Antique cut crystal plates steal center stage for these eye catching custom designed kitchen cabinet door inserts. This series of doors features two sizes of matching ornate plates.
Cut Crystal Plate Centerpieces
Fabrication took extra care, as required by any three dimensional add-in to a stained glass project. This coupled with exacting geometry gave this project its challenges!
These breathtaking results are sure to be a family treasure!
Design Idea: This elegant design could also be executed using a collection of mismatched glass plates in various sizes or colors for a more casual boho or eclectic feel! A great way to use those incomplete sets of heirloom plates you can’t quite bear to part with because they are just too pretty!
Bring your custom design idea to us a Gallery’s Choice and see how easy it can be to create a cherished addition to your home’s decor!
Stained glass lampshade repair is a common request for us at Gallery’s Choice, and one of the most common problems is the separation of the metal cap from glass art. These failures are so often caused by heat. This heat can be generated from the use of traditional incandescent light bulbs.
Inspiration for stained glass projects can come from anywhere! This recent work deserves our “Project of the Day” designation. A Pisces horoscope symbol for a best friend was the basis for this beautiful work.
This piece features a grand 3″ round lens which stands almost an inch tall, providing the perfect offset bubble for the bumpy blue fish that encircle it! The remaining glass, a Caribbean blue green mix create the water sparkled by square bevels! A true one-of-a-kind treasure!
Wax and polish – it glows!
Crystal on the final class day – Assembly!
This work, intended as a birthday present for a best friend, was whisked away by plain to its intended recipient at Disney! Great job Crystal!
Today we are honored by the addition of a new local area artist in the Gallery’s Choice family. Joyce Knuepfer joins us as a watercolor portrait artist. Joyce started painting in her 40’s and learned her craft mostly by painting in groups, where she was able to pick up tips and see how other painters approached their work. Starting out in oil media, she transitioned to watercolor, where she recalls painting cards featuring young children and animals. Portraits in watercolor has been her most recent muse, focusing on this subject more or less exclusively for the past three years.
Joyce (and friends!) with three of her recent works now featured at Gallery’s Choice.
This seasoned artist accepts commissions and enjoys the challenges involved with capturing likenesses when asked to do them. Joyce’s passion for her art is amazing and inspiring as she is 93 years young, and only started to learn her craft as an adult. You can view her work and purchase pieces from the gallery!
We hope you will take inspiration from Joyce and join us for watercolor, oil or acrylic painting classes!
Many people are intimidated by stained glass, thinking they would love to do it, but it might be too hard. Or they do not feel they are artistic enough. Some can’t imagine how to work with the glass. They have questions about how to control it, shape it, meld it into the shapes they see in their artistic vision. Where do you begin?
At Gallery’s Choice, we create a lot of stained glass. Most all of our work is custom for homes and businesses. It is something we love to do so much that we had to share it! Our beginner and intermediate stained glass classes are well attended and a constant in our class schedule rotation. We currently offer three different class times during the week, with more “flex-time” studio availability for those who want/need more.
Our instruction is personal, delivered in a just-in-time manner, so you can learn at your own pace. You’ll be surrounded by others in class working on a variety of projects, at a variety of levels. (Our students are awesome, by the way.) This upbeat, supportive environment will help you be inspired!
In addition, the gallery does not require a minimum tool purchase to get started. Use our tools, and, when you are ready, you can purchase everything you need for your own home studio from us! We take away the barrier to entry – letting you try it before you invest!
Share this “Ad” with your friends! Our stained glass classes are our joy and we’d love to share this amazing art form with you.
So take a break from the rest of your to-do list and make time to learn something new! Who knows – you might get hooked on an amazing art form (like we did)!
Now registering for April 2019 – seats still available!
Building this little video ad was a lot of fun too! Stay tuned for more content rich videos and pro tips on this blog! Be sure and sign up to follow Gallery’s Choice “Live!” so you don’t miss out!
Hard to believe we have hosted more than 20,000 people in this class at Gallery’s Choice over the past 15 years! And it is still a crowd pleaser! This class makes a great memory when shared with friends. And, with Mother’s Day on the horizon – well you know!
Fused Glass Pendant
Create your very own space-age novelty by learning about fusing and the properties of dichroic glass! Regularly $49.00 USD, follow our blog and reserve your seat for out online special of only $20
It’s not too early to think spring, is it? (With today’s temperatures hovering around zero – it may be hard to tell!) We will no doubt be starting again in May, but until then, we will be super busy creating all of the GC Lavender products, making sure we are ready for when the market season hits!
This year, we are scheduled to be in regular attendance at the following local Farmers’ Market events:
Downtown Downers Grove Farmers’ Market, Saturdays from 7am-12:30pm, starting May 11
The Farmers’ Market at St. John’s Episcopal Church, (Naperville, IL), Wednesdays from 3pm-7pm, starting May 29
Oswego Farmers’ Market, Sundays from 9am-1pm, starting June 2
No need to wait, though. Our store is still fully stocked with all the favorites. So stop in today and “think spring”!
Copper enameling in 3-D takes on a fresh look. As mentioned earlier, today I had the privilege of facilitating this intermediate level jewelry making class. The results speak for themselves! Awesome job ladies!
In this class students:
Cut, shape and prepare multiple copper design elements
Prepare metal elements for enamels
Learn tricks for applying enamel to vertical and textured surfaces
Use a kiln to fire and fuse each layer of enamel
Assemble and embellish finished work using wire wrapping techniques
Find this interesting but have never enameled before? Our easy Torch-fired Enamel Pendant Class is a great way to start! Come in and play (with Fire!) in this super easy 2-hour, make and take class.
After this experience, you are ready to grow into the intermediate level 3D Enamel Class project.
As an artist, I do a lot of paintings. Most I can let go of and sell. I am often asked how I bare to part with a piece of stained glass or a painting after so much love and work has gone into it. I tell my students that it is like a right of passage, as an artist. You get to the point where the joy of doing it outweighs the joy of the finished work. At that point, usually when your living room, garage and basement has been taken over with finished pieces, that you realize you are ready to share with the world.
It is like a right of passage, as an artist. You get to the point where the joy of doing it outweighs the joy of the finished work.
Rose Jarecki, Owner/Artist, Gallery’s Choice
But this one was different.
I will hug him and squeeze him and call him “George”!
Inspired by the acrylic painting class with one of my younger students who brought this subject to class for us to explore, this little sea turtle worked up so cute. As he sat on the easel, every time I passed him, I couldn’t help but look into the face of this creation – the angle of the head seeming to look up at me and ask, “Which way to the sea?” I almost found myself reaching for him, wanting to pick him up and put him into the water, where he could continue his journey.
Acrylic Painting Class
So, this one I keep. I cannot bare to part with the cute expression of the face and the simple mood of this painting. I will name him “George” and proudly display him in my private collection.
But this said, I have a feeling this will not be the last of this inspired topic!
In our studio this week we are exploring a recurring theme – sea turtles! Currently working on a tryptic seascape that pays homage to the paintings of Robert Wyland, whose vivid and dramatic imagery is world renown.
While working on these three transoms in stained glass, I had an been inspired by one of our younger painting students at the gallery, and in that demo, I got swept away with the endearing subject matter. (Check out the results of that creative effort in my blog post on the acrylic sea turtle – “George.”)
These are some of the first looks at the dramatic stained glass designs as they are lifted from the board to flip the work over for further soldering. As we view the piece for the first time with transmitted light, we can finally see the luminance the art glass offers, and experience the contrast of lights and darks.
The dark sky and bright waters emphasize the importance of the subject below the surface of the water.
This work features my favorite Youghiogheny Opalescent Glass
In the next several days, the glass work should be finished and ready to be installed, where they will take their place along side several stunning Wyland prints.
Gallery's Choice "Live!" 