Depth

I just finished working with this monster of a piece; the yellow one.  It's was a real pain in the neck, to be honest.  The color was perfect, the pattern was delicious, it was an irresistible piece to be sure.

BUT LOOK AT THE DEPTH OF IT!  

Goodness gracious how was I going to put a thing like that into my lovely work?

Well, of course I found a way.  We're friends again and it's very happy in its new home.

Color Color Color

Heisey is so much more than just "clear" glass plates.  I've made a point of trying to incorporate the variety of colors produced by Heisey into my panels.  These little splashes of color will shine like rare jewels when the final installation is complete.  It's so exciting to think of how they'll dazzle and catch our attention with the sun pouring through them!

Looking back at the raw materials, it's certainly a challenge to make sure I have space for the pieces I want to feature.  Every time I get a new shipment of glass from the museum, there are new surprises just BEGGING for a place in the window.  Adjustments will be made!  

It's coming together, piece by piece, and inch by inch.  Sometimes I feel overwhelmed at my layout table by the amount of work that's yet to be done; the amount of decision-making and design that's yet to unfold.  How can  I possibly get all of these gorgeous pieces to fit together properly?  How do I showcase each pattern, each color, without ending up with a complicated jigsaw mess?

And then comes a moment when it all just "works".  It's magic, to be honest.  It's work and it's practice and it's sore muscles and aching joints, and it's pure magic.  There's not a shape, an angle or a color in these panels that isn't deliberate.  Each organic curve found its way "home" after hours of struggle and wondering and frustration.  Each detail is mine, but as a whole, I can see the finished product is going to be so much more than any of the sum of its parts.    And that's what makes a project like this so satisfying.  To be lost in the work is as frustrating as it is enchanting.  To see it become its own creature when finally installed, to see it "living" and adored in its new home; again it's magic.  It's a great big spell being cast.    It couldn't be more exciting! (or exhausting!)

It's the little things....

This is a broken section of a plate that I picked up when I was in Newark last December. I’ve been saving it for someplace “special” in the panels. Finally last week the piece let me know where to put it! It is going just above my name plate in the lower panel I’m working on now. The piece is about 6 inches by 3.5 inches. This is probably the most spectacular cutting of any piece in the four panels. This is far and away the most intricate and beautiful cutting I’ve seen.

Of course if I were going to use it, I needed to know about it. I had not seen this cutting anywhere and was worried that it might not have been Heisey. Haul out the books, it's research time! Amazingly, I found the cutting in my first reference book from when I first started collecting/researching Heisey. The pattern is called Churchill #890 and dates from 1937 to 1942. The next step was identifying the plate. That took a little more time but I had plenty more clues. Over on the nearly broken off edges is a fan shape. A-ha! Though the upper center shape is not pictured anywhere, the pattern is Queen Ann #1509 (an updated pattern based on the early Empress #1401), made from 1938 to 1957. The giveaway clue turned out to be the very subtle vertical optic thicknesses that go around the plate. I had just been reading about the various “optics” used by Heisey in the October Heisey newsletter. It is a way of adding sparkle/depth/variation to the way light comes through the glass.

There it was – and listed as a feature of this Queen Ann. This must have been a fairly large platter or serving plate.

There are quite a few pieces in these panels that strike me breathless with their grace and beauty.

This piece is at the head of the list.

Slicing a plate

Most of the glass that comes to me needs to be "adjusted" to fit into place.  Sometimes the chipped plates that arrive as raw materials will be carved down pretty good before they fit!  Every time I split a piece of Heisey, I sigh a little.  It's hard to "break" these beautiful things!  Even if they are chipped or already broken. The end result, however, is a magnificent piece that is so much better than I was hoping for!  Each little broken piece, each little plate or saucer or cup or handle...  everything has a place and all the chips and scratches are gone.  The broken pieces have new life now.  They're going to sparkle together like they've never done before.

It sure takes a lot of work to get that sparkle just right, though.  This is what it looks like while I'm using a special machine to slice a plate to the exact right dimensions.  You see, I just need the starry center of this plate.

This machine lets me carve into the glass, ever so slowly, in more than just straight lines.  It also doesn't mind if the glass I'm cutting into isn't very flat - as most of the pieces I'm fine-tuning aren't!

And here is the final product.  The starry center of the plate, which I needed, is free to find a home in the panels now.

But what about the outer ring?  Well, the "leftover" plate will either fill in elsewhere or it will go back to the museum to be melted into marbles or fused into other beautiful ideas and creations!

And now, back to slicing!  There is a lot more work to be done!

But what about those dedication panels?

They're coming along great, actually.  Each dedication panel is really starting to develop its own personality as I continue to find pieces and chunks and portions to add to them.  Each portion of this project has brought its challenges, mechanically AND artistically, but I am proud to say that I've been up to the task at each turn.

Each of these lower panels has a center full plate. Then on either side of the plate are the dates of operation for the Heisey company...  1896 and 1957.  Below on one of the panels will be my name, and on the other will most likely be "Glass from Heisey Collectors of America" and "Installation by Blake Bros. Glass Co., LLC", or variations on this.

By the way, last week I sent a full box of the leftovers to the museum to use on the new marble project. (I'm a marble collector, too.)

And now, a look at our progress!