BY Joseph Cavalieri | February 7, 2010

A kid in a candy store.

“The Horse Seeking Revenge on the Stag” sketch is now scanned and redrawn on computer resulting in the sketch above. It is faster to design on screen with Photoshop and InDesign programs, especially if I want to see color, design and size choices. Once I feel it is set, I print the design full size to make a “cartoon”. In traditional stained glass a cartoon is the original drawing that the glass is measured from. All the glass is cut and placed on top of the cartoon, fitting together like a intricate puzzle.

I loosely sketch the buildings and plan on hand painted these more precisely after I have the glass cut. Once this cartoon is printed I hang it on the wall and view it from a distant. It is good to live with it for a while and make adjustments. I also plan on how many layers the panel will be. I decide on adding a green ivy border. I have nothing against the color green, it is rather strong and sometime it has a tendency to take over, so I use it sparingly.

One of the mistakes most stained glass designers get caught up in is the color selection, be it stained or blown glass. Stained glass is colors are beautiful, but it sometimes gets in the way of the design. I teach a beginners stained glass class at UrbanGlass in Brooklyn. I warn my students to limit their color choices to only two strong colors. But once they see the bins of multiple stained glass colors, their eyes gloss over and they grab as many as possible. It is like a kid in a candy store... stained glass does this to people! No wonder it was used to tell the stories of the bible, it connects to a very primitive spot deep inside of us. But as they say, stay away from too much of a good thing.