He drops his weapon and sadly says that neither for wealth or fame or kingship will he slaughter his kin. He would rather be killed himself.
The below piece is a depiction of Lord Krishna teaching Arjuna.
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This is my favorite piece. I call it Chakras.
This came in 3rd place
in a stained glass competition in Miami Florida.
It is a depiction of someone meditating showing the energy centers of the ethereal body.
The center round colored glass was actually 3 to 4 pieces of glass stacked on top of each other and melted as one thick piece of glass in the glass cooker.
It was a cool effect. The purple colored crown chakra pieces were amazingly small. I had no finger-tips left after I grinded those pieces. Foiling them was a complete nightmare, but the outcome was exactly how I envisioned it to be before starting the piece.
The outcome was pretty sweet!
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