Glazing Deceptions: When Stained Glass isn't

I was recently shaken when I realized that a favorite artist had fooled me.  He had adapted some of his world famous woodcuts for use in stained glass windows, which he'd removed from an old 19th century church.  These formed central focal medallions of the windows in place of biblical or masonic images.  Looking at the panels, I had assumed that they'd been meticulously transferred onto glass, stained, and then fired in colors replicating the originals.  Upon close inspection, I recognized that they were thin plastic replicas that had been adhered to plain glass. An illusion was shattered.  He'd cheated!  With that in mind, I have borrowed the technique to create a storm window for my studio, in the "paper" room.

The Window BEFORE

This is the window before creating the new storm window.  My early Herakles from the 1990's rests against the window, several 'discards' grace the top section.

(taken in the early morning:   the dew as yet has not been kissed by Jack)

The window AFTER with new storm inserted

St. Francis & the Goldfish

(25 1/2 x 40 1/2)

The Center Panel is a Replica of:

St. Francis Preaching to the Birds, circa 1335

Abby Church, Koningsveld, Switzerland

It is plastic film  which I sandwiched between two panels of  clear glass.

I found it in a very smelly junk shop in Ossipee, NH many, many moons ago.  It was sold as a puzzle--maybe a souvenir-- in a plastic bag. I paid probably a $1 for.

  The fish that surround it are real stained glass, which I indeed did make, painting & firing the goldfish into blue glass.  Each square is 5" x 5". 

 These fish, honest-to-goodness stained glass,are a tribute to the window pictured below, that I created inspired by the plastic model and the song, "St. Anthony Preaches to the Fishes" based on the Brentano poem, from Gustav Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn.

St. Anthony Preaches to the Fishes (30 x 35) 
This can be viewed at the Northeast Kingdom Artisans Guild, 430 Railroad Street, 
St. Johnsbury, Vermont