Salmon Run

Design:

This glasswork was created specifically for the clients and their site installation. The “Salmon Run” design is based on the life cycle of the salmon, in which the fishes life journey begins and ends at the same waterway. The stylized salmon in the design are both swimming away from, and returning to, the river source. The interwoven pattern in the water is a nod to the Celtic knot-work familiar to both clients through ancestral lineage. The equal halves of the composition also suggest the metaphoric balance of life seen in the salmon cycle. The river water lines collect and cross over at the apex, forming a central ‘face’ shape, suggestively tribal in design, elemental as the water flow itself. This face is not distinct, but suggested through water lines and salmon, creating a focal point to the composition. Viewed from the interior main floor landing, this will appear at eye-level. All elements combine to add a diffused light to the interior space, and frame the solid wood door. Privacy will be achieved by the semi and fully opaque nature of different finishes.

Process :

To compliment the client’s collection of First Nations art inside the house, I did some preliminary sketches of Salmon that included rough designs suggestive of the form lines used by indigenous artists of the Pacific Northwest. This patterning would sit inside of a more Western stylized fish shape.

Ultimately, I decided that trying to combine the two styles would serve only to de-value both. So it was literally ‘back to the drawing board’. I still wanted to do a stylized design and incorporate some sort of suggestive tribal element.

The fish became less detailed, and the “pattern” was created in the space behind them with the water lines. I book-matched the design from side to side with an interweave of the waterlines, suggestive of Celtic knot-work, to balance the composition. As the entry door would open into a split-level stairwell, and the transom centered at eye-height from the upper landing, a central image would be a natural focal point. That’s where the river ‘face’ came from – as a meeting point of the two halves.

I made enlarged versions of my salmon pattern for templates and hand drew the design onto resist-covered glass. (Tip: I used 1/8″ masking tape to create the long continuous lines for the water, and when I was happy with their placement, ran a pen along one edge to commit it to the resist.)

Using a light along the edge of one panel, prior to kiln firing, highlights the carving detail in the raw blast.

Once the surface etch work is finished, the panes are sealed into thermal units and are ready for delivery.

Here we go with the install… Thanks to B&E Glass for the help!