Folding Screens

A brief word about folding screens (ok, not quite so brief, but hang in there with me!).  Stained glass is more than anything else an architectural medium.  It requires architecture to give it place, shelter,  structure, and above all:  meaning.  We have all seen those panels that hang in picture windows framed or not, and yes the light passes through them and yes they  do throw colored light into the room, but they do not achieve what they could if they were installed properly in their own wall openings.  There are many reasons why we all must hang them this way the most important of which is the expense of cutting those openings in our walls and the second is that we move often and want to take the stained glass with us when we go. A third and certainly more challenging reason (if you are one that can afford to cut all the wall openings you could possibly desire) is the view.  For those who have these challenges I would like to suggest a folding screen.  The first folding screen I made was for a couple who lived high in the Oakland hills and had spectacular views of four of the Bay area's dramatic bridges. A folding screen is an ancient and revered format that is transcultural and provides all the place, structure and meaning we could ask for while still being portable and relatively inexpensive (compared to cutting a hole in the wall!)  And it has one other advantage:  we can control the lighting.