2010 Edward Gorey House Exhibition

The 2010 exhibition opens this week at the Edward Gorey House in Yarmouth Port, MA. The theme of the exhibition is Gorey-illustrated works by other authors. Included are books, ephemera, and original artwork by Edward Gorey. As usual, this year's exhibition promises to showcase many unusual and unique items.

This year I have lent eight pieces of original artwork by Mr. Gorey for display. If you have been enjoying this blog and wish to see some of the art in person, plan a visit the museum this year!

Included in my loan is all of the art from The Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost by John Bellairs (see my posting from March 6, 2010). At the request of Rick Jones, director of the Edward Gorey House, Bill Campbell and I have donated a stained glass window hanging which is inspired by the design from the back cover of this book. As readers of my blog may know, Bill and I own a stained glass studio (www.centurystudios.com) in St. Paul, Minnesota. The window hanging will be on display throughout the exhibition and will be auctioned to benefit the Edward Gorey House. For more information on how to bid on this piece, please contact the Edward Gorey House at 508-362-3909.

To create this one of a kind stained glass item, we began by hand drawing a full sized pattern or "cartoon" as our guide. Using hand rolled art glass, we cut and fit the glass pieces to match the cartoon.

Details for the window were then hand painted by Bill on the surface of each piece of glass using a powdered mineral oxide. Bill referenced an image of the artwork while hand painting details onto each piece of glass. The glass was then fired in a kiln to 1275 degrees to fuse the painting to the surface of the glass (this is where stained glass gets its name from...Silver Oxide will turn yellow when fired, staining the surface of the glass).

After much painting and firing, the edges of each piece of glass were hand wrapped in a copper foil tape. The use of the copper foil allows us to solder the pieces together - metal solder sticks to metal tape - and transform the individual glass pieces into a single window panel. Finally, the piece was cleaned and the lead lines were chemically darkened.

The completed piece of Edward Gorey-inspired stained glass is shown to the left.