Art week ending 16/6/2013

Hi blog readers ,This week I have not painted due to the fact that I have been studying hard and have had some things going on in my life that have meant that I couldn't focus on my art. This is rare as I have painted most weeks for nearly two years but this week I did not.
I still wanted to share some art with you so I chose this mixed media piece that I made some 12 years ago and have never sold. I know when I made it because I was pregnant with my daughter who is now 12 and I made it after I had read a book about Tiffany. I have a real passion for glass in all forms and in that book I saw a photograph of a stained glass piece with koi carp. I was greatly inspired but didn't  have the knowledge to make a stained glass panel. I found out that there were glass paints so I purchased some and designed my own work of art which is koi carp in a pond from an above view. I have since learned the real art of stained glass and have been able to make glass panels in the old traditional way.
This artwork is very special to me because the lead work is soldered together and I knew that lead and particularly the lead in solder is very dangerous to handle and to breath the fumes would have been very bad for me and my baby. I really wanted to finish the piece  and knew how to solder through some manufacturing experience when I was young. What I did was to teach my husband how to solder. He had never done it before but picked it up well. He took a lot of hours under close scrutiny from me to finish it  and I think of it as a labour of love. Therefore I shall never part with it. The frame is made from tile mosaic and it is an unusual thing but I am fond of it.
Hoping to get my paintbrushes back out this week, thanks for reading this blog Carolyn.