Making a Stained Glass Pattern for a Flower

Full-size pattern:
Peony

Free stained glass patterns

FLORAL
STAINED GLASS DESIGN
"Let the few represent the many"

Below is a photograph of peony cultivar "Cheddar Royal." It is notable for its thick mound of substantial, waxy yellow stamens nestled at the center of a simple white flower.

Let's begin by making a line drawing of the flower, giving little thought to the fact that this line drawing will become a stained glass pattern:

If such a line drawing was to be taken directly as a stained glass patterns, the stamens would be a mess of black lead lines, instead of a glowing yellow center:

Instead of making a litteral line drawing of the peony and its stamens, we can exploit the human brain, and let it fill in the blanks. We can let the few represent the many. A few individual stamens are drawn, but the rest are "lumped together":

You can see here that the simplified pattern is a better balance of the shape, texture and color of the true peony, than the first, more detailed one. Click here for full-size pattern.