text size

From Ashes to Art

Updated: Thursday, April 19 2012, 08:25 PM CDT
Bastrop County Woman Converts Ashes of Her Home into Works of Art

You can't blame Deborah Lewis for getting all choked up.  Her new stained glass windows are a true work of art.  Some see angels, butterflies and flowers.  Deborah sees life and exclaims, “There's such movement and beauty and hope."

And that's exactly what she wanted to see in this art from ashes.  Her new stained glass windows were made from what was left of her home after last year's Labor Day weekend wildfires.   There were a couple of clumps of bricks left standing, but pretty much everything was gone.

Well, not totally gone.  Amid the ashes she found treasures:  bits and pieces of family heirlooms.  That gave her the idea to collect the interesting pieces because the fire did some amazing things to them, melting them and crushing them.

Deborah says the bits of antique glass gave her the desire to preserve them in the form of stained glass windows.  She wanted light to shine through a dark moment of her life.  She says, “I wanted that light and that love to come through what was shattered in the past and shine into the new creation."

Deborah is an only child of a an only child.  So she told the folks at Blue Moon Glassworks that she wanted something to hand down to her children and grandchildren so the heritage would not be lost.  And she gave them some very general guidelines and a lot of creative freedom to design the windows.

And the end result?  You can judge for yourself, but Deborah thinks they are perfect.

Links: Blue Moon Glassworks   www.austinbluemoon.com/From Ashes to Art