A few years ago I purchased a stained glass window through an online auction because it featured a portrait of Benjamin Franklin. The exact history of this window is unknown to me, including where it was initially installed, but it’s been part of our home, and now hangs in the formal corner of our home’s main room.
While casting about for another window, we wanted something containing bamboo, which flourishes in our back yard. The combination was the idea that bamboo had grown to overwhelm the window – a stained glass joke.
The new window, pictured above, now directly faces the older window, with matching dimensions, and six pieces of bamboo growing across it.
The curvy bamboo was drawn from life. The six various colors are a bit fanciful, but only a bit.
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The initial sketch
This started with bamboo, and only gradually pulled Dr. Franklin into it. The crossover moment was this drawing, which still cracks me up a little:
Back in March 2019, all the bamboo was in front of the rectangular grid, and there was no Franklin portrait involved. Like most projects, it grew more complex over time.