Completed this late last week. I’ve posted a sort-of process clip on my IG this evening. It’s not amazing but it’s a start.
I was happy with how this turned out, purely because I had the idea pictured in my head and it’s always satisfying when it comes out how I envisioned.
Another amazing piece.
Absolutely top notch skill with these. They continue to look amazing! Personally I think the Moltres’ pose makes it hard to look like its breaking out so I would have made that ones feet still in the frame if possible but thats a personal nitpick.
Is it a normal card size or jumbo size?
Even with the step by step this seems like magic to me. 
Very well done as always!
Yall are some talented mofos!
Thank you! Yes, I grappled with that same Moltres niggle myself. I actually almost went with the Sugimori artwork from Blaine’s Moltres instead but it’s actually kind of derpy when you realise it is meant to be more vertical/rising up, and the card just tilts the art to make it look horizontal. And I couldn’t have Moltres in a more vertical pose as it wouldn’t match Zapdos’ orientation.
I did consider keeping the bottom half in the frame as you suggest but decided to just try and give Moltres it’s own unique, bespoke breaking-out effect to compensate.
It is a normal sized card. I previously scanned my Jumbo and made a few normal-sized proxies lightly modded with the black star logo and number 54 so that it is a part of the official set 
Thank you very much 
Haha, thanks. I want to show some actual cutting too but that will have to wait until I have better camera/setup.
Funny how we sometimes think alike, i was just thinking the same than @lyleberr and some of the same alternative ways you mentioned to make it 
but it’s a gorgeous piece nevertheless!
So, recently finished another Shikishi commission for e4 member @Mothimania. He requested this piece as a gift for his wife and I love how it turned out!
This is awesome 
Oh man, amazing work as always. That shikishi is awesome! Shikishi boards just feel really nice for display. I got one an official Pokemon one as part of a lot with a Hoppip/Skiploom/Jumpluff item I wanted and was pleasantly surprised by the feel and look of the shikishi board.
Nice seeing Araquanid get some love, and that Dusclops is also great. I really like the arts where the pokemon are appreciating some nature (e.g. sowsow’s Trapinch)
Love it. That’s some serious Dream Eater action about to happen!
Looks really great! Did you use a pastel or acrylic? I really like the texture.
Thanks! Actually neither. I use alcohol markers
Finally!!! To have the patience to not spill the beans of this project has been outrageously difficult. Now that its been revealed by @chefonaquest I can detail out the process for anyone that is interested. For those that want to look at the finished project, skip the collapsed part to the final picture because the writeup is long.
E4 Secret Santa Redux: Sun Catcher Stained Glass
Why stained glass:
Well since no one took me up on my offer for ceramic ideas, I decided to try my hand at something else. I had the opportunity relatively recently to experiment with stained glass through a local class. I found it fun and appealing to my skills and I made a wonderfully simple feather in 3hours using 8 pieces of glass. I expected to play with the craft for a bit longer and get some experience but when I heard someone’s gift had been lost, I signed up for assisting with a replacement, and when I got assigned Holahart and began researching their profile, I realized not only have i appreciated their own art style previously (Energy card art) but I absolutely adored their custom made card that used their own art (Flying Eevee). What better way to tie in my uniqueness with their own interests. The colors in it gave me the feeling that if I could make it in transparent glass so that there would be a colored shadow when the sun was direct, it could look amazing. This effect is what makes it a suncatcher since many times if most of the design will be opaque then it is just ornamental and meant to be viewed from the front only. So with no further time for experimenting, I launched into the conceptualization stage.
Stained glass process expectations:
First: Glass’ physical properties make it really like to break in predictable paths with lots of energy, so any cracks will want to continue cracking until the energy disperses.
Second: Going beyond the limits of glass can be done but can be very difficult to do without causing unintentional breaks.
Third: While glass comes in a variety of colors, styles, textures, and opacity, pieces can have visual movement and artistic feeling that should be planned around.
Fourth: Glass is expensive and shouldnt be wasted.
Fifth: Glass is potentially heavy and needs to be properly supported.
Process expectations:
Pattern: Make the pattern that can be used as a guide for the glass pieces that will be used.
Cutting and shaping glass: Breaking glass down to approximate shapes with detailing done using a grinder.
Cleaning and assembly: Making sure pieces will fit and cleaning off all cutting/grinding/pattern residues.
Foiling: Wrapping each piece along its edge with copper foil.
Assembly and Soldering: Making sure pieces still fit as planned and placing solder to bring all pieces together in their final positions. Also attaching Lead Came border, hanging rings, and any other embellishments needed
Finishing: Cleaning off all flux from soldering, adding a patina if needed, polishing, and waxing to ensure longevity.
Actual process:
Assignment date: February 21st, Message goes out assigning me as a second-tier Santa.
February 23-March 7th: Pattern conceptualization took a long time and lots of research to find out how this could work, probably around 10hrs. I began with sketching out holaharts cardart to determine potential glass shapes, flow, colors, and other potential design issues. This continued for about 2-3 weeks as I worked on another surprise for the signature exchange, with back and forth adjustments until I decided I had run out of time and to move along with how I had it. You can see in some of the sketches how the shapes for background skies sometimes changed to accommodate for more flowing continuous lines to hopefully give it more of a flying through the sky impression and some clouds were added in to break up some lines to not over-stress the limits of glass.
March 8-March 22: Once I had a pattern down, it was time to determine styles and color expectations while looking to source the glass. Luckily I have potentially 3 suppliers relatively close to me that I could choose beautiful glass from that matched the estimated color palette. Glass is rather expensive so I didnt want to overbuy while some pieces were too unique to not try to use. $150 for 16 sheets/pieces of raw glass sheets later, I had all the colors I needed to begin transferring patterns to. I also had to plan around glass texture, unique design patterns in the glass, and making sure things like horizontal lines wouldnt suddenly end up vertical in the middle of 2 pieces. Since it was all hand-designed, there would be a little uneveness in expected line thickness but I figured I could work that out during the shaping process to compensate.
It was during this point that I had to note that black and white colored glasses are 100% opaque, with browns, purples, and oranges mostly being opaque, so I had to really hunt for specific glass and compromise about the transparency if i wanted to use specific colors. I was able to source a beautiful blue-with-light-blue textured glass, some amazing translucent glass (red, cracked ice blue, watery dark blue, orange, yellow, green), a plant-like green, a cotton candy-like pink, and a translucent gray (fairly rare). The hardest color to try to match was Eevee itself since brown is often opaque but I wanted it to cast color in the light so I had about 3 different browns that I eventually chose from and the cream colored fur had to be opaque like the clouds or it wouldnt have much color at all. I still had to mentally envision what this would look like if light was cast through it on a sunny day.
At this point, I was able to trace the pattern onto Contact paper and paste it to the correct positions on the glass. You can see how the shapes are laid out, specifically in the sky so that the directionality would be consistent throughout the finished piece. 96 planned pieces (98 final due to unintentional breaks) across 16 colors, with almost no straight lines.
March 22-30: Cutting and shaping: The next most time consuming part was the cutting and shaping of the glass, this was like total 20hrs of time.
Since glass doesnt like to make short line cuts or tight curves, most planned pieces were cut off the larger sheets in arcs to avoid waste as much as possible. After that they were trimmed down to be relatively accurate to the pattern. 2 pieces broke during this process and I had to find an appropriate layout to avoid clashing patterns when recutting replacement pieces. The sky glass was immensely difficult to cut as I had to cut the glass in relatively straight lines to make pieces workable while not cutting through necessary pieces to the pattern, this made it so I had to be very deliberate with which order the cuts happened.
Once everything was cut, it was time to work on shaping. Using a 3/4inch grinding bit on a glass grinder (it brings water to the sanding drum to prevent glass dust) I started the slow process of shaping every piece. Every piece needs to be ground on all edges to remove the sharp edge and to increase the ability of the copper foil to adhere properly to the glass later, one should be able to run their fingers along all the edges without getting cut. I probably could have had more precise cuts but I chose to extra grinding so that I didnt risk the glass breaking incorrectly. Unfortunately this wasnt a great decision since I began to go a bit off pattern because of the varying line thickness and not being strict with grinding. I had to adjust a lot more than normal but luckily I counted on this and was able to keep the image from looking odd. It was also at this time that I brought in a dremel so that I could grind more detailed curves like Eevees head and some of the balloon ties. This was nerve wracking as I immediately broke a piece as I got used to it. You can see how the process can wear things down, by the end of grinding my gloves were done. Every piece was cleaned with soapy water and glass cleaner to make sure all sharpie and grinding dust was off, as well as the contact paper pattern residue. So pretty and clean, but unfortunately no way to stick together yet.
April 1-4th: I am almost two weeks behind the suggested 1 month deadline so I am spending all my free time on this project. Copper foiling starts and took approximately 8-10hrs. The copper is for 2 things, first is that it is specially made to have one side with strong adhesives and second is that it can be chemically combined with solder which is beneficial since it will all help make physical connections to hold the pieces together. Every piece must be cleaned with rubbing alcohol before foiling to ensure good adhesion. The trick to foiling is that glass should be evenly spaced in the center of the copper strip so equal parts are in front and back. This will leave you with equal amounts of foil on both adjoining pieces of glass and with allow equal amounts of solder to cover the gap and leave no weak points. The difficult parts of the process is having to manually fold down sides and edges of copper foil and it all needs to be flattened and burnished. This process is what left my fingers in pain for days as I used about 30ft of foil and had many small/irregular shapes that had curves and corners to fold over.
April 5-6th: After foiling the glass its time for a final fit which is held together with pins. This will keep anything from shifting so that once the soldering begins, positions will be permanent. Soldering is a bit of a process to look decent so it had a bit of a learning curve but it moves quickly so maybe 3-5hrs total. Youll also notice that the backside is done first so that gaps fill and the front of the glass will all be flat, glass comes in many thicknesses so different planes happen. Once the back is tacked together enough to prevent all movement, it is time to attach a Lead Came border. Lead Came is a very pliable rounded strip with a channel for the glass to sit in. It is used to ensure longevity of larger stained glass pieces because over time the adhesive holding the solder to the glass can fail at its mounting points and can cause a piece to fall apart, but with Lead Came it supports the weight physically and doesnt rely on adhesives, it also is attached by multiple solder points binding it to the glass.
So once we have that in place then it is time to solder the front while making sure lines are clean and not jagged. Here is a test photo of all the completed soldering so I can finally see what it will look like with light behind it, this whole time Ive had to settle for a strong hunch that Ive done everything correctly since I dont have a lightbox to see what the glass will look like with light through it.
April 7th Finishing: Once soldering is completed it is time for neutralizing and cleaning off remaining flux (a weak acid used to help adhere solder to the copper). The whole piece was washed multiple times with soapy water and baking soda, front and back. Followed by using a chemical patina that took the raw silver solder and Came and darker it to a blackened state. Again washing with neutralizer and soap to clean off remaining chemicals. Now for polishing the lines (this removes some of the patina but it cleans up the solder from any residues. Once the polish is done, time for waxing to help prevent any oxidations or corrosions longterm. After waxing, another round of cleaning but this time a dry cleaning which is essentially a toothbrush to remove remaing polishes and waxes that are caught in the edges and corners.
At last, after dozens of hours dedicated to it… it is complete. The most nerve racking part that i didnt plan for came after which was packaging and shipping it.
And the wonderful pictures from @chefonaquest’s post
Hope you all enjoyed (or begrudgingly tolerated) following me in the process as i learned to experiment in another craft. Most people dont jump from 8 pieces to 98 pieces but now I have a much better idea of what can be done and how to do it. Excited to work on another piece… just have to find the right design and start the process over again. If you have any suggestions (or commissions I guess?), let me know since I probably will keep with this craft for a while.
I hope my crafts can inspire someone to also learn to do something or at least share what they do.
This is so beautiful @lyleberr .
