The Incredible Miss Iris Stained Glass Art

by Nancy Ritz
(Illinois, USA)

Stained Glass Pic Miss Iris

The Incredible Miss Iris started out looking a bit different on the pattern than what you see here!

I'd taken a 6 week course and picked that pattern. I arrived for my first class dizzy from vertigo.
This was deja vu as I'd also been ill in 2005 for my first class at a different shop. I'd done no stained glass
in the 3 years between.

I didnt want to miss this first class! Suffice to say I traced and cut many of the glass pieces quite different
from the actual.

If I can get the actual pattern I will upload it so you can see just how far off I was on some of the pieces.
I re-worked some of the pieces, changing the pattern as necessary.

The rain glass has a bubble texture on one side and I liked the effect.
The iris is also textured glass.

The instructor did foil a piece to show me how, but I took it home and foiled all the pieces with the copper
foil that I had. The sticky side of her copper foil was black. Interesting, nice, but I wanted the whole
piece to be all my work.

I planned on black patina to make the whole thing 'pop'. Time to solder: the copper would show through the clear
glass if I used black patina. My choice was to re-foil or use the copper patina.

I was disappointed at first,
but this was one piece that could be done choosing copper or black w no problem. The flower is feminine so
I didnt need the black I might want with a bolder piece or bolder colors.

There were still gaps between quite a few of the pieces but after solder and patina, they were LESS evident, IMHO.
This is the 2nd project I've done-the student class project in 2005 and this class project 3 years later.

My first project hangs unnamed against my kitchen wall, altho I will always be humble seeing where I started from,
artistically & creatively.

I'm proud of this project-she hangs in my living room window greeting the passers by.

Because of the vertigo, I had much re-working of the pieces or re-worked the pattern where needed. I'm grateful that
I could do so and I think the iris survived well. So I call her The Incredible Miss Iris!