About the Artist
From the time I was a young boy, I was amazed by how light transformed and was transformed by glass. Then 25 years ago, I read Rose Windows by Painton Cowen. With that began a long personal journey. I wanted to create rose windows in miniature that I could enjoy with my family at home.
My first attempts involved painstaking cutting and grinding of stained glass to fit a design. Then I took the formed pieces and glued them to a clear piece of glass. The glue was very strong and dried clear quickly. However, it also got on my fingers and felt uncomfortable for days. It seemed impossible to remove. After the glue on the glass dried, I grouted the spaces between the glass. Finally, the product was complete. As I gazed at it, I was really disappointed. I realized it was a pale imitation of the sparkling and vibrant rose windows that I imagined. It just didn't seem "perfect" enough. Not only that, making it was stressful and not fun.
Still, my family and friends liked the piece and we hung it on a window with a suction cup hook. Several months later, I awoke one day to find that my piece had fallen. As I picked it up, I noticed that the stained glass was basically intact to my surprise. I also noticed that some of the bigger pieces had fractured into many smaller pieces. As I lifted it up to the light, I was amazed as to how much better I liked the fractured, broken pieces of the colored glass, than the pieces I had worked on so hard and long to have the perfect shape and fit for the design. The fractured pieces seemed alive and jewel-like. And so this time I hammered a nail above the window and hung the fractured, stained glass securely this time.
I wondered from time to time just how I could break stained glass in a controlled way to create stained glass rose windows of exceptional beauty. However, the thought of my fingers feeling uncomfortable for several days after gluing the glass pieces kept me from experimenting more.
And the years past and life happened (i.e. family and careers took precedent). During this period I kept my dream alive by occasionally dropping into a stained glass shop and looking for special glass I might want to use one day.
In the fall of 2002 with our adult children off to college, our careers running smoothly, and our health intact, I started to dream again. I dreamed about the possibility of miniature stained glass rose windows - stained glass mosaics transformed by the magic of light. I searched the Internet and found other stained glass mosaic artists and learned about non-toxic, user-friendly glues that were now available. Now I really felt the passion again. I decided to use a week of vacation at Thanksgiving to try once again and realize my dream. The result was beyond my wildest expectation - a 10-inch jewel-like circle of hundreds of pieces of colored glass - a mosaic mandala of light. The first creation led to the next and the next each one different and beautiful in its own way. I seemed to work day and night enjoying every minute. Although I now am on a normal schedule (more or less), my creativity is still flowing and I continue to create beautiful Jewels of the Light. Perhaps one day one will grace your home or office.
— David Chidgey, 2004
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