Vote for you favorite "Lighting The Winter Night" contest entry.

[Kev]

Hey guys, we have our entries and now it's time for all of you to cast your vote for your favorite entry.

Each member can vote once, and once your vote is cast, it cannot be changed. The entry with the highest number of votes will take the prize. I must say, I am impressed with the creativity of our members...way to go guys!

Following this post are the entries in the order in which they were received from the entrants. The poll to vote for your favorite entry can be found above this post.

Have fun!

Voting is open till December 14th at 12PM. The winner will be announced December 15th. After the winner has been announced, I will contact them to get the details of what they would like made for their prize.

Good luck to all of you!

Kev

[Kev]

Entry #1 Submitted by Tracy


Lighting the Winter Night
Entry Name:  Christmas Tree Candle Shelter
Dimensions: 10” tall by 9” across
Supplies:  glue chip glass, Lampworked beads, 16 gauge copper wire, brass channel, Beveled mirror base.

Basic construction consists of 3 flat panels (6 pcs each) soldered together to form a 3 sided Christmas tree.   A votive candle sits inside the 3 corners, lighting the tree.
1.    After soldering the flat panels, I did some decorative soldering on all the seams to make it more festive.  
2.   Then I soldered the 3 pieces together on the long ends (a fourth panel could be used to make it symmetrical but I liked the 3 sided look better)  
3.   Before I attached the 3rd side, I ran a wire down the center and left about 2” above the top in order to attach a decoration.  
4.   Next I did some decorative soldering on the inside edges and added some edge beading to the 18 branches.
5.   3 pieces of brass came were added to the bottom of the tree.
6.   Last, I fashioned little wire hooks to hang decorations off of and soldered them onto the ends of the 18 branches.  This was the hardest and most time consuming part.
7.   Washed everything with Dawn and ammonia, then polished to a nice silver shine with Simichrome and then waxed and polished again.
Decorations:  I had several ideas such as stringing tiny lights, ribbon garlands and bows, little ball ornaments, bells,     etc., but happened to be looking at my collection of “wonky” beads and thought BEADS!!  So I proceeded to whip up some raised dot beads, strung them on eye pins and hung them on the tree.  For the top, I had a star but it just didn’t look right so I made an elongated bead for the top.  The best thing about this little tree is that you can change the decorations very easily.  Swarovski crystal beads look especially nice and actually twinkle in the candle light.  There are also brass charms and stuff that could be soldered to the top.  Or a birthday candle on the top.

[Kev]

Entry #2 Submitted by Barb (Glasisfun). A collaboration of herself and her Sister-in Law Tina Cronin.

I am submitting three pictures of the same piece.  They were taken at three different times of the day and you can see how the changing light makes the piece look very different.

Title of Piece:  Light of a Winter's Night.

The piece depicts pondering a cold winter's night by candlelight ( a study of light to dark).  The interpretation is a women looking out a window into the dark winter night.  The candle is the only source of light.  Half of her face is in the shadow while the other side is lit by the candle as she looks out into the darkness.

The piece is eleven and one half inches square.  It is foiled stained glass with glass nuggets for the polka dots on dress.  Fax pearls for the necklace and unfortunately one embellishment that does not get picked up by the camera, there is one "fake" eyelash glued to the eyelid on the dark side of the face. The piece has black patina except for the portion in the halo of the candle which has a copper patina to further add light to that portion of the piece.  The flame is made of gold mirrored glass with a blue silver coat mirror tip of the flame.  These were hard to photograph as the mirror reflects the flash, but look very bright in real life.

This is the first project which is a collaboration between myself and my sister in law.  She designed the pattern and I constructed the piece.  It is an original design.  Of the three pictures the one between the brightest and the darkest exposures is most representative of the overall look of the piece.

We enjoyed designing and building it hope everyone enjoys seeing it as well.

Barb Cornett

[Kev]

Entry #3 Submitted by Marsha

Fused with dichroic snowflakes.
 

[Kev]

Entry #4 Submitted by JudyK

Thanks Kev and the AOG team, for another motivating contest.
 
I do celebrate the holidays.  For me, Christ's birthday is the Light that
conquers the Darkness of winter, naturally and spiritually. Here Mary and Joseph
enjoy the Light that has come into the World.
 
I have wanted to experiment with mirror mosaic on a large sconce to see how much
more light I could get out of a singe candle. This was the perfect time to try
it. I am pleased with the added light it gave the room.
 
I started with a glass Mary and Joseph I picked up at a garage sale many years
ago, but I had not found a Baby Jesus for it. And I had no idea how to make one.
The Vase I had already. It is 11.75", Perfect!  The seven or eight colors of
mirror scraps were given to me ages ago. I like how all the mirror had different
colored backs. I was going to grout or paint the back, but I like it the way it
is so I just sprayed it with mirror edge seal. The center of the star is
actually a snowflake ornament. I hoped the snowflake/star would make a shape on
the wall when it was lit, since all the other mosaic is mirror, but it did not.
It did make a nice lacy shadow though.
And I used up an old tube of E6000 that needed to be used soon. Total cost :)
 
The bottom was not big enough to let Mary and Joseph stand up. I added blobs of
3 sizes, but then the couple fell over. So I had to put a false bottom in it, on
top of the blobs.

[Kev]

Entry #5 Submitted by Diane

Even though I complain about the winter weather I love the fact that I live in an area with four seasons. Each one has benefits and drawbacks but wouldn't change a thing. When I seen the theme "Lighting the winter night" I had many thoughts come to mind until I settled for this one. Since I was a little girl I loved looking out the window on a quiet winter night after a fresh snowfall, so peaceful and beautiful.
I struggled for quite a while trying to come up with a pattern or idea. I am terrible at drawing and couldn't find the perfect pattern, so I was going to give up. I started cleaning the glass whole and found an agate I had an held it up to the light and saw the perfect moon, and found a pine tree cut out and that winter scene from my childhood came back. When I was Under 10 I lived in that had huge fields across the street. My Dad and 2 other neighbor Dads got together and made a huge vegetable garden and planted a pine tree in the middle. In the winter us kids loved playing there and making snowmen and snow angels. We even had a pond in the area for ice skating. Every year when we got out for Christmas vacation all the kids got together and decorated that pine tree with whatever we made or found.That was my view out my living room window and thanks to this contest a great memory came back. This is my version of that memory, not as vivid as my memory but the best I could do.
The panel measures about 10" round. I used the agate for the moon and a wispy cobalt for the night sky with varied sizes of clear nuggets for stars. The snow a wispy white and the pine tree is a pre cut tree I got in a box of scraps from a purchase made at an estate sale a few years ago.The stand was made with the help of my DH and will have my memory for years to come.

[Kev]

I love each and everyone of them, so my decision is going to be quite difficult!

[Tre V]

Crimony sales! What a HARD choice!  Are you SURE we can't vote for all of them!!??

[Kev]

I know! I love them all!

[glassman52]

                 I was curious about the diversity of entry's and I have to say I'm impressed, left pondering a decision, but impressed.

[JoanFrances]

What an amazing group to have to only pick one.  Everyone did a wonderful job.   

[Kev]

..what a hard decision...your all winners to me...the pieces submitted are all beautiful in their own way.

Tracy..your tree is just darling with it's flame worked ornaments and the decorative soldering detail...I love that you can change the ornaments if you want to..I love it!

Barb/Tina.. I love the whole concept and look of the piece..very artistic..I wish my mind was more able to see things in that way...love it!

Marsha.. I love this piece. It's so serene and wintery. I love how you used the dichroic glass in it.

Judy.. What a beautiful piece. The glow from the manger is so emotionally stirring. Your mosaic work is fantastic and is such a wonderful background...I love it!

Diane.. Love this piece. That moon is absolutely perfect!!!!! This piece makes me think of Vincent Van Gogh with the golds and blues. I can see why it brings you wonderful memories. I love the solder lines in the sky with the stars...I love it!

So...how does one decide when you love them all?...hmmmmm

[JudyK]

Yah! What he said!

What a great turn out. I feel funny saying more because I am participating. But I am SOOOO impressed!

Merry Christmas!

[Tom]

With all the great talent displayed in this contest, I am glad I didnt get in.  I know I am not up to the standards produced here.  Congratulations to ALL for the beautiful pieces you have made, and thank you for sharing them.

[JudyK]

Tom, tom don't talk like that. We are all doing different and wonderful things. You can't help it with glass. Make pretty things and strut your colors guy. 

[fay]

Each entry is absolutely beautiful.  They are all winners.

[Jglass]

Great job to all the participants.   They are beautiful.  Good luck.

[Tre V]

Are you SURE I can't vote four or five times? 

[JudyK]

I am so greatful you made it so we could not change our votes!!!!!!!! This would be terrible if we could second guess ourselves.

[Kev]

LOL@Judy...that's why I did it...because I would be going back and forth as well.