Chris Alexander
Pampa, TX

Bedouin Princess

I must confess that after receiving the camel in the mail...well, let's just say it wasn't my favorite item in the Warner-Crivellaro catalog. After a period of time during which I was unable to visualize anything but cigarette ads, I finally placed the camel back in the desert. Enter my husband and a glass of wine, and the romance and mystery of the Bedouin slowly brought that camel to life. I must acknowledge a creative debt to the fantasy artist Chris Achilleos and his unique portrait of a Bedouin warrior woman, which crystallized the design of the piece. I hope that my work celebrates in stained glass the lyrical image of nomadic desert tribes, flowing robes, shifting sands and the long strides of the camels.

The princess gazes out from behind her 'asaba, the night sky to the left and sunrise in the desert on her right. The right side of her face fades into a shadowy silhouette of a desert city in the distance. Her crescent sword arcs across the bottom of the scene. The piece changes fairly dramatically depending on the light, so I have included one photo taken in the sunset, one front-lit, and one strongly back-lit. The panel is copper foiled and 16" in diameter. Amazingly, it sprang to life from my scrap bins and storage shelves - the glass was all there waiting mysteriously, of all types. The stars and the city silhouette are sandblasted.

The Theme Items are incorporated as follows:

Orange Jewel: Graces the forehead of our Bedouin. Six other jewels are built into the piece, and small colored Austrian crystals in jewelry findings decorate her 'asaba and sword.

Filigree Wings: Cut in two pieces, the filigree enriches the scabbard decoration on the sword near the top and just below the green jewel near the bottom.

The Camel: Soldered to the back of the piece, the camel's shadow can just be seen as the sun rises in the desert. But he is elusive and flees from strong front lighting, just as the nomads of the desert fade into memory.

I hope you enjoy the piece as much as I enjoyed creating it.