Snow Cranes and Cherry Blossoms!

The home in Anaheim Hills, CA, with its linear single-level architecture and Asian accents, sits on a couple of acres of beautifully landscaped property. The couple travel extensively and bring back art from around the world, including many large antique Oriental paintings and sculpture, giving the home a peaceful Asian feel. 

Thus was my inspiration for their front entryway. I chose solid black walnut as the main wood for the doors and decided to use it in the windows as well, to help create a natural flow. It is a beautiful wood and one of my favorite woods to carve. 

My style of carving is to remove the background so that the design stands out - my carvings are not applied, they are a part of the wood. So that the snow cranes and cherry tree are carved right into the wood, and not glued on. In this case the cherry tree continues into the glass panels.

The glass panels are made of carved fused glass. I first deeply carve 1/2" thick glass, then fill those carvings with finely ground colored glass. I then place the glass panels on moulds that I have textured and fire the glass in my kiln, fusing the colored glass into the carved recesses and creating texture in the glass for both design and privacy. This technique allows me to integrate the carved wood and glass into one art piece. 

Again, this is one of my favorite styles - combining architecture with nature. More pictures below.

Above: View from the inside. You can see how subtle the texture in the glass is. It softens the light and adds privacy but doesn't interfere with the artistic design of the cherry tree branches and blossoms.