“Nature’s Suncatchers Come to Life”

I traveled to France in the summer of 2008, following a course in microbiology. While touring cathedrals, I noticed the elaborate rose windows in each building resembled centric diatoms. Somewhere between the radial symmetry and composition parallels came the big idea for my senior capstone presentation. In order to graduate with honors at Northern Kentucky University, upperclassmen are scheduled for six hours of independent study and a presentation at the end of the year. I needed something interesting to me and an audience, something that was affordable and new. Stained glass diatoms were just the beginning, but I knew they would be central to the project—the play on silicon was too good to pass up. After consulting with my microbiology professor, Dr. Miriam Kannan, she became the mentor for my project, providing an empty lab on campus in which I could work. Additionally, Dr. Kannan also began the plan for Nature’s Suncatchers (Fig. 1) which later became the feature piece of my project. Approximately two by three feet, Nature’s Suncatchers was inspired by an Ernst Haeckel sketch (Fig. 2) from his book published in 1904 called Art Forms in Nature [1]. In the collection of sketch panels, only two featured diatoms. Many radiolarian pieces were included as well, but though these organisms also use silica deposits to build cell walls, the finer spikes and details that make the amoebae so distinctive would not have been possible to replicate in stained glass. While making patterns for the window, most of the finer details from the diatom panel were skimmed over, but at least the genus of each cell was still recognizable. Since the Haeckel sketches were black and white, his style heavily relied on detail and symmetry; enlarging the size of the diatoms and keeping colors balanced were good ways of preserving this. Using a ruler and protractor, each diatom from the Haeckel sketch was measured in centimeters and re-drawn in inches. This allowed the individual diatoms to be large enough to work with, while at the same time keeping the overall window small enough for a single person to carry. Once patterns were drawn, the types of glass to use were carefully selected. Texture was also key in determining glass choice, since it could represent detail in Fig. 1 Nature’s Suncatchers by Sandra Miller