Mom's Stained Glass

My mom inherited the artistic knack from my grandfather and is always involved in some sort of craft project. Over the years she has worked in many different styles, but the last couple of years it has been stained glass. She meets regularly with some other people and they create stained glass stuff - mostly small items they sell at the church bazaar, but she also makes larger and more complex pieces. Last Christmas I sent her some patterns I found at Cathedral Stained Glass and then took her to the store when she was here for the wedding. She was like a kid in a candy store (and my dad was decidedly bored and ready to bolt).

My mom emailed me a few months before the wedding asking for suggestions about what she could give her future daughter in law as a wedding present. I wasn't very helpful but did mention that Jennifer would enjoy something hand made from her. Mom then sent me a photo of an icon she had framed with stained glass for my dad. I told her something like this would be a perfect gift since Jennifer likes religious images, I like Russian icons and we both like mom's work.

Mom tracked down the picture she wanted to frame, a traditional Mother and Child painting. It's actually a print of an icon (might be from a calendar) painted by Dan Siluan (a kriminal turned icon painting monk) based on the 12th century icon Vladimir Mother of God. Mom designed and built a lovely stained glass frame that incorporates and continues Mary's halo from the picture.

She gave Jennifer the picture on the same day we received grandfather's relief. For me she created a beautiful photo album consisting of photos from my first day at home in Prague (about seven days old) through my last evening in Switzerland before leaving for America (age 17).