Saintly Stained Glass Fancy and black paper creations

Design by:

Rachel Zhang Class of 2014

Stained Glass History:

• Stained glass comes out of history of jewelry and mosaic techniques.

• Their height came in church decoration detailing the lives of Biblical characters for those that weren’t literate.

The Gothic Age• The Gothic age produced the

great cathedrals of Europe and brought a full flowering of stained glass windows.

• Churches became taller and lighter, walls thinned and stained glass was used to fill the increasingly larger openings in them.

• Stained glass became the sun filled world outside.

St. Dennis in Paris

• Abbot Suger of the Abbey of St. Denis rebuilt his church in what is one of the first examples of the Gothic style.

• He brought in craftsmen to make the glass and kept a journal of what was done.

• He truly believed that the presence of beautiful objects would lift mens’ souls closer to God.

12th century! 1100’s

COLOR & Pattern is important!

Videos

• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/science-stained-glass.html

• This is a great interactive to show how ancient artists created stained glass.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGAumT8aNkk

• Great program on NOVA about stained glass restoration.

Saints

• In Catholic History saints were people glorified for carrying the word of God, even if that meant going against all odds, as in the case of martyrs.

• They are often associated with symbols: Ex: Saint Veronica with the Shroud of Turin.

• Different examples of how many different artists have interpreted St. Veronica

Another Symbolic Example:

• The oddly shaped Cross: Saint Andrew

• Saint’s legend tells that he chose to be crucified on the oddly shaped cross because he felt undeserving of a death too similar to that of his savior.

For more in formation on where to find you saints and their symbols:

• http://www.catholic.org/saints/• This website has tons of saints to choose from.

Project Description

• In this project you will create your own “stained glass” window design.

• You will be using black construction paper and tissue paper to crate the stained glass effect.

• Your stained glass design will depict one of the saints (your choice) or members of the Holy Family.

• When you illustrate the saint you may do a literal human representation or represent their symbol associated with them. i.e. Holy Spirit = Dove

Project Description cont.

• First: choose 2 saints you are interested in. You must make 2 concept drawings of each saint and how it would look as your stained glass window.

• Second: Choose the most successful drawing of your 2, and re-draw it with pencil onto your black sheet of construction paper.

• Carefully!!!!!- using an Exacto knife cut out the negative space- leaving behind the lines of your piece.

• Then using different colored pieces of tissue paper “fill” in the glass of your piece. Above all Craftsmanship is important-No sloppy widows you will lose points.

Stained Glass examples

Some tips!

• Use lighter colors for the background of your design, with darker colors in the foreground to make your creation stand out.

For a symmetrical design• Fold your paper in half vertically. For those

that are already lost, it's a HOTDOG fold. Now, draw an arc from the fold to the outside edge of the paper. Cut the arc so that it makes the top of your paper rounded.

• Unfold it to check the shape of the arc and determine whether or not you want to adjust it. Make adjustments to the arc to suit your needs.

• Refold the paper and draw some designs on the folded edge of the paper. Make sure that they are not too small, or too large. Remember, you will be cutting these out, so if the designs are too small to cut, change them.

• It is best to work from top down (or bottom up) when cutting your shapes.

• This ensures that you're carefully removing most of the black paper and will be able to clearly see through the open areas.

Break people into contour lines and shapes!

Student Examples!

Dante Legaspi

“The Holy Spirit”

St. Rose of Lima

God and his son Jesus

St. Theresa: From her poem, “The Flower”

‘…But for you has bloomed the Flower.’

Representing all of the saints

Joan of Arc

Holy Sprit and Holy Cross

Holy Cross and Spirit