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August 9, 2008
Opinions please
Last year I renovated my master bedroom. I went maybe a bit overboard with the red oak but overall I'm satisfied with it. One of the things I constructed was a large, built-in bureau which, again, I might have gone a bit overboard on with the carvings.
My next taks here is to finish off the house with five years' worth of backburnered stained glass projects, one of which is the panels to the bureau's doors.
I've got two options and I'm undecided which will work better. The first is a simple but classic crosshatched diamond pattern using translucent art glass. This wouldn't compete with the carvings.
The other is a pattern I designed with GlassEye today. I like it by itself but I'm concerned that it might be too busy for this cabinet.
I can only post one image here so you can see the pattern on http://www.brooklynrowhouse.com/node/117
Comments
Impressive! The stained glass pattern you designed is lovely, but for me it is better suited for a transom than in the doors of this bureau. Then again, who knows…all my taste could be in my mouth. My personal recommendation would be toward etched glass or a frosted background silhouetting a clear pattern that echoed (though not duplicated) the curves of your carvings (which, unfortunately, are kind of hard to make out online). A similar, but different, suggestion would be a restrained design assembled from patterned clear glass featuring a beveled cluster. To see examples on a wholesaler's page, look at: http://www.rainbowartglass.com/index.php?act=viewCat&catId=664
Overall, I'd suggest being guided by restraint. Let your woodwork (and woodworking skills) shine on this piece and let your stained glass skills shine on the window-projects-to-come. IMHO, too many competing aspects will ultimately detract from, rather than enhance this piece, particularly as the wood ages.
Posted by: vinca at August 9, 2008 11:33 PM
I think you're right. That stained glass pattern could make the bureau look like a circus piece. The photo kind of mutes the carvings, which are stronger in person. You can see it better in this "progress" shot:
http://images.magpie.com/house/photos/bedroom/bedroom37.jpg
That's just one of five large carvings on it so, yeah, enough is enough.
Posted by: Steve at August 10, 2008 12:30 AM
I think the carving is simple and elegant. It feels a little Eastlake, and also reminds me of Spencerian and Zanerian penmanship flourishes. If you're not already familiar with them, you can see a little at the following link, and find many more links online: http://www.ameshistoricalsociety.org/penmanship.htm
Also, Dover has more than one book on the subject, including Ornate Pictorial Calligraphy: E. A. Lupfer
Posted by: vinca at August 10, 2008 1:23 PM
Steve, I'm in awe of what you've managed to accomplish yourself! I do think the stain glass might be better suited somewhere else instead of these cabinets as the carvings in the wood already make it quite ornate.
Posted by: helppls at August 10, 2008 2:04 PM
Thanks, but I can't take too much credit for it, at least not for the carvings. I did it with a router and a template:
http://www.woodshopdemos.com/cmt-3d-1.htm
I've been bouncing more stained glass design ideas off the folks over on Old House Web, where a lady steered me in a better direction: simpler, more organic, less angular, minimal color. The best aesthetic idea came from a woodworker friend who said I should ditch the glass and use cane for the panels. But I have a cat that would rip that to shreds in about a week.
Posted by: Steve at August 10, 2008 3:33 PM
I did several more stained glass designs in GlassEye, which you can see on BrooklynRowHouse. However, I was getting concerned that stained glass was probably too heavy with all the carvings.
Then a user on OldHouseWeb, probably sick of reading my bellyaching, took one of the designs and 'shopped it into the photo of the bureau:
http://www.oldhouseweb.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=17812&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=10
What do you think?
Posted by: Steve at August 11, 2008 10:22 AM
I like the new design, and also think it's at the point where the call is yours. (Put another way, this might be an interesting variation on Home Stretch Complacency.) Just remember, stained glass without light passing through will appear darker. Also, as an accomplished woodworker, you already know that early projects never quite meet the standards of projects after much experience. Not saying don't use the stained glass, just saying you might want to install in such a way that allows for revision down the road.
Posted by: vinca at August 11, 2008 5:06 PM
I reworked the glass colors to pick up existing elements in the room and it looks much better.
http://images.magpie.com/misc/glass/cabinet5.jpg
Excuse the clumsy image overlay. I don't have that trick down yet.
The panel installs with clips so it's not a tough job to replace it later, not that I expect I'll want want to revisit this cabinet again in this lifetime.
The white panels on that new design are actually distorted clear glass. That's just how GlassEye renders it. Now on to fabrication. My new glass bandsaw arrives tomorrow.
Thanks for the helpful comments, Vinca.
Posted by: Steve at August 11, 2008 8:17 PM
Steve, I am envisioning etched glass as a solution, not stained glass. Its subtlty will match the subtle carvings.
What do you think?
Posted by: HmmWhichNeighborhood at August 11, 2008 8:24 PM
Etched glass would be cool too. But I've never done etched glass and I'm a kinda diehard DIYer.
Posted by: Steve at August 11, 2008 10:00 PM
Hi Steve:
I didn't think I'd write anything more on this (and will definitely stop here). Of course the choice remains entirely subjective (that's why your call), but I prefer the simpler yellows of the previous rendering to the blues and brown marbling of the current version. Could be the colors are not showing accurately online. Either way, don't lose the colors that work with your wood in favor of the colors that work with your walls. Take a look at the work of http://www.rennerandfaust.com/portfolio.aspx, and also take a look at glassgallerynj dot com/photo_gallery.php, which is far less refined, but still has several samples worth pondering (especially look at what can be accomplished with textures and bevels alone). Enjoy your new bandsaw and the fruits of your labor!
Posted by: vinca at August 11, 2008 10:36 PM
The previous design had pale greens though, not yellows. That doesn't match anything in the room which, to my eye at least, is one of the things that made it a bit too loud. The new brown border I color matched to the existing cabinet. But I think that color may be a hard one to find so I was thinking about swapping it for a very pale yellow I know Albert carries, in which case that blue may not work either.
Posted by: Steve at August 12, 2008 1:10 AM
Sorry Steve--I'm laughing at this one, because I have color-blindness across a very narrow range of green, and apparently you managed to find it. As to blue and yellow working together, it's a classic combination--think Provence.
Posted by: vinca at August 12, 2008 9:57 AM
Actually, I like the cross hatch diamond idea best. I love leaded glass anyway and since you've put do much into the carving why have the stained glass competing? And the diamond pattern with clear translucent glass would work better with the handles on the cabinet. If you're changing those forget my last comment :-)
How about just a single plain sheets of clear patterned glass- cathedral glass? Or smallish squares with bullseyes here and there, with that artglass that is filled with tiny bubbles. also all in clear glass. I was thinking old medieval windows.
Posted by: bxgrl at August 12, 2008 10:59 AM
I love cross-hatched diamond glass but in this case it would add a geometric, angular element to a cabinet which has a lot of "organic" carvings. I mocked up an image of the cabinet with it and it clashed.
I think I'm gonna go with the last design, depending on what Albert Stained Glass has on hand. I suspect they won't have that brown opalescent glass (Wissmach 145-D to be exact) because I could only find one retail resource for it on the web. So I'll probably have to make some adjustments.
Posted by: Steve at August 12, 2008 12:09 PM
couldn't you do the stained glass pattern but using clear glass of different translucencies? My english is rapidly degenerating but I know you know what I meant :-)
Posted by: bxgrl at August 12, 2008 5:33 PM
The whitish glass in that design is translucent clear glass. It just renders white in the image. I want to have some color in it though, otherwise it would kinda look like a Home Depot leaded glass door.
Posted by: Steve at August 12, 2008 8:34 PM
ah ha! Sounds great- I think no matter what you decide it will look incredible. Checked out your web site- Place looks amazing- if you ever make architectural woodworking a career you'll have more work than you can possibly imagine!
You're so right about he home depot doors- some of them wouldn't be so bad except they use that horrid bright gold faux leading.
Posted by: bxgrl at August 12, 2008 11:45 PM
I'm so slow at doing this stuff I'd starve before I finished my first gig.
Posted by: Steve at August 13, 2008 12:34 AM
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