Blue Hydrangea

I had always wanted to do a hydrangea panel in stained glass.Some years ago my parents purchased a small property in Ireland with a well established garden containing many varieties of hydrangeas. The sight of the blue flowers up against a white-washed wall was a vision that stayed with me. I had been doing stained glass for a number of years, mostly lampshades which were reproductions. My real ambition though was to do my own designs and hydrangea’s were definitely high on that list.

This panel started as a thumbnail sketch which I did whilst my son was having a half – hour piano lesson. I would often start a project with a small sketch, just to get the initial idea down on paper of how the panel would work. Using the sketch as a guide I could then draft up the full size pattern, in this instance it took about four days to complete.Quite a long time really given my sketch was done in only half an Hour.

The finished panel took another 50+ hours to complete. I have used a Uroboros ring-mottle glass for the mop head blooms a perfect colour I thought. The leaves are all in Youghiogheny Stipple Glass as is the background. I did toy with the idea of using a white but the blue worked much better. I finished the edges in 12 mm zinc came which helps to strengthen the panel.

The full size pattern for this panel is now available as a downloadable PDF file in the Pattern Store http://www.kennedyoriginalstainedglass.com/?sd_product=blue-hydrangea-stained-glass-pattern