Whirlpool Window

At Century Studios, we have created quite a few windows and suncatchers based on the artwork John R. Neill created for the Wizard of Oz book series. The series ran from 1900 well into the 1940's and all but the first book were lavishly illustrated by Neill.


At the beginning of The Scarecrow of Oz, L. Frank Baum's Oz book for 1915, the characters Trot and Cap'n Bill are captured by a whirlpool while out boating. This incident starts their series of adventures, leading them to the land of Oz.

John R. Neill drew a vivid image of the Whirlpool, complete with sea nymph rising from the foam. Inspired by this illustration, Bill drew the image up to be made into a stained glass window, which we completed this past week for our showroom.

While Irwin worked on other projects, Bill did the layout and hand painted the figure which was then kiln fired for permanence. The completed window features a wide variety of textured glass, as well as pressed jewels in the upper corners which enhance the three dimensional look of the finished piece.