On the morning of Wednesday, October 11, 2009 an email arrived in the Random Pieces mail box, from April, a member of the Indian Brook First Nation, inquiring about stained glass windows for their church, Saint Catherine Catholic Church.   My first reaction was that unfortunately I did not create windows in the traditional stained glass method.  One phone call later and I found that in fact she had seen my work in Halifax, and indeed she wanted a “glass on glass mosaic” window. When I learned that the subject was to be the Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha I was delighted. This was the start of the exciting process that we then took together in the creation of the Kateri Project. 

STEP 1: The Location

The first consideration for the project planning was ... where will this window live and what size will it need to be.  Since the window would be installed in a church in Nova Scotia, but it would be created in a studio in PEI, April sent me photographs of the church and the space in which the window would be installed, and she sent me the dimensions of the space we had to work with.  We discussed the fact that the new window would be installed inside the existing windows which have the top sections glazed in yellow glass, and we decided that we could work with this colour in the design of the new window.

STEP 2: Finding an Old Window

All of my work starts with the selection of an old, reclaimed window for the creation of the new art. Generally I work with small windows, and so I didn’t have anything nearly large enough for this size of a project .... so the hunt was on. Unbelievably, my first trip into the Charlottetown Re-Store (Habitat for Humanity) http://69.39.86.90/~habitatp/restore.php?n=6 and I found the perfect window.  The space available was 66” X 24 1/2” and the window was 64” X 24”.  With 1/2 inch to spare, we had a great fit. The window was white on one side and varnished on the other, so we decided to paint the entire window white to match the trim in the church.

STEP 3: Starting the Design

My first challenge was to find out “Who was Kateri”? With the amazing wealth of information about the Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha on the internet (http://conservation.catholic.org/kateri.htm) it was easy to learn about this fascinating woman.  I also was able to gather drawings and even photos of other stained glass windows to use as a guide to designing my window.

The first drawing was created on the window standing in my studio. using dry erase markers on the glass made it easy for me to re-draw her each time I stepped back to check size and proportion. It took several tries, but eventually I was happy with the sketch, and this photo of the  sketch was sent off to April and Father Tom for review. While I was waiting for feedback, I built a narrow table in the studio so that I could work on all sides of the window easily.

The Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, patroness of ecology and the environment.

STEP 4: Getting feedback on the Design

In the first feedback email, the general design was accepted and ideas for additions given. Some of these included - Prayer beads and Sweetgrass braid in her hands - Eagles flying overhead - A medicine wheel or peace pipe at her feet - both braids hanging in front (original drawing had one braid behind her shoulder). New drawings were created and emailed back and forth until it was agreed on what was to be added. The creation stage could then begin.

STEP 5: Creating the mock-up