I designed this window for Tanden Friends School in 2001.

We sent our children to this small Charlottesville, Virginia, school modeled after the transcendentalist. There were only 220 children in the 5th through 12th grade. Small classes and intimate relationships proved vital to our children’s development. They thrived academically and emotionally, earned impressive scholarships, and now live self-directed, meaningful lives.

We knew we had found the perfect academic community for our children from the beginning. We were all so grateful that we decided to create something special to show our appreciation while they were students.

I started designing the window in early spring with the idea that we could all work together to build it during their summer vacation. At the time, the school mascot was a tree. Around three years later, the students voted to change it to a badger.

We all worked together: cutting the pattern, cutting glass, beveling the two-sided flash glass, foiling, soldering, and finally, the patina and cleaning.

I’m especially pleased with the energy the window portrays, much like the students and the ever-changing colors of the tree, which symbolize their constantly evolving selves.

But what I appreciate the most are the memories and actual art we all created together.