I have noticed a resurgence of interest in Celtic heritage these days. Stained Glass enthusiasts have found inspiration and challenge in the beauty of Celtic knotwork.
You may have noticed that I am also a fan of Celtic design. Be sure to check out the free Celtic patterns on this site, and then, if you are looking for more Celtic designs, take a look at these pattern books available at Amazon:
Many years ago I purchased a copy of Fish and Sea Life Cut & Use Stencils
I chose to make the mermaid that appears on the cover of the book.
Here is a color view of the stained glass pattern I made from the stencil. Click the picture for an enlarged view.
You can easily convert these stencils into stained glass patterns or use them for mosaics. I made my pattern by scanning the stencil, saving as a jpg and bringing it up in my Glass Eye 2000 where I could modify it into a stained glass pattern. This particular pattern may require the use of a glass saw to make some of the cuts.
I highly recommend this book. It contains stencils of many different fish, seahorses, shells, crustaceans, underwater plants, octopus, a mermaid, King Neptune, etc.
This book is still available after all of these years (my copy was published in 1983,) which says good things about its popularity. You can buy the book by clicking this link
I have been intending to write a review of the Glass Eye 2000 stained glass design creation software for some time, so here it is.
I absolutely love this program! It makes pattern creation soooo easy. Take a look at this example of a finished design and the photo I started with. This afternoon I brought up the Glass Eye 2000 program and imported a photo of one of our pets, Lucky, a loveable stray dog we rescued a few years ago.
Here is the original photo of Lucky. (This is a big file so, if you click on the thumbnail to enlarge, give it time to load.)
In a short time, using the GlassEye 2000, I was able to create a stained glass design of Lucky. I was even able to select specific glass by major art glass manufacturers and view the pattern as it would appear with the glass that I selected.
Glass Eye 2000 allows you to import a .jpg (among other formats) and trace the image to form a pattern. You can also create designs from scratch. You will get faster and better at using the program with practice, but it really is fairly easy. The Dragonfly Software people include a tutorial with the software program that is easy to follow and will get you started. I will warn you – this can be addictive.
Here is a picture of my pattern as it will look when completed in glass. Click on the picture to enlarge it for the best view.
I love playing around with the glass choices. The GlassEye 2000 has (last time I looked) over 2600 glass samples from nine of the largest glass companies that you can select from, and it allows you to change the selected glass with the click of a mouse. It is a simple matter to select a general color range and scroll through choices. You can also be specific about a type of glass, (baroque, for instance,) or texture (vecchio, seedy, reed, ripple) and see only that glass in all available colors, or limit glass choice by the manufacturer’s name.
You can export a picture of your finished pattern as a .jpg, such as the picture of Lucky dog, above, so that you can show your friends and family (or potential clients) how the finished piece will look with different colors and textures of glass and get their reaction or advice. My family is used to me saying “how does it look with the Armstrong granite or the Gecko gluechip? Are you sure it doesn’t look better with this Spectrum blue cathedral or the opal wispy?”
You can also see how your finished art work will look with different lead and solder line widths, lead or foil techniques, and different patinas.
You may have noticed that I can label my patterns and the exported pictures with my copyright or other information. You can add text for directions or title right on the pattern. You can also label your pattern pieces with numbers, or color codes that you select.
You can use the ruler to control the size of your pattern and you can resize it, if necessary, with remarkable accuracy. There is even an option to maintain proportions when you resize. There is also grid you can bring up on the screen and remove with a mouse click that helps keep things square.
There are so many great features to this software that I could go on and on, but the best thing you could do would be to check it out yourself. Click here to visit the good folks at Dragonfly software. They have a FREE 30-day trial that will give you a better idea than I can of how great this program is.
Have fun!
Dear Stained Glass Enthusiast,
I recently attended the 11 th Annual Glass Craft & Bead Expo in Las Vegas. It was a case of the sublime (a dazzling array of glass art) meeting the extremely tawdry (the City of Las Vegas.)
I had never been to Las Vegas before and I was quite unimpressed by it. With the exception of an enjoyable time at the Star Trek Experience at the Hilton, I found the “tourist areas” of Las Vegas filled with the tacky, the tawdry, and the addictive. The Strip even has worse traffic than the Bay Area’s Highway 80 (dubbed “the Parking Lot.”)
What a contrast to visit the Glass Craft & Bead Expo!
There were well over 200 classes available lasting anywhere from three hours to all day with almost 30 hot glass classes lasting two and three days. The classes included instruction for beginning hobbyists through experienced artists.
The classes were given by well known and leading experts in their fields, such as Tommy “G” Giambusso, Joe Porcelli, Vicki Payne, Norm and Ruth Dobbins and a host of others. While Las Vegas Management could have done a better job backing up this superb group of instructors (providing adequate class registration assistance on site and necessary power to the classrooms, just to name a couple of problems,) the content of the classes and the instructors’ abilities were exceptional.
Even if you did not participate in the classes (and I would highly recommend that you do,) there were fascinating displays and demonstrations in the booth area with more exhibitors and suppliers than I could count. It was a marvelous opportunity to ask questions and learn from the leading glass and bead craft industry suppliers, as well as experienced artists in many fields.
I met artists and suppliers from as far away as Hawaii and Japan. The booth of the Japanese company, in particular, (TK Stained Glass Design ) had some incredibly beautiful and unique lamp making supplies that I had seen previously on their website. I was very interested, but somewhat reluctant to buy from a foreign company without first seeing the products in person. Their products were beautiful and impeccably crafted! I highly recommend that you visit their website for items with an Asian flare that you won’t find anywhere else. tk-stainedglass.co.jp
I bought a lot of supplies and I also won a great deal of glass in one of my classes. Not to worry, the Expo has DHL shipping services available, so you don’t have to carry everything home with you on the plane. Some of the suppliers will also take your order and ship it to you later.
There was a Gallery of Excellence with magnificent glass art works both beautiful to admire and inspiring to those of us who aspire to improve our hobbyist abilities.
All in all, I found the Glass Craft & Bead Expo to be a highly enjoyable and worthwhile experience. I recommend it highly to professionals, amateurs, fans of glass art, or those considering a hobby in stained glass, hot glass, bead making, etc.
About the Author
Copyright 2005 by Maria Mee.
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