One Great Love: Two Stories

 These three glass pieces are obviously all made with the same design. They are three distinct pieces, though, and they have two stories. The first is fairly simple: I have succeeded in starting a business for my glass. I have had consistent interest from many in purchasing my glass pieces, and I finally decided to take the plunge and start a business.

 "One Great Love" is my first "commercial" undertaking... and it's gone very well. I do still have some of these 8x8 in pieces left, and I can make you one if you'd like to special order certain colors or styles of glass. The cost is $30.00 if it's pre-made and $40.00 if you special order one. I am experimenting with shipping and have shipped my first order to a friend. She will report to me if it arrives in good condition.


That's the first story of "One Great Love."

The second story is much more important for me. A couple of weeks ago, when I decided to try "going commercial," I was given this design almost instantly. I sketched it, then discarded it because I thought it wouldn't sell as easily as a heart without a cross. I felt a little bad about it, but I wanted to make some sales. I also thought the long, skinny cross pieces would be hard to cut and not break when I built the pieces.

I designed a very nice heart with a series of glass blocks on one edge; it was simple and not too difficult to cut or build. I created my duplicate design, chose glass, cut glass, and started to build the piece... EVERYTHING went wrong! I broke a couple of pieces cutting. I couldn't get the pieces to set right when building. There were gaps everywhere! And when I tried to solder... it was NOT pretty! I had piles of solder; solder wouldn't stick to the zinc; and I had trouble regulating the temperature of my soldering iron. It took forever to create, and it looked like it was my very first piece of stained glass.

I sat back, after finishing it, and thought about what made it so hard. Clearly, I wasn't supposed to ditch God's inspired design! Clearly, "commercial" wasn't to mean that I left behind my focus on faith in my art.

I then finished designing the inspired piece you see pictures of above. I designed, chose glass, cut glass, and built the first one is less than two hours. To contrast, the wrong piece took around 7 hours total. "One Great Love" built like a dream. There were no struggles. No gaps. No frustrations.

I'd love to say I learned my lesson. Unfortunately, I know I am human, and that means I have a long way to go. But I moved a bit in the right direction through "One Great Love."