Andrea Zalantis
Stow, OH

When I first read about the Theme Items on the Battlefield:Glass web page, I came up with an idea that I thought would be very unique. Unfortunately, at that time I had no idea about the size of the items. Needless to say, as luck would have it, when the items arrived the camel was way too big for my original idea! Oh well, back to the drawing board.

I thought of all types of scenarios in which to put the camel, but what about those wings? It seemed way too obvious to stick the wings on the camel, so I certainly didn't want to do that! The jewel didn't seem like it would be a problem, it seemed as though that could be incorporated in almost any design. I discarded all the obvious ideas such as a Merry-Go-Round or a Nativity scene.

After some agonizing thought I came up with an Egyptian scenario, but what about those wings? Well, after looking at Egyptian art I saw Isis, a winged goddess - that was the answer! I finally decided to incorporate 4 small panels into one large panel. The upper left panel depicts the winged goddess Isis. The right upper panel depicts a pyramid, where I originally thought of using the jewel as the "eye" that is sometimes depicted in artwork of pyramids. The lower left panel is a desert scene with the camel and a pyramid in the background. The lower right panel is a depiction of a gold sculptured bust common to Egyptian art done in gold Silver Coat and other glass.

The border around all four small panels is in colors common to Egyptian art. The top border spells out my first name in Egyptian hieroglyphics, therein utilizing the jewel. The letters were created using porcelain/glass or cloisonné outliner.

The various glass used in my project include:

Spectrum 385-2S - white/pale gray opal

Spectrum 387-2S - medium gray/white opal

Spectrum 317-2S - medium amber/white opal

Spectrum SC/110.2W - gold water glass Silver Coat

Spectrum 136RR - dark blue rough rolled cathedral

Spectrum 347-1S - pale purple/white opal

Spectrum 1009S - black water glass

Spectrum 291-91W - champagne water glass

Spectrum 375-1S - white/orange

English Muffle - red

Plus various other glass.