Ozma Comes Home

Here’s the story of a window that was 30 years in the making!

Every year, Irwin & I close our studio between Christmas and New Year’s Day. This past holiday, with its lack of entertaining and socializing, seemed the perfect opportunity to finish a long lingering project. This began 30 years ago, when we created a stained glass window based on the endpaper drawing of Ozma in The Emerald City of Oz. This window was eventually sold through Books of Wonder.

Our studio was new at the time, and this was one of our first windows that required a painted face. As I was a little uncertain how things would go, I painted and fired two faces - one to be a spare in case of any accidents or problems in constructing the window. As it happened, the spare face was not needed and it was set aside. 

Miraculously, it survived years of being tossed about, filed, neglected, and left on a shelf. Then, 5 years ago, I decided it was time to use it. I drew up a new pattern, but a large window requires both time and considerable space for construction, and we didn’t have either - in fact, for the past several years we haven't taken window commissions, as we are booked up with lamp work.

So, this particular Christmas break seemed like an ideal opportunity to attempt the window. The timing worked out perfectly, with both of us cracking away, and there is now a new friend to keep us company in our window seat!