"Windows of Heaven" Stained Glass Picture

This year The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is hosting a world wide art competition.  The theme for the competition is "Tell me the stories of Jesus".  I decided to enter the competition.  I immediately knew what scene I wanted to do.  My wife and I have been extremely blessed by keeping the commandment of tithing.  We have found ourselves without money on several occasions and we always have had what we need to take care of our family.  So when I heard the theme of the competition, I instantly thought of the story of the Widow's Mite.  At the same time I thought of the scripture in Malachi that promises that the windows of heaven will be opened up and blessings will be poured out upon those who are faithful in paying their tithing.  I thought that the two scriptures would make a very visual effect.  In preparing for this piece I researched the temple in Jerusalem and tried to recreate the scene just as it might have occurred.  I think I have it fairly close, much better than most of the old paintings of the Widows Mite story. Here are a bunch of pictures:

 

Soldering tip: How to keep the solder from running through to the back

In this short video I show how to keep the solder from running through small gaps to the back of the piece.

When making a large stained glass panel there are usually some small spots where the pieces don't quite line up perfectly and small gaps appear.  These tiny gaps sometimes result in a small pool of solder on the back side of the piece.  An easy way to overcome this problem is to snip small sections of copper wire to fill the small gaps with.

I use reclaimed electrical wire salvaged from a house that was demolished.  I stripped the sheathing from the wire with a knife and use the wire cutters on my needle nosed pliers to cut it to length.  If you have a gap that runs the length of the piece, you can cut the wire to length and bend it to fit; or, if the gap is just in a small corner, you can just cut a tiny little nub of wire to fill the spot.  as long as the wire does not have a coating on it, fluxing it will allow the solder to stick to it and not pass through to the other side.  I use this technique when the holes are not very big:  if the gaps are too big, I'll re-cut the piece to fit.

Stained glass Christus

 I was asked to do a stained glass picture of the Christus statue originally sculpted by Bertel Thorvaldsen for my wife's Aunt.  A replica stands in the LDS visitor's center at Temple Square in Salt Lake City. That version is surrounded by a wall mural of space with stars and planets. This picture reflects on that background. I have used little glass bobbles as stars. The panel is 24 inches tall and 18 inched wide and has 154 pieces and is done in the Tiffany style of copper foil and solder.  My wife's aunt said that her husband would make the frame to match their existing decor if I were to make the light box.  I will try and get some pictures of the piece once it is in place at their house with the frame on.  This was a fun commission with surprisingly few pieces.  If you are interested in purchasing one, contact me.