An Entry with Orchids, Birds, and a Pond Turtle in New Jersey

I received a called from new clients New Jersey who were interested in a custom-made front door. After we talked they said they would send me some ideas of what they were thinking about and we would talk again. I received the email with a rough sketch of the direction that they wanted to go in. My clients wanted a combination of glass and wood which is one of my favorite artistic combinations. They had looked at my website and saw that I was able to design and create pretty much anything.

The drawing included some specific birds that they wanted to use such as the Lilac Breasted Roller, Green Bee -Eater, Humming Birds, an Orchid plant, and that they loved Pond Turtles. I made several sketches to scale what I thought might work and after a few discussions and a couple changes we were all on the same page. I sent samples of some wood and some glass in the direction that I wanted to go and they were very interested. So we were ready to start, and I was excited because this type of project is right up my alley, a beautiful hand-carved, hand-painted and fused glass door, with nature as it’s core concept.

The door is made of African mahogany with half-inch thick carved, painted, and kiln-fused glass. The wood carving is heavily carved, about two-inches deep on the outside and a lighter carving on the inside, with the handles incorporated into the design.

Because of the complexity of the design I made a pallet of colors to use on the glass and I sent that pallet to my clients in New Jersey for approval. Both the design of the wood and the glass was very detailed and was a lot of fun for me because detail is what I like to do. I was really happy with how everything came out and sent some pictures as soon as it was done.

We then arranged for the installation. My clients did not trust the normal freight shipping companies and said that their contractor was not comfortable to do the installation. So they asked me to drive the entryway on my truck to New Jersey and do the installation, which I agreed to do. The installation went well and my clients were very pleased with the outcome.

All the neighbors from the surrounding area were coming to see what was going on and could not believe how beautiful the front door was. Most of the work I do is extremely time consuming and meticulous, which is what I love doing, and it’s especially fun because of the great people I work with.