animals

Stained glass nightlights with butterfly, dragonfly, breaching whale, peace sign

My goodness this is starting off as a very creative and productive year. I think I am up to about 7 or 8 new patterns in just this first quarter! In today’s news, I’m talking about nightlights. I never really anticipated that nightlights would become such a significant part of my catalog, but here we are. I am delighted to offer 5 new designs.

The details.

There are now two butterfly nightlights. One is just a butterfly alone, simple and pretty and wonderfully illuminating. It measures 4″ across and 3 1/4″ long. Cost is $25 each. I also wanted to try something a little fuller, so tweaked some nightlight backdrop panels to invoke grass or leaves, and put one of my ‘regular’ size butterfly ornaments on top of the backdrop. It is around 5 1/4″ wide  and 3 3/4″ long. Since I was trying this backdrop with a small butterfly, I tried it also with my dragonfly ornament. Measurements are the same. Both of these are $35 each. Colors can vary in all respects.

bluebutterflylight pinkbutterflylight
whitebutterflylight yellowbutterflylight
yellowdragonflylight bluedragonflylight

The breaching whale light uses the same base as the whale tail nightlight I started making a couple of years ago. The back panels are split into two pieces each, to imply water and sky. I have a beautiful blue/green glass for the water which to me nicely mimics the waters of New England where I’ve been fortunate enough to see humpback and minke whales breach (it’s amazing). The nightlight has a humpback. The sky panels can be a variety of different glasses to get that effect; so far I’ve used a blue/white/purple, and a lighter blue/green, all ‘swirly’ to be a little more dramatic. The whale itself is white in the flippers and blue in the body. Measures 5 1/4″ wide by 3 1/2″ long. Price is $35 each, for both the breaching whale and whale tail nightlights. Am including photos of both for reference. The whale tail light here has a more transparent back panel than I usually tend to use, but you will be able to see some contrast and possibilities.

breachingwhalelight whaletaillight

Finally, there is the peace sign nightlight. This has been requested by a few people, and my challenge has been to make sure I have enough solder seams on which I can securely attach the nightlight clip which holds the base. I wound up doing a ring around the peace sign, keeping the sign itself simple by continuing to use the seams to make the symbol. The ring allows for a wide array of color options. The center can also be any color, really. The peace sign nightlight measures 3 1/2″ across, so it is nice and small and can fit just about anywhere. Price is $30 each. Postage is additional on all stained glass.

rainbowpeacelight bluewhitepeacelight
purplegreenpeace

Personally, I don’t like to see a nightlight bulb through the glass, so I try to find nice colorful glass which is translucent enough to glow but not so transparent as to show the bulb, or at least not show it much. I apply this translucency goal to all nightlights I make. For the peace sign, because the bulb sits entirely behind the sign itself, more transparent glass can be used around the outside, with just the provision that the clip can be seen through the bottom piece.

Note – the measurements here are all glass only. The base adds another couple of inches to each piece.

In these chaotic days out there in the world, wouldn’t you like a new little bit of light in your life? Contact me to place an order, or ask any questions. Thanks so much!

Stained Glass Yellow Rubber Ducky

Even though I haven’t posted anything for a while, I’ve been keeping busy. I have several new patterns in development as well, but I wanted to end the silence by first posting about this stained glass yellow rubber ducky that I made in late July. I could not post about it until now because it was a gift for a friend whose baby just arrived a short while ago (congrats, Kat and Justin!). The ducky was commissioned by Kat’s mom, as the nursery was decorated in yellow ducks.

4duckyI went around on line to look at various patterns available, and wasn’t thrilled with any of them. The shape of the duck makes it bottom-heavy by default, and I wanted to make sure I constructed one which was not going to separate as a result. I didn’t really want to do a panel-type of piece, ducky and background, just a ducky.

Luckily, I had a rubber ducky of my own, in ‘electric blue’ I call it. So I grabbed my camera and took a bunch of photos. I wound up using a composite of two photos to get the side wings and angle of the head, allowing for good seams in which I could add hooks for chain, and also giving the piece a bit of personality.

I am pretty happy with the result, and Jill (Kat’s mom) was as well. If Kat and Justin ever catch up on sleep, I’ll get their reactions, too. So far, I have made just the one ducky, in the traditional yellow, but it can certainly be made in other colors, too. The piece measures approximately 6 1/2″ wide and about 7″ long. I have black jack chain on this one for hanging. I used a fairly dense but still translucent yellow and white wispy glass for the body which just glows when the sun is behind it. The beak is an orange wispy glass. Cost is $30 each.

7rubberduckyglass-Putnam 2rubberduckyglass-Putnam

What do you think of it?