Recreating the Declaration Room in the House of The Bab

A couple of years ago, for the Declaration of the Bab, the kids and I made these stained glass windows. They took awhile to put together (if you don't have cats or toddlers you can probably do it in less than half the time it took us, which was approximately 3 full days)  and are super fragile but are infinitely worth it. We have used them both for community functions as well as at home and they really do help promote a special ambiance. These is something both magical and spiritual about these windows, especially when the light filters through the "stained glass" frames and you add a samovar and flowers and prayers- suddenly it is as if you are there, in the house of the Bab, in Shiraz.

Since we have done this, especially over the last year, I have had countless people asking how we made them. So, for everyone wondering, here's what we did.

You will need: 15 sheets of poster board in brown.
4 packets of tissue paper in blue, green, white and red.
Glue that you can paint around the edges of the stained glass shapes.
A paint brush (fingers also work fine.)
A craft scalpel (I used the blade from a Fiskars Paper cutter as this was what I had and was also safer for the kids. You could use scissors but it would be harder.)
Tape. (I used a small roll of colored duct tape.)
A picture of the room in which the Bab declared His Mission.
Scissors for cutting the tissue paper.
A pencil and ruler for marking the design on the poster board.
Velcro dots and a curtain rod to hang the windows from (or another method of your choice.)

Step 1.
Place 3 poster boards on the floor, back side up and tape them together. Make sure that they just barely touch so that when you want to fold them for storage they will still be able to bend easily. Do this another four times so that you have 5 panels with 3 poster boards in each.

Step 2). If you want them to be perfect you will need to measure the poster board and plot the individual stained glass portions of the window in relation to the overall size of the board, using the picture of the Bab's house as a reference. With a cat walking across my work surface and children hanging off of me I let perfection go and just measured out the centre of the top poster board, and positioned the main square in the middle. I roughly eyeballed the rest of the pattern making sure to leave enough space to stick the tissue paper down.

For the bottom two pieces of poster board I used the line where the poster board was stuck together as my centre and again measured the rectangles that went in the middle and estimated the rest of the pattern. Does that make sense?

Step 3). Once you have the first of the five panels drawn up, cut out around all of your shapes with a cutter or craft scalpel. Use this panel as the template to make the rest. So just go ahead and stick this on your other panels and, using a lead pencil, trace around the "stained glass" pattern (like a stencil). Then simply cut them out.

 Step 4). Refer to the picture of the Bab's house to check your colour scheme. Essentially you will be making two predominately blue panels, two green and one red. Cut pieces of tissue paper that will fit the portions of the stained glass panels you wish to fill -making sure that the colours don't go past the brown edging.

 Step 5). Using your fingers or a paintbrush place glue around the edges of the "stained glass" areas you want to fill and stick the pre-cut pieces of tissue paper down.

 Step 6). Place Velcro dots on the back of the panels and attach to a curtain rod (approximately 2-2.5 meters). Hang the panels. Add finishing touches: photos, prayer books, flowers, candles, samovar, etc.

 Step 7). Stand back and admire your work.

It makes an incredible place to say early morning or late night prayers on Holy Days.