Garden Art

I am always trying to use stained glass in new ways. I love to garden and definitely want to bring some of my art into that. But in what way? Glass has some limitations there, but I know it has been done. I have seen some garden stakes made of stained glass, but was not impressed with their look or originality. I wanted something different.  

Doing some research, I came across pieces by several artists using 2 lengths of copper tubing and soldering glass pieces between them. Space was left at the bottom for the tubes to be inserted into the ground.  They were all different from each other, which I liked, and they allowed for either abstract or representational motifs.  They offered much more flexibility of design and expression than the standard one-staked dragonfly or butterfly.  They were more 'garden art piece'  than simple garden stake.

I loved them, and decided to try my hand at one.  Finding tubing was tricky, as too thick was unattractive and too thin was too bendy.  I settled on 3/8" tubing and annealed it for strength.  

I will have to polish it if I keep it copper, but I'm still deciding about that...Copper's natural green patina is so nice, but I may patina everything black. We'll see.  

Here is the piece with the glass rough cut, marker lines and all.  It was designed on-the-fly...no pattern.

I will post updates on this piece. I'm excited!