Project 1: In Memory of a Dragon Slayer

My first project is inspired by, dedicated to and starring my friend Ilya. I met Ilya my junior year of high school. I wouldn't go as far as to say we were ever BFFs or anything close to that, but we had many friends in common and we certainly had a few summer nights sitting out on a friend's porch thinking about the wonders of the universe and the meaning of life. Ilya was a one of kind human being. I thought he was totally strange in high school because, well, he was. He wore bright color combinations and spray painted words on his clothes. Words like awesome and sexy. He spray painted sexy on the butt of one his pants, good placement Ilya. He was a total flirt and according to him, woke up each morning to the mantra of "life is awesome", which he apparently had written on the wall across from his bed. Ilya passed away suddenly in November of 2011 and while I hadn't spoken to him in about 3 years, I know that myself and many of my friends were deeply sadden by the news of his passing. Ilya was full of potential and if I were to make a list of people I know who would actually make a name for themselves and maybe change the world, Ilya would be at the top of my list.

Ilya's funeral was beautiful, but very hard. People came from as far away as California to say good bye to him. While I was sitting in the church surrounded by people who were mourning the loss of a beautiful soul I decided that I wanted to make something to honor Ilya. I came up with the idea for this window. I hope it captures the spirit of Ilya, the person who found delight and awesomeness in everything he touched. The dandelion seed is the logo of his start up project diaspora* (http://diasporaproject.org/).

The Process:

The stained glass process goes something this, draw the pattern, cut the glass pieces, foil the glass pieces, solder them together, add a frame and put on finishing details like patina or paint etc. So here's some pictures from along the way. 

Foiled and ready to go.

Soldered and Framed, although not done.
It still needs patina and some paint, the eye looks a little weird.

So I may have cheated a little with this project because I came up with the idea and drew the actual design before last week, but the universe made sure I didn't get off too easy. Somehow, one of my pieces cracked. I don't know if I did it or if the heat from my soldering iron did it, but it happened. I'm not sure how noticeable the crack would have been to the casual observer, but it was all I could see whenever I looked at it, so I decided to try to fix it. I've never done anything like this, so I was a little nervous about it. But it all worked out. An overview of the fixing process, break the broken piece out and replace it with a new one.  

Removing the old piece.

I felt like I was doing Brain Surgery

And of course, I had to have a little fun with the camera...

Ta-dah! 

I can see you.

Conclusion:
I look at this project as a way for me gain some closure for a tragedy that I could not control. I can only hope that I have also honored Ilya at the same time. Ilya, you will be missed.

"Being part of creating stuff for the universe is awesome." - Ilya Zhitomirskiy