Vitreosity

SGAA Conference Day 1 - sort of

Okay, the official registration is not until tomorrow and the only event I attended today was a tour of Memorial Hall at Harvard University. But Memorial Hall is pretty amazing. The pictures on the Harvard website are very tiny and do not do the windows justice. It's too bad. Seeing Memorial Hall brought back many memories for me as I used to live and work in Cambridge and I've walked by the building literally thousands of times in my life.

Julie Sloan, the consultant on the restoration some 15 years ago, was the moderator for the tour. She did a great job - lots of interesting insights, as usual.

It looks like I won't have access to a computer for the next few days so I will store up the info and 'blog the conference' on Thursday or Friday.

The Exquisite Corpse revisited

I am preparing to visit Boston to attend the SGAA Conference, so I am way busy. Therefore I will set aside the lengthier entry I had started and just announce that the Original Animated Exquisite Corpse Stained Glass Page is up and running again. Okay, the animated gif is a bit dated by 2004 standards, but it does give an idea of the fun of the whole project.
I hope, while I'm in Boston, to get some more pictures and expand on the pages for the exquisite corpse.

And yes, report on the conference as well.

6...er...7 month review

I had meant to do a review of this whole blog experience after 6 months. And so I find it's 7.5 months now. Times flies indeed.
I looked at my first first month of entries to see what I was hoping for. I see that I had wanted to post a new entry once a week. It makes sense since the blogs I like best are the ones that are updated in a consistent manner, be it once a day or once a week. But consistancy is important. So I may do more entries that are quick 'just a link or two' entries so that I might get to the notion of having at least one entry in every week by friday.
As expected, I find the blog experience to be a little scary and daunting and strange and generally good for me. I like writing, though it can feel like torture sometimes to really work it out.
I have not had the time to do any type of 'follow a project' diary as yet and do not see the likelihood of doing it in the near future. I have little time to make my own work, let alone record it on the blog. That being said, I do want to include more images and 'record' the stained glass I come across in the odd pockets of my world. Much like the St. Louis glass this week.
Topics I hope to cover soon -
More 'Ripe for Translation' thoughts
Some pictures of my SG work with the 'stories behind the panel'
Links to websites of friends and colleagues in stained glass
The return of the fabulous "Exquisite Stained Glass Corpse" pages!
Also, starting the end of next week, a report of some kind from the SGAA Conference in Boston (June 24-29,2004).

Seen in St. Louis

Saw this recently in the dining room of the Mayfair Hotel in St. Louis. Nice windows throughout the room. A pleasant illustrative style. Made in the 1920's though the artist and maker are unknown. Any ideas?

[update December 1, 2009 - The studio that did the Mayfair windows was the Jacoby Art Glass Studio, in St. Louis. Jacoby's went out of business in the 1970's, but there is a nice webpage about the History of the Jacoby Art Glass Studio online. The information is a bit of a jumble, but according to this site, the Mayfair windows were designed by Lee Cook, though no date is mentioned. The hotel opened in 1925.

Also related to the Mayfair SG, I posted a Mayfair Hotel Dining Room Stained Glass Flickrset a few months ago. 25 photos, lots of details]

Here is a shot of the panels in one room - with the theme of 'Courtship'.

and here is a detail of the panel on the farthest right.

A nice sweet style.

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This panel is from the other room where the theme is apparently still courtship, though the emphasis is more on revelry. This panel is probably my favorite of the whole group. The figure is a bit bigger than the others and I like the quality of the linework and the brighter color.

Still designing - a glimpse

Though I haven't been creating many stained glass panels of my own recently, I have been designing. I'm always designing. I'm at least always drawing, and that drawing is mostly with stained glass in mind.

Here is a glimpse of what I'm referring to. Photos of the sketchbooks I've been drawing in for the past 2 years or so. They are starting to make quite the pile....

Here's one view of the stack...

and here's another view, with them laid out...

and that's just a glimpse.
Egad. I need to get busy.