My wife decided that we needed a new Entertainment Center and bookshelves.

So I used the lumber that I had milled 3 years ago from fallen oaks around the property,
and had been drying since the summer of 2001. The same wood I used for the Sable pedestal.

> Pedestal Photos <

I wanted to add something a little out-of-the-ordinary to it, so I signed up for a class in Stained Glass making.

I e-mailed some of my digital Africa photos to Paned Expressions Studios (www.panedexpressions.com)
who converted them to numbered, full-size custom patterns.

My idea was to create a West-to-East African panorama.
The artist added the concept of combining it with a dawn-to-dusk timeline.

Then I bought the glass went to work.

Well, here is the result:






To understand it, let's look at it from right to left.

First, in East Africa at early dawn, the morning is just beginning to illuminate Kilimanjaro as a couple of elephants begin their daily routine far below the cloud-blanketed summit.






As we move west with the sun, it is mid-morning in Zimbabwe at Victoria Falls.





Next, in South Africa we see a lagoon at mid-day.





Now we continue west to Namibia, and find a giraffe silhouetted against the sunset in Etosha Park.
At the far left, we finish the day with evening shadows on the majestic dunes of the Namib Desert.





The good news: My wife likes it.


The time?

556 hours: Woodworking
148 hours: Stained glass
704 hours: Total (From October, 2003 to June 2004)


Hey, it kept me off the street all winter....

Rick.

Rick,
You did a FANTASTIC job.

Kathi

kathi@wldtravel.com

Rick,

Spectacular!!

As an amateur woodworker myself, I can appreciate the time and effort you put into that. Did you do all the millwork & joinery yourself? -TONY

Beautiful work, Rick, congratulations!

At the other end of the woodworking spectrum, I considered it a great achievement when the plywood shelves I built at home this weekend fit perfectly in the closet of our travel trailer parked at my hunt club!

I don't have the time, the tools, or most of all, the talent to tackle such a magnificent project!

You sir, are a bona-fide artiste!

Beautiful!!! My wife liked it also and lamented my total lack of mechanical and/or artistic ability. Thanks

Perry

Rick: It's beautiful. You must have one hell of a wood shop.
Gary T.

Rick -
Great work. Very creative and beautifully executed.

I work in both those mediums and declare your work a masterpiece. Well done! And thanks for sharing!

A marvelous artistic achievement; congratulations!

Wow, thanks for all the glowing reviews, everybody.

Be careful, you're gonna swell my head....

Yes, I did all the work, except for the guy with the sawmill-on-wheels who came after I had the logs in place.

So I like to tell people, "No, I didn't make it, I found it lying in the woods, and cut it up and glued it back together."


I did the door panels on a home-made router table.

> My Router Table <

I'm trying to put together a website with a photo log of the whole project. Then I can show all the little details. But first, I have to learn FrontPage!

Rick.

Simply stunning.

Quite beautiful. I may have to steal your idea!!!

Very impressive.

I went to the "router table" page and thought. Oh, ok, there is a nice piece of furniture he made with the router ... then I realized, that was the router table.

Outstanding job.

Rick...
Beautiful work. Wish I had that sort of talent.

This is very awesome!

How satisfied were you with the patterns you received - do they closely resemble the pictures you sent? I see the results and they are beautiful- just wondered how they compare with your originals.

Congratulations on your fine work.

That is beautiful, Rick! Well done sir!

You are to be commended on a masterful achievement, great idea to combine the African stained glass scenes with the wood work. I want to see what you can come up with next.

CFA

Beautiful piece of work - fine craftsmanship on display there. Thanks for sharing.

Only one word comes to mind: FANTASTIC.

I have to make sure my wife doesn't see these pictures. She has been bugging me for a new bookshelf for her books. The stained glass work, along with the woodwork is FANTASTIC. Congrats to you.

Don

I'll take it.

I appreciate all the kind words from everybody. Once you look at the hours involved, it doesn't seem that awesome.

Quote:

---

This is very awesome!

How satisfied were you with the patterns you received - do they closely resemble the pictures you sent? I see the results and they are beautiful- just wondered how they compare with your originals.

Congratulations on your fine work.

---

I thought they did a great job. They use a product called Glass Eye 2000 which traces a photo and converts it to a numbered pattern. Sounds simple, but there is still a lot of artistic work to do after the trace. You can download a free trial version and play with it. It's pretty amazing. > Dragonfly Software <

They sent me 2 full size numbered patterns for each panel, and a color print of the imagined end product. The software has digitized samples of 4,000 kinds of stained glass. When you receive a custom pattern, they include a glass menu, with mfgr part numbers and names, if you want to order the exact glass they suggested.

Most people will just take the recommendations and go shop for a similar glass. My local glass store doesn't stock anywhere near 4,000 types!

Here are the photos I sent them. The other two panels were from their ideas. I did tell them I wanted Kilimanjaro on it, but I've never been there, and didn't have any photos. It just so happened that they assigned the project to a glass artist in South Africa!








I did make one change to their pattern. The original panel 5 (Kilimanjaro) was drawn to be a lioness and cub silhouetted against the dawn. When I showed the picture to my family, they thought it looked more like a bear.

Then my son kept bringing it up, and suggesting that I change it, and finally convinced me not to have guests say "That's great! What's that on the right - a bear?" Fortunately, I did panel 5 last.

So we copied elephants out of a book and modified the pattern.
Here was the original panel 5. Compare it to the photo above.



Rick.

That is so cool. Really inspiring. Great job.

WOW - that's really nice. You done a good job!

Thanks for showing your photos and patterns. Looks like they did a good job. Again, I have to say I'm impressed with your work. Very, very cool!

Very nice work. I really like your router table... beats mine all to hell.

You're killing me! I'm getting ready to build a trophy room and have been working painstakingly on the details to give it an african flair. After seeing your outstanding work, I'm ready to trash my plans and figure out how to do stained glass. Your work's truly awesome. I never would have thought of doing some stained glass panels.

Thanks!


I'm not sure I'd recommend it to anyone else!

After about 70 hours, I began to wonder why I decided to do it myself...

I still can't remember where the idea came from, but I signed up for the class with this project in mind. Of course, I quickly jumped in over my head...

My son said I have "an immense capacity for drudgery".

I just call it my technique of substituting time for skill!

Rick.

WOW. Very, very cool. I think that will be in your family for a very long time.

Cheers,
Canuck

rick3foxes,
I'm afflicted with the same "jump in over your head" syndrom. How difficult is the stained glass to learn? It seems like it requires skill, of course, apart from many many hours. I'm pretty handy with woodwork, welding etc.. so I think I already have some of the skills. I'm thinking I might try to tackle a 3' x 5' and mount it on a backlit box. My mother-in-law does a little stained glass work after taking a course. I've looked at what she's made and I think I can tackle it. I think I'll try to take a course locally. Any other suggestions on where to start or references to read?

That's a great heirloom to pass on for generations.

Rick,

That is one of the prettiest things I've seen on this board. Well done. Thanks for sharing the pictures of glass and how you worked into it. I am inspired. Ku-dude

Simply wonderful!

Frans

I am in the process of changing my ISP, so the photos in this thread will probably not display much longer. I tried to edit the original post above, but there is apparently a time limit for editing posts, which has already expired.

For those readers who expressed an interest in the woodworking and stained glass projects, I have added more details to the project on my website, which is available, but will be under construction for a while.

www.fox.nextelbroadband.net

Rick.