Forty years ago, my partner Gerry Powers and I were awarded a commission to create the focal point for the new 6th Street Market Place in downtown Richmond, Virginia. Jerry designed the project, and I built the two ten-foot diameter stained glass windows.
Ten-foot windows would not fit through my shop doors, so I built the windows in sections and assembled them on a large table outside. To reach the center, I built a moveable catwalk, an awkward way to work.
For strength, I ordered a round three-inch steel tube to house the windows. Inside the ring, I soldered many 1/2-inch reinforcing bars to follow the lines of the design. I considered them a work of art unto themselves. It was a real advantage that the windows were inside and not exposed to the winds.
I found a way to insert bevels I made on my 1915 machines into the design. They looked great throughout the building process. I was pleasantly surprised after the completion when I would drive under the bridge at night, and they would sparkle when lit by the headlights of passing cars.
Ten years before this project, I made apples, pears, cherries, and chickens that stood on one leg as sun catchers on my kitchen table, selling them at craft shows and gift shops.
This caused my mother great concern. I was the first in our family to go to college, and she couldn’t understand why I wasn’t working on Main Street or Wall Street. Somehow, she and some of her friends found out about the day the crane would lift the windows into place. I could tell by the expression on her face that she finally understood.