Vitreosity

Belcher in Michigan

A page about Belcher Mosiac windows - part of the Michigan Stained Glass Census website. Amazingly, the patents for the Belcher process are accessible online, complete with diagrams showing the process.
The host site for the patent , peninsulators, is interesting in itself, being a site devoted to glass insulators and glass prisms.

Gilula at Shaare Emeth

There is a new public glass art sculpture, Eternal Light, in the lobby of Temple Shaare Emeth at Ladue and Ballas. Made by Aaron Frankel and Ian Gilula of Elements Glass, out of Portland, OR. Gilula grew up in St. Louis and is described as a protege of Dale Chihuly.

and a closer view

Shaare Emeth is also the home of Chihuly's first architectural commission for a public space.

First Congregational, Webster Groves

First Congregational Church of Webster Groves, MO
windows signed Frei studios 1994
des. Robert Frei

full shot of the small aisle windows

First detail - All these aisle windows are different.

One thing to say for Frei -
they always use nice handblown antique glass, and a nice variety of it.

I like the way the little painted details are handled.
I'd call it playful, which is a quality not often seen in SG.

I like this rose window. I like the patterns and the varied and balanced colors. It is also, unfortunately, a classic case where the frame fights the design. The design of the window emphasizes the radiating 'out' and and the circular 'around', where as the thick tic-tac-toe frame just screams out HORIZONTAL + VERTICAL. Result: Frame and stained glass do not marry well.

The nice stuff here is in the details. Note the little touches of secondary color coming in with the etched pieces. The red on blue flash in particular... and more hidden fishes...

The exterior just shows the frame/design conflict even more.

Holy Redeemer, Webster Grove

Visited Holy Redeemer Church, in Webster Grove, MO.

The first impression is that this is one big window, especially for a single figure - at least 18 feet across and 25-30 feeet high.

Here is a little more detail.

This is the exterior view - it gives a better sense of the scale

This is below the big jesus in the entryway - it's rare to see what are basically storefront frames filled with stained glass. but it works...

This is from a small chapel off of the entryway.

and a detail...

and another detail...

...and just one more look at that nice reamy glass in the chapel.

and finally, the exterior of the chapel - looking very 20th century modern.

Jean Cocteau

Happy Birthday, Jean Cocteau. Surely, he had one of the strangest resumes for anyone designing stained glass windows in the 20th century. Poet, playwright, film director, opera designer and librettist, novelist and... a decorator of churches. I first heard of him when I was a teenager and saw his film of Beauty and the Beast on public TV.

from St Maximin in Metz, for another look here.
fishes in faces - marvelous...
and some of his quotes -
"An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture."
"Art is a marriage of the conscious and the unconscious."
"Art is not a pastime but a priesthood"

"Yes, I need Tuesday"

Another interview with Maurice Sendak, this time on the Horn Book website from 2003, before Brundibar was published. I'm constantly surprised that with each new interview I read there is always something new, always something amazing.