Coming Soon…

Stained glass sculptures by Ron… to a Christmas tree near you? Summer is finally really here I think, time to get ready for Christmas!

I’ll be doing some small sculpture work again soon. In the past, in attempting to bring down the cost, I tried making them in large batches, but in doing so the originality of each piece is lost. I think it will be better to just create one at a time and not worry about how the pricing is affected.

These characters are Christmas fairies… doing karate. That’s the fun part, no limits – pretty much anything goes.

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Nine Stage Face

a 9 stage sandblasted face etched in glassThe first attempt at Elizabeth Taylor was tiny in size and consisted of what is called “stage blasting”. It was a six stage blast, and because it was so small, that was more than enough to do the job. This next one is larger and is a nine stage blast. The enlargement allowed for more detail, but nine stages were not enough to maintain the softness. The result is an edgier look that in many cases is a fun way to go, but I think for a female face I like a softer look and so, I ‘ll do this one more time with more stages.

(click image to enlarge)

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Images in Mirror

Hand crafted mirror by Micky BranchThese beautiful flowers are cut and painted into this latest mirror designed and hand beveled by Micky – with each new piece we see more and more possibilities. She is experimenting right now with different shapes and sizes as well as playing with different design concepts and styles. Its safe to say we are leaning toward focusing mostly on achieving an antique look. This is going to turn out to be a perfect medium in which to translate her outstanding photography talent.

(click on the image to enlarge)

Beveled mirror designed and handcrafted by Micky Branch

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Painting Upright Glass

adding color to an etched glass doorI’ve been putting color on sandblasted glass for a long time, but this was the first time I ever had to do it with the glass in the vertical. I wasn’t even sure it was possible, and did quite a bit of experimentation and then practice and preparation.

All went well and I managed to get a few pictures of the work in progress which took place in an uncommonly beautiful dentist office – Trust me, you have never seen a dentist office like Aadland Dental in Vancouver – absolutely stunning! It features stained glass windows by Chuck Franklin Glass Studio. (Click the image for a small slideshow).

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On a completely unrelated note, some parts of the website are disjointed right now, especially for users of “internet explorer”… sorry about that. We are doing some re-organizing and adding a couple of new features. It should only take a few days hopefully to iron out the wrinkles. We want to make it clearer to people all the different things we do, and also to consolidate the different mediums into a more comprehensive form – so each one is now going to have its own page. The words you can see in the white box up in the header will be actual links when we’re all done.

painting etched glass

painting etched glass

painting etched glass

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Advancement in Portraiture

a face etched in glassThere’s been another improvement on how I approach photo-realism. This is not a photo-resist process. It’s really just traditional stage-blasting, but taken to an extreme level.

This example (based on Philippe Halsman’s photo “Elizabeth Taylor 1948”) is the first in a series I’m going to be posting. The ones to follow are going to be much more intense, more dynamic, and more detailed.

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