March 19th, 2010 by Ron Branch

The Farm Cafe is a charming and romantic restaurant in Portland Oregon. The building is actually a converted late 19th century house that retains much of it’s original character.

The design for the windows are meant to blend with the decor including some actual antique windows already there.

UPDATE: Install on Tuesday was successful. The slideshow of the building process turned out quite nice (click on the image to the left).

Portland Or, Stained Glass

March 17th, 2010 by Ron Branch

This time it’s one for us. A bit belated – it felt better to avoid it for a while. We left this one unpainted – definitely a subtler look. (click to enlarge)

It’s true, our cat “Friday” WAS old, but it didn’t really seem like it – just last year I looked out the window and was shocked to see him fearlessly beating on a big raccoon that was eating out of his bowl. Probably embarrassing for Friday that the raccoon didn’t seem to notice much and just continued eating.

Micky has a nice Friday post on her blog. Good photo too. Here is a link.

Pet Memorial, Stone Carving

March 14th, 2010 by Ron Branch

“Pi, Greek letter (π), is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Pi Day is celebrated by math enthusiasts around the world on March 14th. Pi = 3.1415926535…” – www.piday.org

I guess this is why my son baked a pie (was actually a quiche) and took it to school. We were also going to celebrate by watching the movie “Pi” (one of my favorites) but we ran out of time. I’ve always liked the Pi symbol – so much so, I once carved it onto a rock.

Pi Symbol, Stone Carving, Vancouver Wa

March 7th, 2010 by Ron Branch

I always enjoy fixing up a fixer-upper. I knew I was going to love this old potters wheel once it got cleaned up. It’s quite a contraption. It has a lever that you push with your foot that turns the big heavy lower wheel. Once you get it going, it goes for a long time on its own.

This was todays project. Several hours of sandblasting off the old layers, and then some really cool Rustoleum spray I found that gives the finish a “hammered” look. (Click on the photo to see progress shots).

Potters Wheel, Sandblast, Vancouver Wa

March 2nd, 2010 by Ron Branch

There is a sense of discovery that never goes away in glass etching – you’re never really sure how it’s going to turn out until it’s done. The glass work I did during the period so far described in the series of booth building posts happened basically in the late eighties. I had taken a part-time job as a “runner” in a Scottsdale company named Glass Design to make some money as I tried to begin college. I had never seen glass art before (or at least had never noticed it), and I remember touching sandblasted glass for the first time and wondering how they got that “on” there. Luckily it was explained to me before I asked the unfortunate question.

I had a proficiency in pencil art, and immediately knew I could do well in glass etching. They were doing simple shading techniques, carving, and mostly one stage peel and shoot stuff. I felt driven to see what I could do with it, and so they let me give it a shot. Within a couple weeks I had dropped my college classes and was working there full time, learning stained glass as well. I had only done a few projects with shading when suddenly a church wanted a huge etched Jesus. It was pretty exciting, and I wasn’t afraid. I should’ve been. I had never even tried doing a face before. It went well considering my lack of experience.

So here is a slideshow of surviving images from that time of intense learning. (just click on the photo)

History