Contemporary Stained Glass Wedding Bouquet

A dream project that I finished just before Christmas; a contemporary stained glass panel depicting the bride's wedding bouquet, which was commissioned as a gift by her lovely mum.

The wedding bouquet was made by Pyrus Flowers, which is run by creative duo Natalya Ayers and Fiona Inglis, who seek out unusual, seasonal Scottish blooms, often foraged from the wild. I could while away a good few hours scrolling through their Instagram feed.

In this bouquet, tucked amongst the peachy, creamy delicate dahlias, were sprigs of wild blackberry, hawthorn, hazel and scabious, all tied together with bright, trailing ribbons in bohemian shades of ruby, turquoise, gold and plum. In order to allow the richness of the colours of the flowers and ribbons to really stand out, I used a dark inky-blue glass for the background. For the bouquet itself I included some handmade, recycled glass. The date of the wedding is painted on the central gold ribbon tied around the stems of the bouquet.

The last image is of the beautiful bride Polly, holding her bouquet, alongside her father.

Such a wonderful way to commemorate the day and preserve the bouquet forever.

(If you would be interested in commissioning something similar for yourself or as a gift, drop me a line via the contact page on my website.)

Stained Glass Roundels with Pre-Raphaelite Lovelies

A recent commission for Berdoulat, an architectural design firm with its roots in the Arts & Crafts tradition, and an intention to create authentic products and interiors with quality craftsmanship.  Well, that's a manifesto I love to hear.

The brief was to design and paint a pair of stained glass roundels, featuring a Pre-Raphaelite beauty in each, and including the names of the clients' sons.

This was a great opportunity to revisit the work of William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones (two of my favourite stained glass designers of the era) to look for inspiration.

Sisterhood Camp 2015 / Victorian Stained Glass Roundels - Blue Tit and Goldfinch

This weekend I will be joining 24 inspiring women at the Sisterhood Camp, a weekend spent under the stars at beautiful Loveland Farm.  

Organised by the amazing Lou Archell of Little Green Shed, and sponsored by Toast, the weekend promises creative workshops, feasting, wild flower gathering, dancing, waterfall swimming and camp fires.

The aim is to share skills, dreams and goals.  To encourage, and hopefully develop, a working relationship together and inspire new directions and future collaborations. 

Feeling very lucky and excited to be invited to what will hopefully become an annual event.

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I recently painted this pair of my always-popular British Bird stained glass roundels, for a stained glass studio in London.

I spotted a real goldfinch the other day, and now they might have just taken the lead in my affections from the long-tailed tit.

Reproduction Victorian Hand-Painted Stained Glass Heron Roundels

I fell in love with this original Victorian roundel that I pinned to my bird roundels board on Pinterest a few weeks back: that magnificent heron, the poor deflated frog and his melodramatic friends and the detailed background foliage (kingcups, arum lily leaves, water reeds and yellow flag iris) make for a very unusual and charming centrepiece.

So it was a lovely coincidence to find in my email inbox a commission to paint a pair of them for some stained glass panels going in to a new door being made by bespoke London door company Voysey and Jones.

The client wanted the left hand roundel to be a copy of the original, but the right hand one was to have a happier outcome, with the frogs having escaped their grisly fate.

A couple of close ups to show detail of feathers and frogs...

Purple Iris Stained Glass Window Commission

I recently finished this large purple iris window for a lovely couple who travelled all the way from Hertfordshire to commission.  They were so nice they even bought me a beautiful bouquet of irises when they came to collect it.  

The design was quite challenging, especially in a window of this size (approximately 10 square feet) to make it stable and strong.  Although the panel was to be fitted on the inside of an existing window, which would provide support and stop the panel from bowing over time, it was still important that the design allowed me to handle and manoeuvre it during the making, without being too unwieldy.

The glass used for the iris petals is a machine-made streaky, but it was perfect to recreate the delicate, tissue-paper quality of them.  I also added a little bit of silver stain to suggest the yellow area at the centre.  The background glass is an ultra-pale blue tinted Polish mouth blown glass, which has beautiful meandering striations, tiny air-bubbles and superb clarity, allowing the sunlight to sparkle as it comes through.  You can see on the top picture the reflection cast on the adjacent wall.

Here are some work-in-progress images...

Design:

The panel was so large I had to design it on the floor over 3 days.  In order to make it, I had to get a new workbench built (I needed one anyway, but it was good to have the impetus).  Pictured is the old, scruffy one I've been working on the for the last 10 years.  Working on the new one is like driving around in a Rolls Royce.

Leading:

Often my favourite stage of making a window... seeing it take form in front of your eyes is quite magical.

Ready to solder:
Because of the sword-shaped leaves, a lot of the lead joints were at quite an acute angle, and have to be cut well so that they can be soldered neatly.  I can get quite OCD about my leading...

Cementing:

Never the nicest job, but I had just cleaned out and reorganised my cementing shed, so it was nicer than it had been for a long time in there.

Bear & Rabbit Woodland Stained Glass Panel - Wedding Gift Commission

I loved making this panel, which shipped off to New York just before Christmas.

The client commissioned the panel as a belated wedding gift to friends, whose summer wedding was in a beautiful woodland setting.

I wanted the panel to look like it had perhaps come from a children's picture book, but at the same time capture the romantic nature of the wedding.

For the foliage in the foreground, I looked to William Morris for inspiration, which is always a good place to look.

Custom Pet Portrait Illustration in a Stained Glass Roundel

It's strange, and rather nice, when something you have been mulling over for a while, gets the opportunity to become real.

I had been thinking about doing either pet portraits, or coats of arms, or family crests or some such, in an illustrative style as a stained glass piece for a while.

But life gets in the way, and it seemed that the ideas would stay in my sketch book for a while longer.

Then out of the blue, an email requesting a custom piece - a portrait of a loved but long-lost cat.  When I saw the accompanying photo of a handsome black cat, with sharp green eyes, stiff white whiskers and a perfect white moustache, I couldn't help but feel a bit excited at the prospect of painting this dapper character.

And below is one of my coat of arms sketches.  Maybe the opportunity to make one of these will arise in the not too distant future as well.  I like the idea of the family pets holding up the shield (although it could prove tricky if the family pets are stick insects).

British Birds in Stained Glass / Freelance Life

This is a little bit of what I've been working on while my shops are on holiday - some freelance painting work for other stained glass studios... mostly Victorian style painted glass centrepieces.

Very enjoyable it has been too.

It seems that British birds are quite in demand these days - top to bottom: Goldfinch, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Tawny Owl.

Coming soon: Long-tailed Tit and Chaffinch!

Clear Textured Stained Glass Fan Light

This is the finished window (as seen in progress in the last post).  The client had recently had a new front door fitted which came complete with a pair of leaded panels, and wanted a complementary fanlight featuring a painted blue tit roundel.

I always like the look of clear stained glass windows that use different textured glass - not only does it allow plenty of light into a dark hallway, but the patchwork of textures makes the light sparkle.

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Before I go, just a quick reminder that my stained glass birds make very excellent Valentine's Day presents.  And they last longer than flowers.  Although they don't taste quite as nice as chocolates.  Not that I'm advocating eating lead.  Think I'd better stop now.

Two Wrens and a Bluetit

Always nice to get the opportunity to paint some of my favourite British birds.  The two wrens will form the centrepieces for a pair of stained glass door panels in London, the bluetit is destined for a leaded fan light in Essex.

Homemaker Magazine

A nice little mention for my blog in the first issue of new craft/homes magazine Homemaker.  Some great articles and d.i.y. projects in this publication, including a lovely interview with superstar retro-scandi-lady Jane Foster.

Lots of behind the scenes commissions and projects on the go at the moment, hence little available blogging time, however I did manage to get a quick snap of this commissioned Love Birds piece before I posted it off to the USA today.

Jerwood Makers Open 2013

A quick post to spread the word to anyone who might be interested in entering the Jerwood Makers Open 2013.

Jerwood Makers Open is designed to commission and showcase new work by emerging artists working in the applied arts. Five commissions of £7,500 will be awarded to artists to create new work, which will be exhibited as part of the JVA programme at Jerwood Space, London.

This initiative offers makers at the early stages of their careers an opportunity to develop their creative ideas independently of specific commissioning structures. Artists will be chosen by an independent selection panel and must be UK resident and within 10 years of graduating or setting up their practice. The deadline for entries is 12th November 2012.  Further details about the Jerwood Makers Open and how to enter can be found here.

Launched in 2010, the Jerwood Makers Open follows on from The Jerwood Applied Arts Prize which ran for 11 years (1999-2007) in partnership with the Crafts Council, and Jerwood Contemporary Makers (2008-2010).

I've always found the work of Jerwood prize winners to be innovative and progressive, and have particularly kept my eye on the glass artists. Two of those that have interested me the most have been Heike Brachlow (2011) and Helen Maurer (2003).

Theme & Variations III - Heike Brachlow (2010)

Theme & Variations I - Heike Brachlow (2009)

Theme & Variations I - Heike Brachlow (2009)

Heike Brachlow works in cast glass, which she colours herself in order to get the subtle variations in tone.  Often her pieces seem to defy gravity and have a temporality and fragility which is deftly counterbalanced by the chunky, solid glass components.  You can read more about her process and inspirations here.

Helen Maurer works with glass and projected light.  Glass pieces and found objects are placed together on a horizontal glass shelf, like a stage set, and when light is projected through them, a new image is created on the wall above and below.  She explains her work in further depth here.

Relay Overlay - Helen Maurer (2012)

Eclipsed by the Boy - Helen Maurer (2011)

Loop - Helen Maurer (2002)

Victorian Stained Glass Hand Painted Quarries

Just finished this sweet set of 3 painted quarries for a client in The Netherlands.  

I like to say "The Netherlands".  First of all it sounds important and European, and then when you say it a few times it starts to sound silly, like a made-up place from a story book.

Anyway, as you can see from the first picture, the one on the bottom right is the original damaged quarry (my copy is on the left).  The two quarries on the top are new designs that the client requested to go in a missing section of the panel.  He chose Morning Glory and Shirley Poppy as they are both favourites of his wife.  I like things like that.

The repair of the window is being carried out by a stained glass studio over there, they sent me the glass which I duly painted and posted back.  I've been getting more and more work like this from other stained glass studios lately and I really enjoy it.