Crois Chorcra/Purple Cross
(20" x 20")
Completed February 27, 2009

This recently finished window was both an exercise in patience and an amazing education.  The border features my first experiments with using flashed glass, allowing me to finally give in to the outright ludicrous obsession with intricate patterning I seem to have developed over the years.  In the arms of the cross, I was able to play around even more with zoomorphs -- and to finally draw a pair of beard-pullers my very own, their position modeled from illuminations on the Chi Rho page of the Book of Kells.

Best of all, this commission allowed me a chance to test a few techniques I plan on taking much further, down the road.  I've a great, grand cross in mind, and this was an, ah...illuminating taste of what may be soon to come.  Key and step patterns, flashed glass, knotted figures, two peacocks, six egrets, a pair of water-moccasins, and a big ole' Irish serpent. And a whole lotta love. Turtle knots, unfortunately, not included in this model -- they were just too intricate this time around.