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.

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!

Victorian Stained Glass - Hand-Painted Floral Scrolls

I've just posted off this pair of ornate floral scrolls to Delia for a repair she's doing on a very grand Victorian entrance in South East London.  I took a few Instagram snaps so you can see how I've built up the layers - 3 firings in all (trace line, shading and silver stain).

These were very enjoyable to paint - loose and free-flowing with nice little flicks of the brush to get the twiddly tendrils just right.

The only problem was that each piece of glass was quite long - I had to order a couple of new kiln shelves to fit them on!

Victorian Birds x 2

I recently finished painting these two birds to post off to Crewe, to be leaded into a pair of stained glass panels being made by a leaded-light maker up there. They are copies from an original set of domestic Victorian stained glass door panels, with the addition of the graduated yellow silver stain background, which I think works really well, giving an almost 3-dimensional quality to them. It did mean an extra firing in the kiln though, which brought the total number of firings up to 5. Always nerve-wracking doing that final and sometimes unpredictable silver stain firing.

Quarries

I have about 42 of these to paint.

Advent 2

The light in my sister's cottage is amazing this time of year.

We went there for the annual Christmas pud stir-up.

But for the rest of the week, it's been duvets and stories for my very poorly girl.

Managed to get a bit of work done though - my copy is on the right.

Broken

This came in the post today from my friend Delia.

We used to work together here. She has her own business in S.E. London.

We still work together from time to time, via e-mail and post.

I haven't had any painted work like this to do for a while.

It'll be nice to get back to some soft colours and fine lines.

Oh Comely

I recently subscribed to Oh Comely magazine. I love it.

It's full of interesting, not-too-wordy

articles on music, art, craft, fashion and life.

There is a quiet, calm, uncluttered feel to the whole publication.

They've asked Folksy sellers to submit work

with the theme "Every item tells a story".

This is what I submitted.

It's called "Some Lived.... Some Died"

An original illustration, hand-painted on

mouth-blown glass and kiln-fired, then

mounted in a lead frame.

Contemporary Indian Window for The Bull Hotel

At last, I've got some pictures to show you.

The window is in one of their newly refurbished rooms (they've just finished converting a few mews-type buildings that lead out on to their stunning courtyard festooned with greenery, flowers and bunting). The room is called Nandi (the name of the bull that the Indian goddess Shiva rides on - clever eh?) and has a contemporary Indian theme with the most amazing wallpapers. The one you see here is so convincingly three-dimensional, you really do have to go and touch it, just to check they haven't actually covered the walls in corrugated iron. On the opposite wall is a beautiful bold paisley print in dusty plum and gold.

The roll-top bath is on a small raised platform in the corner of the bedroom, and the window serves not only to give privacy to the bather, but also to cast the most dazzlingly decadent light across the room. There is a king-size bed and chaise longue in antique rattan, and honestly, it took all the strength I could muster not to just flop on the crisp white duvet and tell them, no you can't have your key back, I'm staying.

I am really delighted with the way the window complements the theme and colours of the room. The paisley border (which took a lot of experimenting with) works brilliantly - giving the window great texture and tying in nicely with the wallpaper opposite. Glass geeks may be interested to know that the olive green glass for the border is actually Spectrum Waterglass. I know - how thrilled was I to find they now make it in 2 new shades of olive green! I actually also put some silver stain on the border glass to "warm" up the olive, to make it more of a yellowy olive than a bluey one, with the added benefit of giving the glass a bit more "life" and subtle variations in tone and colour - Waterglass can look a bit ho-hum if used in large areas. On the other hand, if used with the grain to your advantage in small areas, the effect can be quite dynamic. For this window, I used plum Waterglass in the petal shapes, with the grain following the direction of the petals.

Blossom inside and out.

As if there hasn't been enough pictures of blossom about the blogosphere lately, I'll add some more.

Just finished this small door panel for a lovely family - the chinese blossom design is copied from a vase belonging to Lisa's grandma, with the names of the family around the edge. Could you think of three nicer names than Finn, Jude and Orla? I don't think so - so perfectly balanced.


And this is the tree we pass in the churchyard on our way to school. You can climb it, you can sniff it and you can stand 2 small girls underneath it and shake the blossom off the branches while the church bells are ringing. Much fun.

Old job, new job

Yesterday, I finally got round to photographing this job that I completed recently. A 1930s door panel that was in a pretty bad state of repair when I received it, with 2 of the middle squares completely missing, and a fair few border pieces gone too. Luckily, the client managed to source a good glass match for the middle squares, and although they also found some Small Artic (the glass used in the border) it was everso slightly, but alas noticeably, more textured than the original. The only solution was to replace all the border glass with the new glass. The finished window came up as clean and shiny as a new pin!

I also went to look at a new repair job yesterday - a simple set of Victorian door panels that looked as if they would fall apart if you coughed at them. Other than the bad state of the lead, the glass was generally in good nick - a few broken border pieces and about 2 coloured squares missing overall. The client was happy to take them out themselves - so I advised several miles of masking tape and a couple of bucketfuls of patience!


Meanwhile, other projects on the go are slowly and virtually imperceptibly nearing completion. The silver stain (a metallic compound applied to glass and fired in the kiln to produce a yellow colour) on the border of Cake Boy came out the most pathetic, anaemic yellow colour... so back in the kiln for a second blast. Now it's a beautiful amber - I had forgotten that green coloured glass is often a bit resistant to stain and needs a firmer hand!