“Sometimes glass glitters more than diamonds because it has more to prove.” Terry Pratchett.
Ed Kennedy:
One evening many years ago, while playing a board game with my neighbors, I was given a task of making a wish. The wish that I heard myself making was, “I wish I had more wonder in my life.” I have been watching that wish come true.
I have been working with glass, first, breaking it as a little kid, and later installing glass in houses and commercial buildings. One day a friend said, “You are a glazier, you should be able to make stained glass windows.” I had been interested, and now was challenged. My first window was drawn out with a fat black marker, on a sheet of newspaper, and I learned to adjust. I finally had to put the window in storage, and let my mind dwell on it. A few years later, I pulled the window out of storage and completed it. I have been having fun with stained glass for thirty-five years.
I live in Victoria, British Columbia, and many years ago I was given a job in one of the best stained glass shops in the Pacific Northwest, the Glass-Smith. I was doing regular glass work, and got to be around professionals who designed and built stained glass. The Glass-Smith offers classes in building stained glass, fusing, and I was lucky enough to take a class about painting on glass and firing it in a kiln, a technique used in church windows. In the fusing class I was introduced to dichroic glass. It is magic for me. If you have ever opened a kiln with your work in it, you will be aware that a transformation has taken place. It brings mystery and wonder. The results are always a surprise.
Working with glass has been wonder full.
Ed can be reached at: kennedy_ed@hotmail.com