The Grays Ferry Bottletree consists of 700sq ft of stained glass and mirror; 50 different colors, and about 900lbs of material!

My friends and fellow muralists Mike Reali and Delia King, and assistants Kyle Thorpe, and Charlie Patterson spent a whopping 4 months cutting and arranging the glass into leaf shapes and tree bark.

Detail. This glass project moved with me through two different studios. 

A bottle tree is an artificial tree made of glass bottles, usually of colored glass. The bottles were placed on tree branches and were used to “capture evil spirits"

Our concept built on this idea by filling those bottles with writing from local students (from St Gabriel’s School), kids in placement (St Gabriel’s Hall), the Men in Graterford Prison, and people from the neighborhood.

I also cut leaves out of cement board and embedded  glass bottles in them containing messages. There are over 30 cement leaves scattered throughout the wall with these messages.

The glass leaves blend into painted areas with imagery related to the writing. Grays Ferry was once a large Roman Catholic neighborhood, but many Parishes have left, radically altering the area. 

 An image of the Schuylkill River from the South St bridge recalls a time in the neighborhoods history when the writer had to swim in the river, as opposed to a local pool due to the color of his skin.

The glass leaves blend into painted areas with imagery related to the writing. Grays Ferry was once a large Roman Catholic neighborhood, but many Parishes have left, radically altering the area.

I built two new tables with storage to hold all of the finished glass sheets. In the studio we devised a way to keep the huge tree relatively seamless on the wall

We kept the tree bark cuts somewhat rectangular, and flowing in the direction of the branches. The leaf shapes stayed more organic. 

We worked for three months in a freezing cold studio On Tioga. Wearing many layers, and cutting class using fingerless gloves. The bulk of our work was done here

We eventually moved ourselves and this project into the Amber Street Studios, off of Frankford and Allegheny. 

My assistants and I finished the tree on the second wall here. 

It was challenging to match up such a massive complex shape to a wall where there would be figures painted. I plotted a way to grid the glass sheets that proved to be pretty accurate. 

Accurate... and seamless. 

The glass went up very quickly. We finished the tree in 4 days. The most difficult part is clearing all the thinset from between the glass pieces making way for the grout. 

Progress Shot

The tree was grouted a dark brown. We had to paint back into it with a sky color to make the image less dense and dark. 

Progress Shot

The grid proved to be a real timesaver in the end. The 8' wide glass columns lined up next to each other perfectly, regardless of the direction we were installing. 

I wanted the tree to carry itself across both walls, connecting them. The wall faces north which means it never sees the sun. I made sure to work in a lot of mirror into the mosaic for this reason. 

The reflective mirror shimmers and brings in the light to the piece in different ways. The tree is seemingly always changing colors in those areas.

Charlie Patterson, and Kyle Thorpe, My glass crew