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St. Mary's Blessing

Our first religious commission, this window found a home in St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Catholic School in Avon, Ohio.

Read more about it here.

I was commissioned by St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Catholic school in Avon, Ohio to make this triptych stained glass window for their parish activity center. Each panel was designed to fit snugly inside an aluminum frame with clear glass on both sides.

My goal was to have it finished by Christmas and delivered before the end of 2024, so it would be on display for the school’s open house in January.

The principal of the school reached out to me during the summer after the previous stained glass artist they were considering hiring backed out. A design had not been chosen yet, so there was a lot of back and forth about which elements to include.

We ultimately went with an AI generated image they came up with, which included Mary surrounded by many children and a colorful background radiating outward from a halo around her head.

Although most parts of the design were perfect for a stained glass adaptation, many changes had to be made in order to meet size and budget constraints. Most of the children had to be removed, Mary had to be shifted to a central position, many of the background colors had to be changed to achieve the balance I was looking for, and shading from all of the pieces was removed.

The most difficult parts to make were the children. Recreating them as closely as possible to the AI image was very difficult, considering I had to “fill in some blanks” that were created by repositioning and resizing them. Originally, I was planning on hiring a glass studio to do the face pieces but decided to make them myself with carefully placed copper foil overlay.

I couldn’t be happier with the result. I had always wanted to break into the church sector of the stained glass industry, and this was an incredible opportunity to do so. It is also my largest commission to date and was the most challenging project I’ve ever worked on as a stained glass artist.

Thanks to St. Mary school and their staff for giving me this chance to make their space a little more beautiful. Showcasing my work in a new setting like this is one of the greatest joys in doing what I do.

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