A rondelle is a flat, round disk of blown glass. It as a bubble that is shaped into a flat bottomed bowl on the blowpipe. After it is transferred to the punty, the lip of the bowl is heated, and spun open. This was once know as the sheet or crown glass method for making stained glass. Skilled glassblowers could make very large disks of glass from which various shapes could be cut, each with subtle curving striations moving through, leaving the mark of the maker's hand in every window they graced.

Today, with inexpensive plate glass easily available, we have forgotten how precious a window, the source of light, and air, could be. Any amount of work at all to let in the light, and, in season, keep out the cold, must have seemed reasonable. Small rondelles can be seen in antique stained glass windows, often leaded together in panels. Occasionally I have seen rondelles cut into squares and mounted in wood sashing, usually in a door. The unground punty that would have been at the center of the disk makes identification easy.

I began making rondelles on a grey February day when the warmth and light of spring seemed very far away. My garden, just outside the hot shop windows, was a depressing frozen sheet of mud and a box of seeds languished in a drawer. I planted them in the glass! These rondelles are flowers that will never fade. Hang them wherever you need color and light. A small hole is drilled about a half an inch from the edge, and strung with copper wire decorated with coordinating beads. Typically the hanging wires are 18 inches, but can be made any length. Each piece has my sigil stamped into the molten glass at the punty.

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