. 

A beautiful Glassmasters piece for Valentine's Day, 'The Kiss' by Rosetti.  

Buy Glassmasters and Stonemasters products from our brand new shop!

There is a new development underway! We have been invited by Amazon to participate in a new programme where they will host an online shop for us. Initially this will be in addition to our storefront on the Amazon site itself and our own shop on stainedglassphotography.com.

Basically what Amazon have done is to establish a platform which enables them to allow merchants to create a new presence using all of the listings and images etc, with some customisation, and utilise Amazon's commercial system so that orders and all of the financial aspects are handled by Amazon.

There is still quite a bit of work to be done in terms of arranging the items into logical categories and adding details about shipping times and costs and sales and returns policies and so on but the site is already fully functional and so if anyone decides to buy something it can be done with a couple of clicks.

Currently the shop is called RALLEY, which is the name which our presence on Amazon went by, but we also intend to use the name Museum Quality Gifts and the url will be MQGifts.com. Currently we are offering the entire ranges of Glassmasters and Stonemasters products as well as some Frameable Art Cards and some larger, matted, photographic prints. We have already established some sub-categories for easier and quicker browsing including a Frank Lloyd Wright section, a Louis Comfort Tiffany section, a Thomas Kinkade section and a number of others.

In time, hopefully sooner rather than later, we intend to add other, complimentary, product lines.

So, if you would like to take a look simply click here and why not be one of the first to christen it? At time of writing this there is still time to get an order shipped in time for Valentine's Day, but only if you are quick!

New Listings on Amazon

This weekend I added some new Glassmasters products to my listings on Amazon. The specific products are 6 suncatchers based on works by Marjolein Bastin, a very well renowned Dutch artist. These were recently launched by Glassmasters and complement the wild bird art of James Hautman and, of course, Michael Smith's Mad Bluebird images. This link should take you to the 6 Bastin items and I will also post an image of one of them below.

The contribution by John La Farge to the development of American stained glass-making was immense though he is far less well-known than his rival and contemporary, Louis Comfort Tiffany. Glassmasters have produced several authorised reproductions of La Farge works and this is a personal favourite of mine called, simply, Butterflies and Foliage. 

Press release

This is what finally went out:

War Story With a Difference

Verona, NJ (PRWEB) November 9th 2004 -- On Christmas eve, all around the combat zones, services will be held for US and Allied troops, airmen and their support personnel. These services are usually held in large buildings, without character, which have to serve as briefing rooms, hangers, movie theatres and, sometimes, places of worship. They are almost invariably spartan and lack any of the decor usually found in a place of worship.

This year things will be different, thanks to the efforts of a US Air Force chaplain based in Kyrgyzstan and a New Jersey-based photographer and stained glass enthusiast. Though they have never met and are living thousands of miles apart, these two are working together to create a slide-show which will be used at Christmas services not only at the Manas USAF base in Kyrgyzstan but potentially at every base in Iraq and neighbouring countries, in Afghanistan and even onboard US Navy ships around the world.

It was Fr Tim Butler who came up with the idea of projecting appropriate images onto the base?s 30-foot screen in order to give more meaning to the usually bare space which they would be using for Christmas worship. He contacted Neil Ralley whose website (http://www.stainedglassphotography.com ) has literally hundreds of images of stained glass windows, many depicting Advent themes, and Mr Ralley immediately agreed not only to give free use of his images but also to donate his time to create the slide-show for them both to distribute.

About Fr Timothy Butler:
Fr. Butler has been an active duty chaplain in the Air Force for over 10 years and a priest ordained for the Archdiocese of Boston for 15 years. He is currently performing a 4-month tour of duty at Manas base in Kyrgyzstan.

About Neil Ralley:
Ralley created and launched the website Stained Glass Photography (http://www.stainedglassphotography.com ) in 2002 to provide free access to his photographs of vintage stained glass. The site became a Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) ?Pick of the Day? barely a month after it was launched and has attracted a significant following. Ralley strongly believes that stained glass represents an important part of America?s artistic heritage which is at risk and that it should be properly documented as well as being preserved for future generations.

Nativity scene by Glassmasters based on a work by Zettler of Munich. Which can be purchasedhere. 

The Election is over and the Holiday season begins

The pundits and pollsters are still trying to understand what happened with the election result and why even the usually-accurate exit polls on the morning of the election itself simply came in with the wrong answer.

The concensus which is emerging is that a substantial body of voters from middle-America, perhaps including people who don't usually bother to vote, became motivated to vote against gay marriage and for Bush. The election is hailed as having been won (and lost) on moral value issues rather than the expected economic and security considerations which both campaigns fought so hard over.

Anyway, for better or for worse, it is behind us now and the countdown to Christmas begins in earnest. For anyone 'out there' who is waiting to order something from this website with Christmas in mind NOW is the time to act - not next week or the week after and, PLEASE, not the week before Christmas itself!

In addition to our 'Frameable Art Cards' the Glassmasters and Stonemasters collections include some great gift and decorative ideas. However, to minimise the risk of disappointment, if items are required before Christmas the orders should be placed as soon as possible. Please understand that it is not just a question of shipping times, in the case of cards we often make these to order and when we get a large number of orders the lead-time increases. In the case of the Glassmasters items if a particular item sells out in November the chances are that new stock will not be available until early in the New Year.

Harvest Beauty by Alphonse Mucha in stained glass, one of the latest Glassmasters designs 

Hidden Gems

This week I discovered that there are some items in the Glassmasters inventory which I had thought to have been long sold out.

Amongst these are some exceptional reproductions of stained glass works by John La Farge as well as one by Edward Burne-Jones.

I have uploaded 5 of these magnificent works onto a special page which I have titled "Hidden Gems" and would urge anyone who is interested to make your purchase soon because in a couple of instances there are less than 20 in stock and these are unlikely to be manufactured again.

Reproductions of stained glass by John La Farge and Edward Burne-Jones

What's going on? What on EARTH is this??

Well, it's a long and complicated story which (a) I don't wish to bore anyone with and (b) contains many technicalities which are well beyond my grasp, the explaining of which would get me out of my depth in no time.

Trying to simplify the explanation, there has grown up a whole technology around what is called "blogging" which is short for "web log".

Blogs have been in existence for years, decades even, and they are basically diaries or journals updated and published by individuals or groups and until the last couple of years were a kind of fringe activity.

What has happened more recently is that they have begun to have a greater influence on search engine results and this has resulted in them coming more into the mainstream.

My own interest stems from recent evidence that the contents of blogs can be reflected in Yahoo search results within a very short time-frame. I initially tried to set up the "New" page as a blog or RSS feed a couple of months ago but was unsuccessful due to problems with the interface between blogger.com and my web-host's server. This week, however, I decided to give it another try in an attempt to drive up traffic and hopefully sales of Glassmasters items and cards in the run-up to Christmas. To my incredible surprise this time it worked.

As far as I am aware blogs or RSS feeds have little or no influence on Google search results but that could change at any time and in any event Yahoo is a good source of commercial traffic.

My level of competence in getting the page "right" in terms of colours and text etc is sadly lacking and until that changes I'm afraid that visitors are stuck with the bright orange banner and text of varying colours.

The good news is that now that it is set up it really is a breeze to add updates and even images. I don't need to edit the page in my own system and upload it via FTP. All I have to do is log on to blogger.com, create a post, add links and upload in a couple of clicks.

October 17th

The new items have been added to the various sections to which they belong. A few details have still to be posted but we did not wish to delay adding the items with the Holidays getting closer each day.

A couple of pieces of news to report. Firstly one of our images is to be published in the December edition of 'Good Housekeeping'. This is the US (not UK) magazine which I understand has a circulation of over 5 million. This is far from being the lucrative proposition that most would expect for this kind of usage but hopefully the mention of the website will result in some more visitors and perhaps some of them may stop to buy things. The image which they will be using is a picture of an angel and I believe that it is to accompany an article about true-life experiences involving angels.

The second thing to mention is still evolving and it concerns the free use of some of our images by at least one branch of the US military (USAF) to enhance Christmas Eve services on remote bases where worship has to be conducted in surroundings which have been described to me as being 'spartan'. The particular base which has made this initial request is Manas Air Base, in Kyrgyzstan which I have yet to look for on a map. However, it is my hope that whatever we produce for use there can also be utilised by other bases in other parts of the world to brighten up the Christmas services for soldiers, sailors, marines as well as members of the air force.

October 10th

There is probably more news than I have time to type but I will at least try. Firstly there are a lot of imminent changes in the Glassmasters line-up. The company has recently launched over 20 new products which I will get posted on the site shortly but this is also being accompanied by the retirement of some of the older products, a situation which is tricky to manage.

Basically what happens is that pending retirements are announced but the items are available as long as existing stocks last - this can range from weeks or more in the case of less popular items to as short as a few days with others. Rather than delete items when the retirement is announced we prefer to continue to offer them until stocks are more or less totally exhausted but we do run the risk that we might not be able to fulfill an order as happened on at least one occasion recently.

Of course when this happens we always offer either a full refund or a substitution according to the wish of the customer but there is still the potential for disappointment when someone was hoping to get a particular item.

The best advice we can offer is not to delay any purchase which you plan to make. This is all the more true with the Holidays looming ever-larger on the horizon. Glassmasters (and Stonemasters) have warned us that they expect to have a very busy season this year and every year there are some items which sell out by December, by which it is too late to plan additional production. So if you are thinking about buying any items for the holidays please place your orders as soon as possible. Right now most current items are available but this will almost certainly not be the case as we get nearer to Thanksgiving and Christmas.

You will notice a link at the top of the page inviting you to send a free e-card - please follow it and send at least one card. We are participating in a competition which is being run by CrossDaily and the first referring website to send 100,000 visitors to them via the card link will receive $1,000 which we plan to donate to the Save the Children Fund. I plan to circulate links to this page as far and as fast as I can. Technically we have until December to hit the magical 100,000 visitors but I believe that with some energy and creativity we could hit the number within a lot shorter time, perhaps even less than a week, such is the nature of the internet. There is really no cost to it, just a small investment of time, and the recipient of the card(s) you send will be most appreciative.

August 11th

I need to add something otherwise the "New" will be a misnomer! It is not that things have not been happening but I have not been disciplined in recording and publicising what has been going on. The real purpose of this particular update is to highlight the fact that today, for some selected items in the Glassmasters range, we have begun to offer *FREE* shipping on domestic orders.

It was apparent that some of our visitors were coming to check out our Glassmasters offerings but were not buying from us and when I surveyed the market it was clear that some of our competitors are offering free shipping on orders above a certain threshold. Not to be outdone, we have initiated a trial period of free shipping for selected items and we will see how it goes. Whether we continue it or not will depend on the number of orders we get, it only really makes sense if it means extra volume.

Earlier today we did receive a trial order from a company in Japan for quite a range of our cards and I feel confident that it will lead to larger orders in the future.

If you have been tracking the 'Buildings' section you will have noted the folders containing the recent work from the 4 churches in Jersey City.

February 2004 Update

February
18th update

Not very much news to report. Two events are on the horizon which might interest readers who live within reach of northern New Jersey. The first is an exhibition of work which will take place in the Atrium Gallery which is within the Municipal Court buildings in Morristown from sometime around the end of April until July. The other is a slide show and lecture at the New Jersey Historical Society on Saturday May 8th, subject yet to be determined.

I did send out a February update but I have noticed that email has recently become less reliable than it used to be and I am wondering all of the copies reached their addressees. If anyone reading this did not receive a copy and would like one please email me.

Mel Gibson's film 'The Passion' is scheduled to be released in about a week's time and I am anticipating that it will result in an increased interest in everything to do with The Passion and Holy Week which will probably result in more traffic to the site as people search online for images of Gethsemane, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection.

February
24th update

I am very pleased to be able to report that from today StainedGlassPhotography cards may be purchased from the giftshop in St Bartholomew's (St Bart's) Episcopal Church on Park Avenue in New York (between 50th and 51st). I personally made the first delivery today so that they would be available for people attending the Ash Wednesday services. The cards are also going to be available both physically and online at the Episcopal Book and Resource Center whose shop is on 2nd Avenue
and, in addition, the Book and Resource Center is planning to stock some larger-sized prints.

February
29th

I thought that I should make an entry today as this date only comes around every four years! This week saw the release of The Passion of Christ after a very skillfully managed publicity campaign. I went to see it on Friday and it is probably the most poweful film I have ever seen. I read an interesting comment earlier today which unfortunately I am unable to attribute because I did not see the whole article. Basically the question was posed that, in light of the huge success of The Passion of Christ, has the cinema become the stained glass of the 21st century? Films about the Bible and the Life of Jesus are not a new phenomenon and they have not all been given the 'Hollywood Gloss' as, say, 'The Ten Commanments' or 'King of Kings'. I seem to recall that 'The Gospel according to St Mark' had a few things in common with The Passion of Christ, at least in terms of it's realism, the treatment and the use of relatively unknown actors. Nevertheless, Gibson's Passion of Christ marks a watershed and it will be interesting to see what develops and evolves from it.

In anticipation of some interest in Passion, Holy Week and Resurrection images today I revamped the cards section. We have decided to make the individual card purchase option a permanent feature and so what we have done is to create a common 'Cards' page from which can be accessed 'Individual Cards' and 'Sets of Cards' and to both we have added some images which are appropriate to The Passion and the run up to Easter. However, if the image(s) which you like are not represented on the
card pages please email us and ask because most of the images on the site, and others not yet up[loaded, can be available as cards or even larger prints.

On a slightly less serious note it is interesting to see what happens with keywords in search engines such as Google and Yahoo. I just tried a few searches around 'The Passion of Christ' and this site is nowhere, at least not in the first 23 pages brought back by Google, unless you add the two magic words 'stained' and 'glass' and then we come up #2 in Yahoo and about #4 in Google. It will be interested to see if this page comes higher ranked in the general search. Google updates quite often and the Google spiders visit every day or two.

January 2004 Update

January 11th
update

Happy New Year! I have just finished a somewhat belated reorganisation of the cards pages. There are two significant changes - firstly the Christmas cards have been given their own page and this means that the cards page will now load faster. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, for a limited time we are offering visitors the chance to buy individual cards with a below-cost S&H charge. This means that if you just want to buy one card for a very special gift or occasion you can do so for about the same as you would pay for a Hallmark card but with one of these you are getting a miniature work of art, a real one-of-a-kind. The following is a quotation from an email which I received from someone who had just purchased 2 sets of the cards,
I was going to paraphrase it but I don't think that I could possibly do it justice and so here it is, verbatim:-

"Thanks! The pictures are incredible. My wife couldn’t believe they were photos of stained glass. She said they look like paintings – not photos of paintings, but paintings themselves. She didn’t know how you did it. High praise, I think. A personal letter written in that note card would be a gift to treasure. You may want to pitch that concept around the holidays, or Valentine’s Day. What better gift than a photograph of an incredible work of art accompanying a personal note. You’re bringing two nearly lost (and moving art) forms -- stained glass and letter writing – together in one gift."

I am certainly hoping that we make some sales for Valentine's Day, and for Easter too which is just around the corner. Last but not least I believe that I will soon have completed the upload of pictures of the windows in Christ's Episcopal Church in Riverton. The crowning glory is a fairly early Tiffany rose window which I believe dates to when he was about 35 yrs old and would have been involved personally to a much greater extent than with some of the many later works. It is an unusual design with an inner circle with some angel faces surrounded by what appear to be cornucopias decorated with holly branches. There are other nice windows but I have yet to determine the makers of the other works. I will apologise in advance for any shortcomings in the editing. I should have spent more time adjusting them and even eliminating some duplications which slipped through but I ran out of time and decided to upload something rather than nothing.

December
19th update

Unfortunately the Christmas Concert at the convent of St Elizabeth had to be cancelled due to the severe snow-storm which struck New Jersey on the weekend that it was planned to take place. However, I am delighted to be able to announce that some of the photographs which I took and which were going to be exhibited have now been posted on the website of
the Sisters of Charity from whom prints may be ordered.

January 18th
update

A folder has just been uploaded which contains images of some of the windows from Christ Episcopal Church, a beautiful stone-built church on the border of Bloomfield and Glenridge. There is a set of 3 lancets by Tiffany Studios - one is an Annunciation, the second is an Adoration of the Magi and the third is Jesus as a boy, preaching to the Elders in the Temple. There is another 3-lancet set opposite it (image #04) which includes a rather fine angel playing a mandolin is signed "Kimberley" and dates from the 1920's. The west window is a depiction of Jesus blessing the children, I do not know the maker. As with the folder uploaded last week these are not labelled and have been subject to minimal editing.

The other significant item of news is that we have located a source for genuine examples of antique stained glass. These are mostly panels from houses and other secular buildings and right now there are some beautiful examples of early Arts and Crafts Movement panels from the 1880's. One set in particular which caught my attention features beautifully hand-painted images of birds. Due to the fact that most of their customers are from the US all their pricing is in $US and is therefore unaffected by the weaker dollar. Eventually I plan to set up a permanent link to this interesting source of original works but for the time being you can access it from here
if you like Victorian and Edwardian stained glass and have a house
where it would look good then you would do well to at least take a look at what is available. However, you must bear in mind that these are original, one-of-a-kind pieces and the stock is turning over all the time. On the one hand it means that new items are constantly being added but it also means that when you see something you like you may need to move quickly.

January 30th
update

I am delighted to announce that Stained Glass Photography has been appointed as an online distributor of the entire range of Glassmasters fine stained glass reproductions. For many years now this company in Richmond, Virginia, has been producing fine miniature replicas of works by Tiffany Studios, Frank Lloyd Wright, John La Farge, Marc Chagall and others. It is no coincidence that many great museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation have all chosen Glassmasters to reproduce their stained glass treasures.

This represents a significant enhancement to the website and offers not only the chance to buy these beautiful works but also the chance to see many new images. Whilst these are not photographs of real windows in situ the Glassmasters models are so beautifully made and with such attention to detail that they are themselves worth looking at in order to better appreciate the design qualities in the original works. For me this was particularly true of the Frank Lloyd Wright collection because I have never seen his work first-hand and the opportunity to look closely at the pictures of these 25 to-scale miniatures has given me a much better appreciation of why his work is so sought after. Examples

November 2003 Update

November
1st update

We now have 9 sets of cards specially selected with Christmas in mind. At time of writing all of the cards are on one page and that makes the page very slow to load. To anyone reading this who has a dial-up connection and/or a slow modem I would ask you to be patient. We are planning to split the content into 2 pages and I am hopeful that this will be done within a day or two.

If you are planning to order cards then now would not be too soon. The cards are more or less made-to-order and we do not carry large stocks. There are several events coming up which will place demands on us and if we get a sudden upsurge of business via the website we might get back-ordered. To avoid disappointment or delay I am urging everyone to place their orders early so that we can be sure to be able to fulfill them.

These are really great cards. Yesterday I delivered the Christmas order to Epstein's in Morristown and the buyer commented on how bright and vibrant the colours are.
This is partly the photography but also because they are actual photographic
prints and rarely can a conventionally printed card reproduce colour the way
a photo can.

October was
a record-breaking month in terms of traffic through the website. During the
course of the month 16,624 unique users made a total of 33,774 visits to the
site and viewed 75,333 pages. I will watch with interest to see how November
and December pan out but it is clear to me that there is interest in this art
and I have no regrets in having embarked on this journey. However, I will need
help if
the site is to continue and grow.

November
26th update

There are a few upcoming events which may be of interest to visitors who are within reach of northern New Jersey.

Firstly some work is being exhibited at the Gallery Petite in High Bridge, just outside Clinton. It is part of a larger exhibition entitled 'Of the Spirit' comprising works in a range of different media by several artists. The exhibition opened in November and will close at the end of December.

Also running during the month of December is an exhibition at a gallery in Clifton called 'The Artisan's Touch'. The gallery is located on the lower level of the Styertowne Shopping Center which is just off route 3 at the Bloomfield Avenue exit. The gallery is open Tuesdays through Sundays from 11.00am or noon depending on the day. There will be a "Meet the Photographer" session on Saturday 13th December from around 1.00pm. For further details or directions call the gallery on 973-471-0001.

On December 6th 2003 cards and prints will be on sale at the 'Fair in the Square' in Verona.

On December 7th 2003 there will be a Christmas Concert entitled "Cathedral Sounds at Christmas" at the Convent of St Elizabeth in Convent Station. Immediately following the concert will be an exhibition and sale of photographs of the exquisite stained glass windows in the chapel of the Motherhouse, where the concert will have been held. Admission is by ticket only and tickets may be obtained by calling Sister Sheila Holleran on 973-290-5454.

For anyone who is planning to order one or more sets of our cards now would be a good time to do it. At time of writing this update I can safely promise a speedy turnaround of orders and pre-Christmas delivery, even to overseas purchasers. If you haven't made your mind up yet whether to buy some then all I can say is 'go ahead and buy', you will not be disappointed. I sold a lot at a local Christmas Fair this past weekend and everyone loved them. Many people said that they were buying them for framing or to use as Christmas decorations or special gifts rather than to be sent as cards. If you are ready to buy then click on the link at the top of this page.

October 2003 Update

October 14th
update

Kia Ora!
Welcome to all our new visitors from New Zealand!

A couple
of days ago there was a spike in traffic as measured by my statistics analyser.
It wasn't the biggest spike we have ever seen but it was nevertheless noticeable
and raised my curiousity. It seems that someone called Max Newman who edits
a weekly newsletter for xtra, which is part of the MSN Network had said some
kind words about the site and this was prompting people to look us over. Well,
I wish all our new guests a warm welcome and thankyou Max!

There is
not much other news to report. The Convent of St Elizabeth work is progressing
well and there will definitely be an exhibit of work at their Christmas Concert
on December 7th. I would urge anyone who can get to Morristown in New Jersey
to obtain a ticket and plan to attend. The setting is really beautiful, I am
sure that the music will be superb and there will be some fine photographs to
be viewed afterwards. Prints will be on sale as will cards, all featuring the
exquisite windows in the chapel of the Motherhouse, and a significant portion
of the proceeds will be used by the Sisters for charitable purposes. By way
of a preview, here
is a detail from one of the windows at St Elizabeth's Convent. The angel is
from an Annunciation window

Today I added
a "Help Us" page and installed links from this page (see above) and
from the home page. I thought that it was timely to remind our visitors that
what is offered as a 'free' resource actually costs money to provide and we
genuinely do need help and support from our visitors if we are to continue to
provide the facility.

Last but
not least can I urge any of you who are planning to order cards from us to please
place your order sooner rather than later. We do not carry large numbers of
these in stock and if there is a significant demand for them all at once then
I can foresee difficulties in getting them delivered in time. I realise that
it is only mid-October but the more orders which can be placed and fulfilled
between now and mid-November the happier I shall be.

September 2003 Update

September
1st update

The main
item of news is that I have recently been priviledged to have been asked to
photograph some windows in the Motherhouse of the convent of St Elizabeth at
Convent Station, near Morristown, in New Jersey. These include some of the most
exquisite windows I have ever seen. Probably 19thC and of German origins some
of them are very fine indeed and they are in a building which, of it's nature,
is relatively inaccessible to the public. At this time I am discussing using
the images for charitable purposes to raise money for the Sisters of Charity
but I hope that at some point I will be able to post some of these pictures
on the website because they really are beautiful.

I am beginning
to gear up for the holiday season and am hoping to show and sell work at several
events. The first is a street fair in Madison on October 4th which replaces
the June event cancelled due to bad weather. I am then hoping to do a small
exhibit at St John's in Somerville in early November, attend the NY Episcopal
Diocese convention later that month and then the Caldwell College fair after
Thanksgiving.

If anyone
who reads this is thinking of ordering some of our notecards with the Holidays
in mind, either as cards or as gifts, then I would urge you to place your order
early. We do not carry huge stocks of the cards and if we are inundated with
orders in December then there is a chance that we may have problems fulfilling
them all in time. Right now would be a great time to place your orders and that
way there will be no pressure and you will get your cards in ample time. Also,
please remember that the cost of postage and packing is the same whether you
buy one set, two sets or even ten sets.

September
11th 2003 update

I very much
regret to announce the sad loss, on September 10th, of Walter Douglas Leek (best
known as Doug), who was for 61 years the loving husband of Mary Elizabeth Leek,
father of my wife Eileen, her sister Kathleen and brother Dougie and doting
grandfather of my stepson, Michael. He was a pillar of a man - a sergeant in
the US Marine Corps in WW2 he led machine-gun crews on Iwo Jima and was decorated,
including the Purple Heart. After the war for many years he delivered literally
tons of large animal carcasses to butchers' shops around New York and in his
spare time built a house, single-handedly and with no modern power-tools. He
recovered from a major heart attack and enjoyed a long retirement in Otisville,
NY where he hand-built an extension to his home. For the last 17 years he has
spent as much time as possible with his grandson, Michael who was born with
CP, and has had a profound impact on Michael's development and determination
to overcome his physical limitations. At every possible opportunity Doug would
come to stay with us and spend time with Michael. Sometimes it would be ostensibly
to be there to pick Michael up from school but the reality was that he simply
took every possible opportunity to be with his "buddy" Mike. He also
had 2 other grandchildren of whom he was very proud - Kyle and Stephen - and
both of them, now in their late 20's, had spent many happy summers with "Poppa"
when they were young. Fiercely proud of his family's long tradition in the fire
service in his former home town, Flushing, New York, he recently donated his
great grandfather's silver ceremonial fireman's trumpet to the American Museum
of Firefighters in Hudson, New York. In retirement he was an avid collector
of many things, including antique sewing machines which he took great pleasure
in restoring. He was very active in the Marine Corps League as well as being
a volunteer worker in his local First Aid Rescue Squad. He had tremendous compassion,
a great sense of humour, a strong sense of duty and a strong work ethic. He
will be greatly missed by many and the world was a better place for his presence
and has suffered a loss through his absence.

September
28th 2003 update

In case you
had not noticed there have been a few new features added to the site. Firstly
we have entered into affiliate programmes with AllPosters and Amazon in order
to provide the opportunity for visitors to purchase prints, books and other
items while visiting us and at the same time contributing to the upkeep of the
site. Any goods purchased via one of these links will cost exactly the same
as if purchased by going to these sites direct but if you follow one of our
links and purchase something we receive a small commission. Eventually we may
put the links onto the home page but for the time being you will find them in
the Giftshop. We have tried to keep the items relevant to stained glass and
the artists featured here and it is all passive advertising - if you are not
interested simply ignore it.

The other
thing which we have been working on is a concept which I think we will call
'E-blessings' and which I may even trademark if no-one has beaten me to it.
Basically what we are setting up is a means whereby our visitors can send one
of our images via email with a message and/or scripture attached. This facility
is provided free to us by a company called Supertaf which uses the mechanism
for advertising purposes. We are hopeful that the means of sending free electronic
greetings will not detract from sales of our real cards, which are really a
different thing altogether, and we are very pleased to offer this free service
to our visitors. The first card was created and uploaded earlier today but I
am hopeful that before too long there will be a range of options available featuring
different designs and with different occasions in mind. Here is a link to our first card

August 2003 Update

August 8th
update

In case you
scrolled past it without noticing, at the top of this page is a link to the
page where you can purchase a set of our cards. These notecards really are beautiful
and they are perfect for framing - you just drop them straight into a 7"
by 5" standard photo frame. Whether you buy them to give or as a treat
for yourself we guarantee that you will not be disappointed. Also, by buying
something from us you will be supporting the site and contributing to the cost
of maintaining and adding to it.

July 2003 Update

July 30th
update

This is not
so much an update but more a request for help in tracking down a window which
was stolen last weekend. The window in question is a 12-panel rose window featuring
a landscape scene and was made by Lamb Studios in 1903. The window had been
undergoing repair and maintenance work and was scheduled to be reinstalled on
July 28th but unfortunately the van into which it had been loaded was stolen
from Secaucus in northern New Jersey. As there were no markings on the van it
can reasonably assumed that the van itself was the target of the theft but it
is quite possible that the thieves may try to sell the window to a dealer. Should
anyone who reads this hear of a window being offered for sale which might be
this one I would ask that they contact me via the details on the 'contact us'
page or call Don Samick, President of Lamb Studios on 1-877-700-LAMB.

If you are
a returning visitor to the site then you will probably have noticed the appearance
of some advertisements. I did originally hope to be able to maintain the site
without resort to advertising but, alas, economic necessity dictates otherwise.
The particular brand of advertising which is marketed by Google promises 'relevant'
advertising and it is entirely passive - if you are not interested then simply
do not click on it. I promise faithfully that I will not ever sign up for any
'pop-up' or 'pop-under' advertising which I personally find extremely irritating.
As for the Google ads the jury is still out and I will be closely monitoring
how they impact the aesthetic appeal of the site.

June 2003 Update

June 21st
update

The bad news
is that anything involving outdoor sales this summer has proven to be a washout,
literally, due to the weather pattern we have been experiencing here in New
Jersey. My two attempts at showing and selling prints were to have been the
Denville Fair and the Madison Art Fair and both were major flops. The Madison
one was even cancelled before starting as the rain was so bad.

The good
news is that we have launched a line of notecards and they are proving to be
a real winner. The cards are made of heavy, acid-free card-stock and are slightly
off-white. An actual, individual photograph is sealed behind a window in the
card which can act as a mat if the card is later framed. The cards are blank
inside and each one comes with a matching envelope and is individually packaged
in a clear, resealable, archival envelope. We are using actual photographs and
they look superb. The entire card measures about 7" x 5" so as to
fit straight into a standard frame and the actual 'mat opening' for the photograph
is about 4 3/4" x 3 1/4". So far the cards are being sold to a number
of book and card shops within northern New Jersey and to Epstein's, the highly
prestigious 100 year-old department store in Morristown. However, for those
who do not have easy access to northern New Jersey I am hoping to soon set up
the means of buying the cards via the website as well as greatly increasing
geographical coverage in terms of conventional stores.

One of the
big attractions with the cards is the wide range of potential uses to which
they can be put. Clearly the nativity scenes have potential to make nice Christmas
cards and similarly there are other designs which will match other important
times such as Easter. However there are also other possibilities such as giving
a card with St Luke to a doctor for whom St Luke is the Patron Saint. Similarly
an image of St Catherine of Alexandria is appropriate for a teacher. Some of
the Tiffany angels representing, say, Peace, Charity or Hope can also be used
to convey appropriate sentiments in certain situations. Overall these are bright,
colourful and beautiful images and when incorporated into a notecard they become
more like a gift than just a card. Several people have commented that these
are cards which people will buy for themselves as well as to give to others.

I only hope
that we can adequately convey to visitors to the website just how high the quality
of these cards really is. Whenever I show the actual cards to people who are
able to hold them and appreciate just how heavy the paper stock is and feel
the thick texture of the card and the envelope with its ragged edged flap they
take no convincing whatsoever. From that standpoint the cards actually sell
themselves. However, whether we will be able to convince people online is something
which remains to be seen but we will, of course, give our no-quibble, money-back,
guarantee if for any reason anyone is dissatisfied.

I am hoping
to get the online ordering mechanisms in place before the end of the month but
if anyone reading this is impatient then please email me via the 'contact' link.