What I love about doing commission-based art is that every project is different.  This week, I started working on Arabic lettering for a fused glass flag for the IWDM community.  I enjoy the challenge of painting-- especially when it's a language I don't know!  Previously, I have created commissioned work using Hebrew and Greek (both of which I don't know either) and was careful to make sure before I fired the paint in the kiln that I got final reviews for what I had written. When I was getting ready to work on this text, I did some research into what I was painting.  This phrase is the first Kalimah of Islam and it translates to, "There is no God but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah."  In the finished piece, it will be painted on the pages area of an open Koran.  Understanding the fundamental nature of this phrase for Muslims grounds me while I create it; I know that I am being asked to make something that is very meaningful to the people who will see it.