"Good morning. Would you be able to produce something that was similar or recognisable as one of these pieces of art in glass?"
Creating something based on someone else’s work isn’t normally something I’d consider. But this was different. This was a gift for the artist as a thank you for sharing his art over the years. Daunting, or what? But hey, it was February and I didn’t have a commission to work on, so I said yes. Here’s the screenshot they sent with the message:-
Franz Ruzicka is a painter based in Munich and I was sent some images of his paintings as a starting point; beautiful, flowing, textured female forms in strong colours. The finished piece was going to be hand delivered to Franz himself as a thank you for sharing his art. You can check out some of his work here https://www.myartprints.co.uk/a/ruzicka-franz.html
But there were some problems to figure out before I could start.
If you aren’t familiar with using glass, some of the trickiest shapes to cut are long, narrow curves. These shapes are prone to snapping either while cutting or grinding or foiling if you’re not very careful. You’ll notice the reference images are full of long, narrow curves. Eek.
The paintings also use shading to show the curves of the body and give the figures depth. I was going to have to find a way to replicate this with glass. Flat, uniform glass. Eek again.
Final problem…I was going to have to take the glass to Munich myself and the originals are 138cm x 24cm! Making small stained glass can be harder and more time consuming than larger works. I was going to have to change the dimensions as to scale it down to 40cm height it would only be 7cm wide… so the figure would be matchstick size and impossible. I had to change the proportions to make the figure work.
First job was to pick one of the figures. I chose Medusa. She’s mottled blue with a darker blue background. I knew there was an amazing mottled blue hand rolled glass made by Uro by Yough that would be perfect (U-OO-40). Youghiogheny Opalescent Glass Company, Inc. can be found on the banks of the Youghiogheny river in Connellsville, PA, south of Pittsburgh. They purchased Uroboros Glass after it announced it would be ceasing manufacture of its signature ring mottle glass after over 40 years. They continue the legacy with the Uro by Yough range of hand rolled glass sheets. Luckily the customer approved the more expensive art glass so I ordered a sheet. It’s so pretty.
I changed the proportions to make it manageable and the final piece is 29 x 10cm. As the Uro by Yough glass is opalescent, and I had to get the shapes absolutely right, I used a Cricuit Air to create and print a vinyl pattern that I attached to the glass before cutting and grinding. I added some strategically placed cuts to emphasise the curves.
I chose medium blue waterglass for the background. It’s delicious. I could have used a ring saw to cut the background glass in a single piece (apart from the tiny piece between the feet) but I wanted this to look like stained glass so I cut it into 11 pieces. All of the pieces were then wrapped in 7/32,Binari copper foil (my favourite) burnished carefully and my cats played with the foil backing tape.
I used zinc came for the frame, cut it with a mini angle grinder and made loops for hanging that were securely soldered to the zinc. The whole thing was then cleaned thoroughly using KwikClean and the zinc was also scrubbed with steel wool before using black patina to change the solder and zinc to black. The final stage was adding hanging chain.
Last week I took it to Munich (ok, I was going anyway to see AC/DC) and we dropped it off for Franz to get when he returned from holiday in Italy.
I’m really pleased with how it turned out and it’s now hanging in Franz’s kitchen in Munich.
“I was so happy when I opened the parcel… you made my day”
I love how commissions challenge me. There are definitely some things I wouldn’t do, and I have said no to requests. But if it speaks to me, and if I think I just might be able to do it, chances are I’ll say yes.
Read about an earlier commission here Custom stained glass art; Zelda the wolf.
Get in touch if you have a commission idea and we can see what’s possible
