SHOT GLASSES! NO I MEANT GLASS SHOTS

Here are some more photos of my stained glass piece done by my friend Heidi. Do you know how hard it is to get a good picture of stained glass with a light behind it? 

Though some of the grapes look whitish they are  not. They are all purple but some are more opaque than others so we get the different depths of color. 

The leaves vary in color from the greenish ones on closest to the trunk of the vine changing to autumnal shades of orange and red as you go along the length of the vine. 

Heidi even laid out the background pieces that look like they are covered in raindrops so that the drops all run down in the same direction where possible. Attention to detail. 

I have this hanging behind my couch in an opening to my entryway staircase. There really wasn't much room left over at the top and bottom. I guess I got lucky because I didn't measure it first. 

 

IT IS HERE, IT IS AMAZING

Through teaching computers I have met an amazing woman named Heidi. She is amazing for several reasons which I won't go into here but one her talents is stained glass. Here are some I have featured on here before.

I knew nothing of how stained glass was done. Boy have I learned a lot. 
Did you know that every piece must be ground on all edges to allow the copper foil to adhere to it? Did you know that once it is foiled you have about 48 hours to solder it or the foil gets a coating and kind of tarnishes. The solder won't stick to this. You solder both sides of the window completely around each and every piece.  

In the end you will wrap the outer edge with a lead frame and solder on some rings to attach chain to for hanging if it is a free hanging piece. 
This is the part where I should mention my piece had 504 pieces. Yup. She had to cut, grind and wrap every numbered piece then she soldered them all together..twice...once on each side. Heidi...are you still speaking to me? Good.

I am sorry I didn't get better photos today when we went to pick it up but I will take some more when my BB guy hangs it for me. 
Heidi you are an amazing artist. No wonder you had people banging down your door to look at it. Thanks for not giving in to the ones that wanted it for themselves.  
Now for the reveal. Again my apologies for my poor picture quality. 

You should notice that she even thought to make the leaves start as green and change gradually to the rust color of fall the further from the stem they grow just like in nature. I think there are about 150 individual grapes growing here. 

For now this will hang in an opening into my stairway but eventually the plan will be to have it in a wine room. EVENTUALLY.