Emilia Clarke’s Dany in stained glass
It all begins with a cartoon. I do a very rough sketch of an idea that I have for Game of Thrones. With the sketch roughed out, I send it to our daughter, Emmy. She transforms my rough sketch into a drawing that we can use as a blueprint for a proper tribute in stained glass to GOT. After a few weeks, Emmy then sends the digital files to Xiumei and me for our initial tweaking. The tweaking, frankly, never stops; but at least we have an idea of what we are going to do.
Without the glass itself, the best we have is a rough measure of what is possible for Emilia Clarke, the British actress whose portrayal of Daenerys Targaryen is the focus of our tribute to Game of Thrones.
Clarke, by any standard, is a beautiful woman whose regal beauty must shine through. We do not want to paint her face on the glass. That would be a customary approach. We wanted to pick unique glass that … whether lighted from the front or the rear, whether with natural or artificial light … will capture her luminous beauty. We, rightfully, were on a quest, a quest for the glass that would do Ms Clarke justice. It was the least we could do for the mother of dragons. We left the world of fantasy idea in Chicago and headed to East Lansing, Michigan.
It was a beautiful, cloud-dappled day. The Michigan shoreline with Chicago on the horizon was inspirational. Without the big city, It was the type of background whose blue hues could serve Dany well.
Lansing Michigan is the state capitol and the home, for history buffs, of the Oldsmobile. East Lansing, right next door, is a town of about 50000. Our quest took us to Delphi Glass, a mecca for glass art supplies since the early seventies. We have been here before and love both the enthusiasm of the staff and the fact that the center’s 45000 square feet more than likely will have something just for us.
We planned on spending about three hours and then going to Graduate Hotel across from Michigan State University. The hotel itself and its environs make for a very pleasant overnight stay. The drive back to Chicago is about 4 hours so we know that if we had to continue our search the next day, we would have both the time to revisit Delphi Glass and the time to drive leisurely back to Chicago while avoiding an ineviably prolonged rush hour.
After two days, we have our quarry: the perfect glass for Emily Clarke’s Dany and Kit Harrighton’s Jon Snow. We are also pleased in finding glass that will serve perfectly for Drogon, the baby dragon who is proudly promoting its birth on the left top of the sketch