One of my goals in making stained glass is to create art with positive messages. I’ve always loved calligraphy and lettering but it isn’t always the easiest thing to reproduce in glass. Glass has a rather unforgiving nature. Fortunately, the beauty of glass makes up for my sometimes-clumsy attempts at it.
All Shall Be Well
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| All Shall Be Well – art deco version |
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| All Is Well in Edwardian-style lettering |
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| All Shall Be Well in blues and greens |
All is Well / All Shall Be Well is a saying from the works of the 14C anchorite Julian of Norwich. She was the first woman to write in English. Her work is full of love, the joy of life and positivity.
Be Here Now
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| Be Here Now in progress (cut out and ready to foil).
This one in multi-coloured art deco (or possibly De Stijl-type) lettering. |
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| Early abstract art deco version of Be Here Now.
Colours were inspired by a Paul Klee exhibition at the Tate Modern in London |
Be Here Now was inspired by the 1971 book of the same name by Ram Dass. In a frenetic world, it’s often helpful to remind yourself to stay in the present. Ask yourself: What time is it? Now. Where are you? Here.
Yes!
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| Couldn’t think of a more positive word than Yes. |
(Note to fans of the band Yes: sorry, no. It wasn’t inspired by them. Any similarity to their logo was probably my subconscious humming Close to the Edge.)
The design for Yes was unstable and bent horizontally between the Y and the E. I added structural elements above and below the word but it still didn’t hold steady enough. Then, adding the “sunrise” above the Y finally made it work. You can see most of the additional elements in the next image.
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| Completed Yes and Om, the word that created the Universe. |
