Mirrors

Mirrors are very beautiful engraved. They have a silvery effect and really pop because they reflect back on themselves. This Rooster mirror was a recycled old mirror that was discarded. I saw all the little dots and some scratches in it and thought I could turn the dots into stars and add a lot of scratches and it turned into a rooster. This was engraved in the year of the rooster to celebrate. I am a rooster in Chinese astrology and decided to keep this mirror in my collection. I am very partial to birds of all kinds. My little chicken lived with us for 17 years. You end up almost learning their language when you live with one for so long . She became part of our family. A few years ago while my engraving was still at the hobby stage, I engraved a number of mirrors for a local glass shop . I also engraved cabinet panels and indoor architectural pieces. One thing I do regret about those years was not keeping a good record (Photographic) of all the pieces. Quite a number of the mirrors were for wedding gifts. I would take elements of the wedding invitation and put them on the mirror with personal touches meaningful to the client. I had done some very beautiful oval mirrors which were for the couple`s bedroom. Engraved borders around mirrors are very beautiful too, I`ve done many grape and leaf/foliage borders. Flowers, hummingbirds and fairies for children`s rooms. Horses, whale and dolphin mirrors. I engraved a commemorative mirror of our KVR railway tressels in Naramata which burned due to the Okanagan park wildfire in 2003. It was devastating. I engraved the tressels on an old CPR mirror with a silver boarder, which was rescue out of the Banff Springs Hotel in Banff Alberta by my German Grandfather who was working on the renovations of the hotel. That mirror is now in the collection of my Uncle Ken in Calgary, Alberta. He loved it and bought it from me. I`ve engraved an old antique mirror for some clients first grandchild. Each corner was told some of the story. It will become an heirloom in their family now. Most of the mirrors were not photographed some of the ones that were didn`t turn out because of the glare on the mirror. One thing I did manage to do was keep all the drawings. I do have a few though that I will post. Did I mention that glass is hard to photograph properly, especially mirrors. However, I have learned now through trial and error and thanks to better cameras and experience my photos turn out really well. I love the photographing part of my work too. I love engraving I love taking photographs. I quite often will run to get my camera when the light catches a beautiful scene or flower in the yard. Engraving glass is using light as your medium, so often when the light is just right on something I think how awesome it would be engraved. So, I have a lot of stock photos I keep as reference for when I need engrave those subjects.

In my studio now is a finished decanter waiting for the owner and an almost finished little botanical vase and a just about to be stared pet memorial. These pictures will be posted when the owners have seen and picked them up.

I have an awesome project after my pet memorial also, Two french doors for a wine cellar entrance. I`ll talk more about that later. Everything is very exciting for me, I love it. All the years of hard work are certainly paying off now. The future isn`t in front of you, it comes racing up behind your head. If you get my drift.