Happy Friday everyone! As many of you know, we had the incredible opportunity to create the Come Unto Me window that sits in the LDS Rome Visitor Center. Haven't heard of this window? It is a 20-foot by 7-foot stained-glass mural illustrating the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Have you ever been curious about how one creates illustrative stained glass? Well, look no further. Today's post is all about how Come Unto Me (and other) stained glass windows are made.
Stained glass is a very labor intensive, time consuming, and tedious process. Many steps are involved when creating any glass window, even more so in a figurative work such as this. The process begins with posing models in period clothing and shooting hundreds of photos to get the perfect image.
Next, those images are photoshopped into a scene layout in order to assure satisfaction with the overall design. If changes are to be made now is a much better time than later in the process. At that point, a sketch can be rendered allowing the illustrators to become familiar with and adept at rendering the images, especially the faces and bodies.
Once glass pieces are cut (painted and fired when necessary), they can be fitted together and secured with lead. This image shows pieces of natural stone that have been polished and cut along with the glass. A favorite technique we often use is the inclusion of historic bits and pieces of realia.
There you have it. This is our process to create illustrative stained glass. If you have any questions or comments on something you would like to see on our blog, please feel free to share! We love ideas, especially when they come from our subscribers. We hope everyone has a fantastic weekend and can't wait to rejoin next Friday.
Warmly,
Roots of Humanity