light made solid

We have some new preliminary sketches for stained glass windows available online in our Sketches Gallery. They are for a church in Cold Spring, New York named the Church of Our Lady of Loretto. The two sketches depict two stages of the Church's historical development: the church in it's modern form, and the church in it's original form back when it was established.

Our Lady of Loretto seems to be seen in modern times as a patron saint of aviators and air travellers. This site has a pewter medal of her.

This is an interesting project because it shows how intertwined stained glass is with showing a sense of history. The church wanted a pair of windows which would sanctify it's long tradition, and pass on a sense of it to future generations. So much of stained glass art is about this. Many stained glass windows are also commissioned as memorials to prominent members of a parish who have passed away (Here's an example of a window we did in that tradition). Others just want to depict their connection to the broad history of Christianity.

With this Loretto sketch, our next step will be to submit it for review back to the Church. Once they approve it, we'll move forward with choosing glass, constructing and painting the window. We like to involve our clients as much as possible in the design process, so that they'll be thoroughly satisfied with the resulting window.

If you'd like to see a great example of how our original sketches get turned into completed windows, check out the before and after of our Twelve Tribes of Israel series.