New projects

Before this week I hadn't earned a cent from my stained glass art so far this year. By this time last year I had already earned $730 clear, the best start to a year in years. But a week and a half ago I got a call from a client who wanted a window of a sailboat on English Bay with the North Shore mountains as a backdrop as a gift for her husband's birthday in June. I made her a 66-piece design 18" wide by 22" high which I priced at $230.

I had no sooner started the design when she sent an email asking me for a camellia bush window for Mother's Day of no specific size. I recklessly designed a 190-piece bush with 5 full bloom and 5 buds made of irridized pink glass and two shades of green leaves to fit inside a 2-ft diameter beveled circle. The design was much more intricate and costly to make than the less-original sailboat window. Of course I loved it, but it was I thought it would be much to expensive for a lesser-holiday gift. I decided I wanted to make it whether or not she wanted something so expensive. I set about making it without her approval, as I often do with patterns I design that inspire me. I set about making it a week ago Monday and I finished it last night, except for the cleaning and polishing and a small piece of U-channel border for the top edge. (The U-channel I had was 3 cm too short!)

The client was out of town most of the time. She came to see the designs Sunday afternoon when the camellia circle was 90% done. She fell in love with it and had no hesitation about paying the $600 for the piece, much to my surprise. She was less enamoured with the sailboat design. I had made a smaller 8" circle of a similar design for Eric Mourre, one of my French couch surfers, using 18 colours. I was proud of it but she decided she didn't like the colours. Her husband's boat, like its sails, is white and 8" circle was too colourful. She gave me the go-ahead to make that window too, using lighter, more translucent glass, "Like that one," she said, pointing my favourite Mexican village window which has almost no translucent glass at all.

She was more in love with the Mexican village window and wanted a quote on that. The $900 price did not discourage her as I had hoped for, since I wanted to keep it for myself. She wants me to hold it for her until she has paid for the other two. The total price would be $1730. She gave me a $500 cheque towards the price of the first two windows. So April hasn't been all bad.