Roz McKenzie Glass Designer

Olympian Exhibition

2010-11-02T15:44:00.000-07:00

I currently have an exhibition on at Olympian Furniture store in Edinburgh's Angle Park Terrace. I have several panels of my botanical designs for sale at a retail price of £320. You can see this series of work in more detail in a post below called 'Botanical Panels' which explains what the designs symbolise. You can check out the store online at

http://www.olympianfurnitureonline.com/or call them on (0044) 0131 337 0284.

Award For Excellence - Northlands Creative Glass

2010-08-23T10:43:00.000-07:00

I have now arrived at the final section of my final report which describes the work I did at Northlands Creative Glass in the Scottish Highlands. This section shall be brief as I only spent a very short time there, just a ten days. I was there as an assistant to the technician Michael Bullen who was very kind to me. Northlands is an educational institution for glass artists although it is now starting to introduce other art forms such as ceramics. It holds seminars, short classes and masterclasses and is a place of excellence. People, often established artists themselves, come from around the world to be taught on these masterclasses by world renowned artist, designers and maker. It is somewhere I have wanted to go and see for some time and somewhere I would love to do a course if only I could afford it. I asked Michael if I could come down as part of this award to help him out and get to see the place. While I was there Catherine Newell was holding a masterclass and she is an artist I very much admire. She paints on glass with frits and powders building up layers of colour and using an architectural format which works both in buildings as well as gallery spaces. It was great to see her work and hear her talk and see the designs the students came up with and the art they created under her tutelage. Everyone I spoke to left at the end very happy.

Although I got see all of this I was not actually part of the class. I believe I got the best of both worlds, seeing the work people came up with and being able to get on with what Michael wanted me to do at the same time. The first task he gave me was to cut glass. I cut eight squares 30cm x 30cm x 6mm using a glass cutter and running pliers.

(Fig. 37. Glass cut for lightbox and for paint palettes.)

I still get a little nervous handling big sheets of thick glass but I didn't break any much to my delight. These eight panes were going to be turned into paint palettes. I also cut three pieces at 56cm x 53.5cm x 6mm for lightboxes Michael was making. He made the boxes slender without legs so they could be moves around and places on different surfaces freely. They were not too heavy and I believe a very good design. The glass was sandblasted on the inside and two strip lights were used. If ever I get my own studio I am going to copy these because they were much more manageable than an immobile table.

I made safe all the glass on a lathe which had a platform screwed onto it that you could rest your glass on while you used it. This was really useful and made it much easier to handle the bigger sheets. I had never seen an attachment like this on any lathe I'd used before but it was very straight forward and I would recommend it. The palettes were then ground by hand giving them an opaque quality. Michael wanted them done this way because they didn't have etching facilities and he believed sandblasting was too coarse and when paint was mixed on top of it all the vehicle be it oil or water fell to the bottom and got stuck there between the grooves. I used 360 silicone carbine green powder/grit mixed with a little water on the surface of the palette and ground in with a flat edged slab of glass. Each palette took twenty minutes.

The next job I did, which was really the final job that stretched for the rest of my stay there, was to make up test pieces. Michael who was originally a painter by trade wants to start having painting and glazing courses at Northlands, something they don't specifically do at the moment. One of the things he will need for this is a comprehensive set of tests for all the paints, stains, enamels and powders they will offer, so students can pick what colours they want to use.

(Fig. 38. Tetra and float glass cut for test pieces.)

I had to start doing these from scratch. Michael said I could double all the tests so I could keep a set for myself, which was really great of him and will be extremely helpful to me in the future.

First I cut all the glass, 140 tetra clear bullseye and 142 float all of which were doubled for my own use. I safetied all the edges so they would be easy for students to handle and not damage the brushes and I cleaned them using meths. I then began my tests. Each rectangle of glass was masking taped at the bottom so that once it was painted this could be peeled off to reveal a clean area to be written on.

(Fig. 39. Painting the test pieces.)

The top section is a gradiated matt going from dark to light so the whole range of possible colours can be seen. Beneath it I painted a straight line fading from dark to light and a wiggily line to show what the paint behaves like when it is traced with. At the very bottom I wrote on all of them with black trace giving the manufacturer, the colour and code, the firing temperature. All of the paints were mixed with water and gum. Where paints were sieved it is specified on the test. Dugusso, Optul and Thompson were all sieved. Dugusso, Reusche, Reusche high fire, Debitus, Pot Clay, Pottery Craft and Dekkend were painted.

I cannot begin to explain how useful this experience was for me, getting to go through all of these paints, enamels and powders like this and comparing their qualities.

(Fig. 40. A selection of the test pieces ready for firing in the kiln.)

I have never had this opportunity before. Getting to keep a copy has also been immensely kind as it would cost me a fortune to have to buy each of the paints in order to make up the tests myself. Now I can look back at them, decide the colours to use and buy those alone. It was a real treat getting to go to Northlands. It was a beautiful and friendly place and I was very well taken care of.

I feel truly privileged to have been a recipient of the Award for Excellence 2009 bestowed upon me by The Worshipful company of Glaziers and Glass Painters. I have learnt so much this past year, if I think back to what I knew before I started and what I know now it just doesn't compare. The more I learn the more I realise I do not know. I hope to continue my training and continue to seek out knowledge where ever I can. I am very lucky to have had this opportunity, because no matter what happens in the future no one can ever take away your education, and the skills and techniques I have learned this year are the building blocks for a lifetime. Thank you for granting me this gift and I will strive to prove myself worthy and make you proud.

Derix Glass Studios - Continued Pt. 2.

2010-08-23T10:27:00.000-07:00

While I was at Derix the painting department also had me replace some of their broken test pieces. They had a large box of colours and first I had to go through this and make sure none of them were duplicates of the broken ones. A few were so I could use these as replacements without painting new ones. Of the new ones I did paint they wanted a flat matt wash of colour over the glass with the name, serial number and firing temperature at the bottom painted with black trace.

I also learned how to mix up paint for spraying, something they did a lot of. On large sheets of architectural glass the paint tends to be sprayed on rather than painted by hand with a brush. The spraying allows a completely even matt finish or a completely even gradient to occur something that would be really hard to do on such a scale with brushes. How the paint is mixed for this is important because it determines how smooth the finish will be. Obviously if it is mixed badly there could be grains or lumps in it and this would be disastrous.

The first thing you are to do is to empty the powdered glass paint onto a smooth glass surface, like a table top or a palette. A lot of powder is used and a hole is made in the middle, like when baking, so the oil can be poured in. The powder is then folded in with a scraper, turpentine is added when needed to thin it out. Once it is a little runny it is poured into a sieve. The sieve is compiled of a plastic carton/bottle cut in half. The end with the lid is taken and the lid has a hole cut in the middle which is then sanded down so the edge isn't sharp.

(Fig, 33. Mixing paint for spraying.)

A mesh is stretched over this so that when the lid goes on the mesh is stretched and trapped tight between the bottle and the lid. The mesh is so fine you cannot visibly see any holes, it is the same type used in printing. This bottle with the mesh lid is then placed lid side down into the top of a glass jar. The mixed paint is scooped off the table and scraped into the upside down bottle where it is mixed with more turpentine. This mix is then gently pressed through the mesh in a circular motion with a tough stippling brush. Once it is all pressed through it should be 50/50 paint to turpentine. When left the paint will settle and the turpentine will float so it will be clear if it is or not. At this point extra turpentine can be added or easily scooped off as required. This is now mixed enough to spray with. When mixing in this fashion be careful not to press too hard with the brush because it can tear the mesh and then you will have to start again. An oil mix is always used for spraying, never water. To clean up use turpentine then white spirit, then to really clean brushes you can use 'nitro' which I think stands for nitro glycerine but may not. It was very toxic and throughout all of this I wore gloves, a mask and an apron.

The final piece of work I did at Derix was my own and it was inspired by my experience there. I designed five red flashed glass panels depicting a narrative concerning wasps. When I arrived at Derix I was moved into accommodation above the studios that had not been stayed in for some time and the window had been left open. The room I had to sleep in was inhabited by the beginnings of three wasp colonies which I had to sleep with the first night and was left alone to deal with. I did tackle these myself rather bravely I might add but the experience was a little traumatic for me and although I am not someone who particularly minds insects, staying with wasps was a nightmare. The obvious nests were small enough still to trap in jars and leave outside but there was one behind the wooden panelling on the walls which had to be sealed with silicone glue. It was swelteringly hot but as soon as doors or windows were opened the wasps would come back, even starting a new nest in the kitchen. It was not a fun experience. I used this as inspiration for my art which is designed to look like a children's fairy tale or a graphic comic. Each panel has an ornate border, like there used to be in old story books, and the art work inside tells a story which is also written in verse. The poem talks about a queen wasp moving in above the antagonists bed and how she kills her. I used red flash glass because I wanted to do some etching in the design because this I suspected would be the last chance I would get to use such facilities and I had to take advantage of them.

First I masked off the back of the glass with vinyl then the front. I cut the border out of the front but left the centre masked. I then painted on a red resist, this was the same as the green resist I mentioned before that I used in Peters. I painted this around the borders tracing the pattern I had designed on paper. I dried this out on a heated matt then painted a black substance mixed with turpentine that is used for asphalt and roofing on top. This is the same stuff I used at Lincoln Cathedral when I did etching there. At Lincoln they said it was very important to also paint the edges of the glass so the acid doesn't eat them away and your glass doesn't end up smaller. At Derix however they said not to worry about this at all, so I didn't bother.

(Fig. 34. Red resist painted in swirly patterns on the border.)

Once the asphalt paint had dried on the matt I used a knife to flick up the edge of the red underneath paint , which dries like a plastic, and I could then peel this pattern completely off. This means when etched it is the pattern and not the empty space around it that is etched. The asphalt paint protects those other areas. This same process was later repeated on the internal design, with the border vinyled instead. Once all the etching was complete I painted the rest of my design with tracing paint and oil called ‘siebdruck-oldirekt', fired it and added some highlights of silverstain. The stain was applied very differently from how I have done it before. It was premixed with oil and sat in a large tub. The paint was very thick and needed to be thinned down with turpentine. It was a little reddy and it was hard for me to gauge how thick the paint was and therefore how strong the colour would be as I had not mixed it myself.

(Fig. 35.Top panel shows the asphalt after it has just been painted on. The lower shows the same design after the pink Abdecklack has been peeled of.)

As it turned out I was quite unhappy with the colour. I had expected a stronger yellow and the colour was a little muddy and not very clear. I think I wanted a bright primary colour but that is not what I got. Overall though I was very happy with my work and did manage to get them back in one piece successfully.

(Fig. 36. My completed wasp design.)

I was grateful for being allowed to do so much of my own work while I was there and definitely learned a lot from the projects I had the pleasure of working on. The lamination process especially taught me a lot because I had never used any of the techniques before. The people were friendly but again I did find the language barrier a problem. I was sad to have never really got to meet any of the Derix family and unfortunately the wasps did put a bit of a downer on my experience. It was really great to have been able to go there, because I had wanted to see their studios for some time and now I have. It was also really useful to be able to compare their practice to Peters Glasmalerie and see how they were run differently. One major difference is that Peters takes on apprentices that it trains up, Derix on the other hand does not. It employs people who are already trained, maybe people from other studios or sometimes people from a glass technical college not too far away called Hadamar. Whereas people at Peters said it was relatively easy to get an apprenticeship if you wanted one and to stay on after if you were not incompetent, the staff at Derix told me it was hard to get work there, or that they were surprised to get their jobs. The environment felt different because of this. If I am ever back in that part of Germany I would love to visit Hadamar as it was supposed to be very worth seeing, but I didn't have the time or the transport so it was not to be.

Derix Glass Studios - Continued Pt. 1.

2010-08-23T10:11:00.002-07:00

I cut the lead from a large sheet that came in a role. It is the same stuff that is used in roofing only a little thinner and so more pliable and easier to work with. I cut the sizes by laying the leaded up glass on top of the lead sheeting and drawing around the edge with a nail. On the smaller windows the extra lead was to be 3cm wide and on the larger windows it was to be 5cm wide. To get this exact width squares of wood were cut to these sizes.

(Fig, 29. One of the Lipertz panels cut to size and polished.)

The wood was butted up against the edge of the window and the nail drew along the edge of the wood. As the wood was moved along the glass edge, so the nail was moved along the wood edge. Once the strips were drawn out in this way they were cut with a stanley knife. Edge strip was cut a little long at the ends so they could overlap. This makes the solder joints stronger and also helps when the glass is being installed.

(Fig. 30. Brass strips cut to size, drilled and coated in solder.)

(Figs. 31. Brass strips soldered to window leading.)

Once all the lead is cut to size it is soldered onto the leading around the glass using liquid flux which is painted on. 5mm overlap between the lead I'm adding and the leaded border to make sure it is really secure. After soldering the lead is wiped with a tissue to remove the flux which dries black and is unsightly. The lead strips are then trimmed with metal cutters in some places to make sure they mimic the contours of the lead work underneath. Long flat brass rods are cut down to 3cm strips, each of which had a hole drilled in it. These are what will finally attach the windows to the stonework. A different flux is used on these called 'lot wasser'. It is an acid and a stronger flux which when soldered sizzles. I have to wear gloves to use it because it is so acidic. The tip of each brass rectangle is painted with this flux then soldered on both sides. These are then soldered onto the lead work around the edge of the glass, on top of where the strips of lead were soldered earlier. Nails will go through the holes in the brass and into the church stonework to hold the panels in place. Even although some of the windows were quite big and heavy enough that they were hard for me to lift they only had about five of these little brass attachments on each window. They told me they were very strong so they didn't need many.

(Fig. 32. Lipertz panels completed and ready for installation.)

Some of the solder leaked through to the front and this was removed by reheating the solder with an iron and wiping it with wire wool while it was still hot. The front face of the leaded strips was rubbed down with putty then brushed with a polishing brush to blacken up the lead. These windows were then complete and ready to be installed. I thought they looked really good and I actually quite liked the extra lead from an aesthetic point of view because it really framed the designs.I have now described all the work I took part in in the glazing department while at Derix glass studios. I will now explain what I did in the painting department. The most notable work I did in this department was to help with some restoration painting. They were working on a project originally by Johann Klaus in 1872. The windows were from Munchberg in the church of St Peter and Paul. The restorative work I did was exactly the same as what I had done in Peters Glasmalerie. The project was wrapping up when I arrived and they had some broken simple panels that needed to be copied. I painted black trace lines onto a newly cut piece of glass which was placed on top of the old piece so I could see through it and copy it. I mixed the paint with turpentine and an oil mix nobody could translate for me but was probably the same combination used at Peters. The tricky bit came once the trace lines were fired. A matt wash needed to be added on the front but the staff in the painting department could not reach a consensus about what colour to make it as they did not have an exact match and were in disagreement about what looked best.

(Fig. 32. Left hand side shows copied panel, right hand the original.)

This meant that I ended up painting the matt, firing it, then a few days later having to do the whole thing from the beginning with another matt, then another because this decision could not be reached. I did not really mind doing this and was just happy it was the colour they had chosen and not my painting that was the problem.

Derix Glass Studios - Continued

2010-08-23T09:59:00.000-07:00

The next step is to mix the glue. They used a two part silicone solution which was mixed together then put into a vacuum for a few minutes to remove the bubbles. This apparently is the secret ingredient to getting a smooth invisible finish to your lamination. It was a very basic bit of equipment that I would never of thought of and it made the liquid bubble free. The glue was then poured over the area to be laminated. The top piece of glass is stood in the glue where it is supposed to go on one edge and very very slowly lowered down into the silicone so no air is trapped. It is then pressed down on and weights are sometimes put on top. If more than one piece is being glued down at once tape is put across them to make sure they stay at the same level and in the same place together.

(Fig. 26 . Oldenberg project ready for removal of glue.)

The glass, once glued, is sat on an electric matt to speed up drying. It usually takes four hours to cure but with the matt it can be set in one hour. A lot of the work I did while in Derix was cleaning up laminated panels. Once dry excess glue has to be removed. First all the tape and the vinyl is pulled off. A scalpel and a sharp blade are

(Fig.27. Excess glue removed from Oldenberg glass.)

used to score around the edges of the glass to make sure no trace of extra silicone is stuck on. This takes a while. The glass is lathered in white spirit and the edges are gone over with wire wool afterwards. Once it is cleaned in this way it is cleaned again with glass cleaner. The blades must be extremely sharp otherwise the cut lines will look ragged and be visible and this would be a disaster.

For the Oldenberg project, after cleaning I masked the edges and top surfaces with foil and tape so that the bottom could be sandblasted. If the glass had not been taped this way it would have been a nightmare to clean out the sand. Altogether for this project there were three layers of glass, and two layers sandwiching them all together. Top layer was the art glass then a layer of silicone glue sticking it down to tempered glass with foil to laminate it to a final layer of tempered glass. The tempered glass, foil, tempered glass combination is outsourced and done by another company. Tempered glass is very fragile but strong. The edges when knocked or dropped will cause the whole glass to shatter into thousands of pieces, but at the same time hold together. This is important because it means if the ceiling light was to be broken it would not fall down onto everyone's heads.

The final piece of work I did in the glazing department was on Markus Lipertz's St. Andreas Cloister in Cologne. These were a series of windows in different sizes and shapes that would fit inside this church. The stone work was very old and original features needed protecting. Instead of putting the new glass back into the stonework it was to be put in front of it and clear protective glazing would go into the stone. I puttied and cleaned some of these windows and on others I added an extra border of lead sheeting to block out the light and hooks to attach the glass inside the church. All this I will now explain in detail.

The first task I did on this project was to putty and clean the windows that had already been leaded. The way we puttied them was slightly different from how I had puttied in the past. The putty itself was different. It was like leaded light cement but without the black colouring. It came in large plastic pots and some of it was a little watery.

(Fig. 28.Putty taken from bucket brushed into Lipertz project then sawdusted.)

The consistency was more like linseed putty, a little grainy. I think it was subtly different from anything I had used before because it was something they made up themselves, but no-one was able to tell me. I brush puttied the panels, but using a much nicer brush than I had used in the past. Whenever I had done this job before it was always done with a cheap rubbishy brush sometimes even with plastic hairs, or the firm long and flat type you use to polish shoes. In Derix I was given a completely new beautiful brush, very like a large English Stippler and it was quite sad getting it so messy. Another thing that was different was that they used sawdust instead of whiting to soak up the oil.

The process was simple: Firstly, apply putty with brush, making sure it goes under all the lead; Secondly, scrape off excess with a flat edged wooden stick and then press down the lead (usually in my experience this would be done with an oyster knife, however I didn't see a single one used the whole time I was in Germany so I think perhaps it's just not part of the tradition there); Thirdly, cover with sawdust and brush with a normal cleaning brush (as described above) to work the sawdust in so it can soak up oil left from the putty, a rag is also used to do this. The brushing is done quite vigorously to really clean the putty residue off the glass; Fourthly, go around the edges of the lead with a nail to remove the harder to reach excess putty then vacuum the glass to lift off all the sawdust, then re-sawdust any areas that are not quite clean.Once the panels were puttied and cleaned I had one final job to do on them. I had to cut to size and solder on sheet lead to go around the edges of the windows. As I mentioned above the glass is not going back into the stone work but sitting in front of it. Because of this there was a concern that light would seep past the outer edge of the glass and be obvious and unsightly from the floor below.

(Fig. 29. Lipertz project. Sheet lead cut long and laid in place over wooden batons to solder.)

The artist Markus Lipertz did not want this. It was therefore decided that extra lead would be cut and attached onto these outer edges, the sheeting will overlap the stone a little and because of this it will block out all unwanted light.

Award For Excellence - Derix Glass Studios

2010-08-23T09:45:00.000-07:00

My last German placement was in Derix Glass Studios, Taunusstein. This is a small town outside the city of Wiesbaden and I worked here for just under three weeks. The studio was split into two parts, glazing and painting. Although there was no-one in particular coordinating me during my stay I worked mostly under the guidance of Natalie Gruffat in glazing and Patricia Bose in painting. This is yet another large and successful family glass business like Peters and it has roughly sixty staff. While I was there a lot of different projects were happening in tandem but I am going to discuss in this report the ones I had personal experience with. In the glazing department I was mostly involved in three projects. Two were very similar lamination jobs, one for a retirement home in Borken,

Germany

, designed by Vlaimeir Oldenburg and the other for toilets in Sykes, California

USA

, designed by Guy Kempea. The third glazing project was for St. Andreas Cloister in Cologne,

Germany

, designed by Markus Lipertz. These were all new works, in fact Derix almost solely does new commissions and although they do have some restoration work, the department is tiny with only two people working in it while I was there.

I did do a little restoration work while I was there for the painting department. This was on panels from a window by Johann Klaus in the church of St Peter and Paul, Munchberg, Germany. I also did some of my own work inspired by the location, repainted broken test pieces and learned how to mix up paint for spraying. I am going to discuss each of these projects in turn and explain what I have learned.

First I will explore the work I did in the glazing department starting with the two projects featuring lamination, Vladimir Oldenburgs retirement home and Guy Kempeas toilets. Oldenburgs design is for a large circular ceiling light. Because it will be installed in the ceiling and people will stand below it safety is extra important. It is apparently quite a simple design, the coloured glass is all cut to size and the time consuming part is grinding it all down to fit together. It is laminated and not leaded which means the different shapes are cut to fit exactly next to each other without gaps, the edges are left sharp so they can be adhered as seamlessly as possible. Black silicone is used to stick the edges together and the whole section is then laminated to tempered glass.

The German way of making up a window uses paper templates which are cut for each and every individual pieces of glass in the window. The glass is then cut to the templates. This is instead of having everything cut to a design on a big piece of paper which is obviously how it is done in the UK.

(Fig. 24 Paper template over glass showing sawing technique.)

The first job I was given at Derix was to cut glass sections to the templates given using a Taurus Ring Saw by Gemini made in the USA. This piece of machineryseemed to me to be very clever although I was told by the employees that it wasn't any good and broke down a lot. It did in fact do exactly that while I was using it. It was however rather ingenious. The ring saw span in a circle and when you pushed glass into it you could cut at obtuse and acute right angles that would be impossible with a glass cutter. I think you could cut almost any design with it and I was thoroughly impressed that nothing broke, it seemed to do the job really easily. I had to cut rectangular shapes out of long green strips of glass. I could never have done it without this machine.

My first step in this process was to lay the template out on top of the glass and when I had it in the correct position hold the paper down with weights. I then drew around the rectangular shape with a water resistant pen. I cut out this shape on the saw a couple of millimetres from the pen line then ground the rest down on a glass grinding machine. The only difficulties were that the pen lines kept washing off, the large glass sheets were difficult to balance and if the paper got damp it would lose its shape. On the whole though it was very straight forward. It took me a few days but I did about twenty of them all together and I was happy with the results.

On both the Oldenberg project and the Kempea project I got to see and take part in the lamination process which was the same for both. First the glass is cleaned thoroughly with white spirit. The larger piece of glass that is to be glued onto is put on the table.

(Fig. 25. Pt. 1. Guy Kempeas Project, Pouring the glue.)

(Fig. 25. Pt. 2. Placing the glass.)

(Fig. 25. Pt. 3. Leaving it to set.)

Vinyl covered the areas of this sheet of glass that are not to be glued. Tape is put around all four edges of the glass with a couple of inches sticking up above the surface of the glass, this creates a barrier where excess glue cannot pass and stick the glass to the table accidentally. Strips of sticky thick foam which come in a roll like tape are stuck down creating a damn around the area to be glues to stop glue going further than intended. Squares of this foam are also stuck at the edges of where the new piece of glass to be laminated will go, and at the corners so it will be easy to get everything in the right place. This also stops the glass from sliding about and moving once stuck down. The upper surface of the glass, the side that will not be laminated, on the piece getting stuck down is also covered in vinyl.

Glasmalerei Peters - Continued Pt. 1.

2010-08-23T09:30:00.000-07:00

The next job I worked on was also for the gift shop and it was again a screen printed design that I had to colour in.

(Fig.21. Madonna and Child with mixing palettes and colour samples to match original.)

This was an image of the Madonna and child. I first painted in the blue and yellow garments and yellow backdrop before firing, then added pink for the skin tones and more blue to the garments and background. It was very straight forward and I was happy with them because I think mine turned out better than the one I had to copy from.

The final project they gave me was the job of adding in painted shadows to a fused rose design. I tried the first rose with the same oil and turpentine mix as I had used before and then did the rest with water because it seemed to be easier. The oil was very hard to clean up after but the effect was softer, possibly a little nicer. I used black paint and stippled all of them.

(Fig.21. Completed Rose designs.)

The original design was by Albert Bocklage and they had been recreating the same image using lots of different techniques in order to show prospective clients the different possibilities that were available to produce a similar decorative effect.

I was also permitted to create my own work in the studio in my own time which was very kind of them and it was really nice for me to be able to work on my own creations. I translated drawings I had done in the past into painted glass.

(Figs.22. My finished work. Reclining woman design)

(Fig. 23. Sitting man design.)

I was extremely happy with my reclining woman image which I liked even better than the original, but the figurative painting of a man sitting I did I don't feel worked as well.

I am grateful of the opportunity I was given to come to Paderborn and work at the studios and Jan Peters especially was extremely kind to me. If later in my career I am ever in a position to get such a large commission I would not hesitate to go to this studio to get it made. The staff were all extremely competent and hard working and really cared about the art they were helping to realise. I would definitely recommend their services to anybody considering taking their designs abroad and would feel very safe in their capable hands. On a personal note however I found the experience quite isolating because I could not really communicate in any meaningful way with the people around me and I am sure had I been a little more multi-lingual the experience would have been quite different.

Glasmalerei Peters - Continued

2010-08-23T09:18:00.000-07:00

After my week in Neuenbeken I started work in Paderborn. The first brief project I helped with was to clean clear leaded glass windows that were to be returned to a museum in Amsterdam (not as the exhibits but to go above the doors). They were really mucky and quite badly puttied so I had a lot of work to do on them but not enough time

(Fig.17. Cleaning the museum windows.)

to do the job as thoroughly as I would have liked. I did this using spray foam cleaner and tissue, with wire wool on trickier areas.

Biedermann and Natalia Sittner. I was to help with some tests they were doing for their own research. Thousands of squares of clear glass, yellow textured glass and green glass had been cut. I had to put masking tape around the edges of each of these. Once I had made a substantial pile it was time to paint them. They were painted with a substance I had not seen before that was essentially a liquid gold in a bottle. This was mixed with a little turpentine to make it easier to handle and was them painted on. It went on with the appearance of a thick browny colour but after firing in the usual way it turned to a mirrored gold, so clear I could see my reflection in it. It was extremely easy to use and only painted on very thinly but with the

(Fig.18. Gold paint sample.)

same result. I was told the paint had actual gold in it which is why it was so expensive and used sparingly.

The next project I worked on was for the gift shop. They had already made several small screen printed panels and it was my job to add the colours. The image was a heart shape in bright kiddy colours and was called 'Regenbogenherz'. It was designed by Dietlind Schmiedek from Munster-

(Fig.19. Love heart assembly line.)

Nienberg. I mixed bright pink, salmon pink, green, blue and yellow and began to create a matt finish of these colours all across the heart. They were to look blurry so each colour faded into the next. I just used water and a little gum arabic in the paint. Once I did my matt I cleaned away the excess and scratched off areas where other colours were to go. It was very much like painting by numbers, as I just had to follow a photograph of one done previously as best as I could. After firing some of them looked better than others. I'm not sure if they were happy with them or not as most of the people I was working with could not speak English and I speak no German.

I also did some various church restoration work while I was there. Broken panes of glass would come in and it would be my job to replicate them. I do not know what churches they were from as nobody could understand my question, but I believe they

(Fig.20. Example of glass restoration using oil formula, from unknown church.)

were from several different sources as they looked quite dissimilar. They mixed up their own vehicle for these which they kept in a jar. I wish I knew what was in it because it was extremely good but again no-one could tell me. I took down the German names but I have not yet had time to translate them although I could smell the clove oil and by the colour I think there may have been linseed also. This mixture was then mixed with a little turpentine which made it dry within about an hour which is quick for oil in my experience. It was a really beautiful solution to work with and painted very well.

Award For Excellence - Glasmalerei Peters

2010-08-23T08:58:00.000-07:00

After I left Erfurt I travelled to Paderborn in a different part of

Germany

to work at Glasmalerei Peters. I stayed above their studio in Paderborn but travelled to work in their other studio in Neuenbeken during my first week. Paderborn mostly specialises in restoration work where as Neuenbeken does new glass for a modern setting. I worked under Claus Happe in Neuenbeken on a bank project. In Paderborn I worked under the guidance of Britta Biedermann and Natalia Sittner. Here I worked on six separate projects; the cleaning of museum glass, gold tests, heart screen prints, various painted church restorations, Madonna with child gifts and fused roses. I will discuss each of these in turn shortly but first I wish to give an overview of Glasmalerei Peters.

The Peters family have run their business for three generations and greeted me very warmly. During my stay I dealt exclusively with Jan Peters who I saw almost every day and would always make time for me and check that I was doing okay. On my first day he gave me a tour of both their studios which were larger than anything I'd ever seen before. The kilns they have are huge. They have giant sandblasters and pretty much giant everything else. They have rooms where the glass is spray painted for big scale projects to produce a more even finish and ceramic ink jet printers that print designs directly only glass which can then be fired. It is a truly spectacular operation on a grand scale. There was nothing they could not do there, they wanted to be at the cutting edge of all new technology and the studios were simply overflowing with the most beautiful glass.

Jan told me that when the studio was first set up they did some of their own design work, but then decided that for the business they would do better by facilitating artists rather than competing with them. They therefore do not make any of their own work but artists from around the world come to their studios for their expertise and skill. The workforce had over sixty workers of whom the majority had been there since leaving school at which time they are taken on as apprentices. They always have several at one time, and over three years they go through each aspect of glass making absorbing everything until they are taken on in a specialist area after completion. Jan says this is a great way to build up the work force because when people go through the ranks like this you know everything they are capable of and almost everyone chooses to stay on with them.

The week I spent at Neuenbeken was under the guidance of Claus Happe an expert painter. Here I worked on a project to create sliding glass doors for a local bank that dealt exclusively with the church called Paderborn BKC. Each sheet of glass was approx. 2 meters by 1 meter and the work was done in a contemporary style. The design

(Fig.13. Example of some of the sliding doors placed against studio windows.)

was created by Tobias Krammerer and was based on a small image created with scrunched up coloured paper and paint which after being blown up to a huge scale was translated into the glass. I felt with this design that the real art had taken place in the translation and it was the master craftsmen at Peters that had turned this concept into something pleasing.

A lot of work went in to meticulously recreating what was essentially a very simple design. It was important that it completely represented the artists original impression, down to every dot. They did a lot of complicated work in order to make it look like they had just splattered some paint on, which they did not, but had I not seen the way they did do it I would certainly have thought they had. The first step in the process was to clean the very large sheets of glass which was done with a spray foam and a tissue, then gone over with white spirit. The blown up design is laid out on a large and extremely strong table which the glass is then slid on top of. Once they are lined up correctly clear grey vinyl is stretched out over it and the glass is coated. It is difficult getting vinyl on large sheets so there is a very specific way in which they do it.

First a sheet of vinyl is cut that matches the size of the glass. The protective paper is then pealed back at one end and about a foot of it is cut away. The sheet is laid on the glass and this strip of sticky vinyl is first folded back on itself (so the paper side is facing the glass and the sticky end that has been revealed is facing the sky) before being gingerly fingered down and flattened with a stiff plastic tool ( like a credit card but thicker). Once this is done the rest of the vinyl, and there is rather a lot of it (all of which still has the protective paper attached) is rolled very tightly up to the area that is stuck down. The tip of the paper is peeled away. While firmly keeping the roll tight to the glass it is unrolled by the pulling of the protective paper until the whole of the vinyl is stuck to the glass. It is then brushed back and forth with the stiff plastic from middle to edge making sure there are no air bubbles. The edges of the vinyl are trimmed back to the glass so there is no lip.

Once the vinyl is attached a pen is used to draw out some of the shapes below and then a scalpel is used to cut these away. The blades need changed very regularly so as not to scratch the glass. There were a lot of different colours in the design so this whole process needed several repetitions on each piece

(Fig.14. Glass with vinyl being rolled into large pre-programmed sandblaster.)

of glass as they would often be fired many times. The first step was the sandblasting. Areas to be sandblasted were cut out and the back was protected. The glass was carried onto a conveyor belt of sorts where it was then rolled slowly into an automated sandblaster that could be programmed to sandblast at different levels and for different times and strengths. It is then shot with compressed air to remove excess sand. The vinyl on the back is removed and the back is cleaned before it is put back on the table where the front is cleaned and it is lined up with the design again. This time when more vinyl is rolled out areas to be painted are cut away. Due to the nature of the design some of the patterns were too intricate to cut with a scalpel and a different process was used on these.

A substance called abdecklack, which was a sort of green liquid plastic (also comes in red) was painted on as a resist. It was painted on quite thickly and dried quite

(Fig.15. Abdecklack painted into the glass as a resist against paint.)

quickly. The paints that Claus uses are usually only mixed with gum arabic and water (he also uses turpentine on some occasions) because this makes them easier to clean up than say oil, and on large sheets of clear glass like this it is really important that the glass is completely clean before firing. After the glass paints are applied on top, the abdecklack can be peeled off in one piece or flicked off with a scalpel and hoovered up. Any abdecklack that is too tiny to peel off can be left as it will burn off in the kiln. After this process and a last clean of the glass it is fired in an industrial kiln. It takes the glass to 600C in three hours and then is cut off, cooling naturally overnight. The large sheets can have

(Fig.16. Glass with final and abdecklack resists painted.)

a 50 degree difference in temperature across them without them becoming stressed. It takes so much power to fire one of these kilns that in a special warehouse housing three only one can be turned on at a time.

University of Applied Sciences Fach-Hochschule - Continued Pt. 2

2010-08-16T05:26:00.000-07:00

My final glueing activity in Erfurt was the construction of a glass tray. A rectangle for the bottom and four sides measured to fit together were cut from 6mm glass. Once satisfied I began arranging them in position and taping them together. I did this by first cutting a length of tape greater than the length of the bottom rectangle and sliding the rectangle partially off the table. I applied the tape to the edge leaving half the width of the tape unattached. I then pulled the rectangle back onto the table with the sticky side of the left over tape facing upwards. I then picked up the related side wall of glass and carefully stuck it, leaving no gap, to the tape. I folded up the remaining tape that stuck out and then with another strip of tape I secured it. I did this by sticking one end of the tape to the outside wall of the glass side and then pulling it firmly stuck the other to the middle inside surface of the rectangle thereby holding the wall steadfast. I applied this same process to each wall. At the corners I ran extra tape up the length of their outer adjoining edge. So finally it looked like a box without a lid. I then dotted a syringe full of araldite around all the inner edges, where glass meets glass, filling the space to between. Once this had dried I removed the tape and did a top up in any areas where the glue

(Fig.8. Glass tray taped together for glue to set.)

had not run properly so the whole tray was completely secure. After drying the tray was very strong. The tray had tiny glass balls poured into it, these acted like sand would, holding the shape of an object that was put in it (like a bottle) in place without letting it roll, but unlike sand they did not scratch the glass. The walls prevented any balls rolling away and meant that gluing glass inside could be easily transported around the studio without coming apart.

As well as gluing I also did some conservation work while in Erfurt. I worked on my own conservation project of a small panel from Benburg and participated in the early stages of conserving church windows from Dondorf. The Dondorf windows are a working title we gave to glass from a Protestant parish church in the village of Dondorf. It was designed and constructed by Wilhelm Franke in 1912, which is the name given to a designer, maker and company. There were eight large windows in extremely poor condition, only later found out that one light was missing. Their condition was so poor because the church has had new windows fitted and these were simply taken out and left on the floor where they were stood on. Some of the students were trying to piece it back together like a giant version of my earlier jigsaw work. I spent some time helping them with this job in the basement. It was a truly awesome and thankless task because not only was it in a billion little fragments with an unknown amount missing they did not even know what the original was supposed to look like. Parts of the window looked as though

(Fig.9. One of the reassembled Dondorf windows.)

they had once been quite beautiful and it was sad to see it in such disrepair. The university does restoration work on hopeless causes like this for free to teach its students, but I was told by some that this makes it very hard once graduated for freelance conservators to set up any kind of business that charges.

I was also permitted to do a bit of conservation myself. This was on a small section of a window from Martinskirche in Benburg. The panel was 23.5cm wide by 38.5cm high. It was painted with a geometric floral design and was 19^th century Victorian. It had no bars, knots or bowing. The internal lead was 6mm flat and the border was 8mm flat. The lead is the original and is as old as the glass. Several of the joins were fractured, there was double leading in one corner and it was in poor condition with an unusual corrosion or fungal condition on the back. The glass used varied from mouth blown red and blue flash, to yellow pot

(Fig.10. Benburg Panel pre-conservation)

metal and a pinky brown tint. The glass was of varying thickness, from 2mm to 3mm. A lot of pieces were missing and there was a lot of breakage. This may be due to wear and tear, perhaps from being badly stored. There were dirt and dust deposits on the front and cement mortar deposits on the back. There was no corrosion to the glass and the paint, which was black trace with a wash, was in good condition without any surface decoration erosion. Previous temporary restoration had taken place and this could be seen in several new solder joints, barely enough to hold it together, and the resining of cracked glass.

The biggest problem I had with this conservation was the cement mortar. Cement mortar is very different from lime mortar which is what you now have to use to put in windows. Slate lime mixed with sand and stone dust creates water permeable lime mortar. It takes a while for it to achieve strength and sealing properties. It can be premixed, and if kept out of contact with air, it doesn't set. Lime is easier to chisel out when repairing old windows and it moves with the building, expanding and contracting.

Cement mortar on the other hand sets under all conditions, even under water. It does damage to old buildings because it is rock hard and water cannot permeate it. It damages the original stone, which contains moisture, by forcing it to become water logged as the moisture has nowhere to travel. It is a very unforgiving material and although the Victorians often used it to put in their windows it should never be used now. In previous studios when we came across glass that had cement mortar attached we had to chisel it off, although this could be hard work and was sometimes to the detriment of the glass. Because of this Strobl insisted that I slowly scratch and chip at the mortar until it turns to powder and using this method to remove all of it, so it would not damage the paint. It took me three days to remove only 10cm by 3.5cm of cement using this method, and although it worked it was extremely labour intensive and not the best use of my very short time there.

Once all the cement was removed I spent time cleaning it with cotton wool and ethanol, scratching at the dirt with a blade. I could not take it apart to clean it as I was to preserve the lead, so even after cleaning it still looked quite dirty, but that might have just been because I was looking at it in the context of the old lead. I took a rubbing on paper using just a pencil, which was tricky, and then taped this down to the table. On top of it I placed a sheet of tracing paper and tried to gauge the sizes of the missing pieces. On closer inspection we noticed that because of the way the glass was shaped at the to the border, it was in fact the bottom right hand corner of a larger design. This we had easily missed the first time because so little of the glass remained. It was decided that instead of creating a full finished window, it should be made obvious that the panel is incomplete and that sections are replaced. I made the design continue a little at the top to give the impression of the continuing pattern.

I was also to paint the replacements in a way that made them obvious. Of the 16 new pieces I cut using stock sheets they had, all must be painted in the usual manner, but

(Fig.11. First layer of paint on glass cut for Benburg panel.)

then diagonal lines were to be drawn across them in stripes. This was a technique they pioneered at Canterbury. The idea is that on close inspection in years to come it will be obvious what pieces are previous restorations. However from the ground as they are such fine lines they shall not be seen. I start by using a very light pinky wash on the back called K-F6371. Once fired I paint in the different designs using black tracing paint where applicable, trying to mirror the original where possible. The one remaining border piece was very stained and grubby looking. Instead of replacing it I tried to paint the rest of the border to match. I was extremely happy

(Fig.12. Completed replacements painted on Benburg Panel.)

with the results which turned out just as I had hoped. Unfortunately I was not in Erfurt long enough to lead the panel back together, something I would very much like to have tried as I have never reused old lead in this fashion. Time constraints sadly meant this was not to be.

On a final note I would like to say that I very much enjoyed my time in Erfurt. I couldn't have wished for more friendly or welcoming colleagues and the city was incredibly beautiful. Professor Strobl was an excellent mentor and took the time to really talk to me and answer my questions, which I always have an excess of, teaching me so much in a very short space of time. It was a wonderful start to my first leg in Germany and I am extremely grateful for the hospitality and warmth shown to me, much needed in a distant land, and which I will remember fondly.

University of Applied Sciences Fach-Hochschule - Continued

2010-08-16T05:15:00.000-07:00

The next project that I worked on was a broken wine bottle. I broke the bottle and then taped it back together, removing a small section so I could learn about the process of creating a 3D infill. The first step was to work out where, following the cracks, was the best place for me to separate the glass into two halves. This is so you can get your hand up inside it to tend to the infill from both sides before fitting it all back together. When I decided where I would remove the bottom from I glued the top half together being careful not to resin this section on. The reason I didn't remove the bottom before doing this is so the bottle held to its original form and didn't warp without the support of this part. I was told I could either stand the bottle up and resin it that way (apparently if you are careful it won't drip down) or you can lay it on its side and resin it in two parts, letting the first dry before rolling it over. I opted for the latter.

(Fig.4. Broken bottle taped back together.)

In order to make the mould, which I did once the cracks were resined, I used a two part silicone mix, one part silicone to one part hardener. Once mixed together they set within five minutes. This particular brand was called 'dentasil light' and was used in dentistry. Once the glass was clean the first step was to pick another part of the bottle which mimicked the contours of the area I wanted to fill. I then spread the silicone mix onto this in a square shape larger than the hole and in a consistency thick enough to be easily handled without it coming apart or losing its shape.

I repeated this process twice, once for the shape of the inside of the bottle and one for the outside. The silicone I spread on the outside I did in the same way with one exception. I held a small section of drinking straw onto the glass firmly while I pasted the silicone around it (this is easier with two people). This was done so that once it was set the straw would act as a funnel I could inject the araldite into, and also act as an air vent to release any trapped bubbles. In larger moulds you will need two straws one to act as an air vent and a separate one to pour but because mine was so small this wasn't an issue.

These two mould sections are then stuck to the inside and outside of the site needing infilled in turn. They are fixed using extra silicone which is applied thinly with a finger around the edges of the hole, being careful not to get any into the area for gluing, and the mould

(Fig.5. Mould made of dental silicone with straw)

is then pressed into it until set. This was a fiddly business for me because it was very hard to get my hand far enough up the bottle to do this at all never mind doing it with any delicacy. It is very important that the silicone mould is stuck firm otherwise the araldite will seep under it, the mould will fail and the after effect will be very hard to clean because it is so hard to get to. I found this to my peril on my first attempt. It is also worth noting that once the mould is in place the araldite must be applied very slowly so as not to create bubbles, a little at a time. The longer it is since you mixed the araldite the thicker it will be and thicker glue creates more bubbles because the air finds it more difficult to escape. If bubbles do occur, rock the glass from side to side to try and chase them up the air vent. If this doesn't work, or you can’t see them because the mould is not clear then use fresh araldite and hopefully they will rise to the surface. Surface bubbles can be easily filled in once the glue is set and become invisible.

Although in the end my infill worked, for the sake of experimentation I removed it in order to do it again using an alternative method. This time I used wax. It works on the exact same principal, one piece inside and one outside. Although instead of the straw you cut a small hole. At the university they had a special little drill to do this with but I imagine you could do the same thing with a sharp pencil. Where as in previous studios we always used a hair-drier to soften the wax here they had another special tool. I used an electric metal spatula, plugged in like a soldering iron, which when heated could be pressed into the wax to seal it to the glass. This of course was accidental, because I could never have fitted a hair-drier into the bottle. This time I had premixed powder pigment into the araldite so that when I added the hardener I was able to perfect the colour by adding a little blue and a little yellow to create the olive green of the bottle. I injected this a little at a time through the hole in the wax and into the cavity, swaying the bottle to let the liquid

(Fig.6. Alternative Wax Mould)

reach the corners first before adding more so as not to get bubbles. Once hardened I felt that this method had worked very successfully and I found it easier personally to use the wax rather than the silicone.

The final item I had to break and fix was a lightbulb. This process was exactly the same as the others. The curve of the surface made it marginally easier the fit the pieces back together but many were so tiny, the glass so thin and fragile, that it really was an extremely difficult job. In the end I had to glue one half before I could continue reassembling it because it was so delicate that even with tape it kept coming apart in my hands. The final pieces were so small they had to be fitted using tweezers and the task was so arduous at times that it seemed like it was un-accomplishable. I did witness another student finish one, so I can testify to

(Fig.7. Taping broken lightbulb)

the fact that I have seen it done and it is therefore possible, but as I had such a short stay there I will admit that mine got the best of me and was never fully realised.

Award For Excellence - University of Applied Sciences Fach-Hochschule

2010-08-16T04:07:00.000-07:00

In the last forty weeks I have been travelling around different glass studios and institutions as an award recipient of the Award for Excellence, bestowed to me by the Worshipful Company of Glaziers and Glass Painters. This is the third and final instalment of my report on what I have learned during this time and how this new knowledge has influenced me as an artist.

On this, the final leg of my journey, I have had the pleasure of travelling from the East to the West of Germany and then on to the highlands of Scotland. I have spent time at four separate establishments, which have each taught me a great deal. I first visited the ancient City of Erfurt in what used to be East Germany where I had the privilege of working under the tutelage of Professor Sebastian Strobl at the University of Applied Sciences Fach-Hochschule Erfurt. I then toured Glasmalerei Peters and both their studios in the Cities of Paderborn and Neuenbeken where I was watched over by Jan Peters. Next I travelled to the town of Wehen in Taunusstein where I worked at Derix Studios under the instruction of many different employees. After leaving Germany and returning to Scotland I had my grand finale in Lybster, for a brief stay at North Lands Creative Glass to assist at Catherine Newel's Masterclass.

Throughout the course of this report I will discuss each of these placements and what I learned from them, and I will do so in chronological order, commencing with my stay in Erfurt.

Professor Sebastian Strobl runs the glass section of a department specialising in conservation and restoration. He has a particular interest in resins and glues in regard to the repair of broken or damaged glass. The three weeks I spent at the University of Applied Sciences were therefore mostly concerned with this, but I also got to observe other restoration work that was going on in the studio and take part in a little myself. The main projects I worked on while in Erfurt in regard to resin were the breaking and restoring of several items, (namely a sheet of float, a bottle and a light bulb), and the creation of a glass tray. I also worked on my own conservation project of a small panel from Benburg and participated in the early stages of conserving church windows from Dondorf.

I am first going to discuss the work I did in resining. This is something I had already done at several of the studios over the course of the award, but here it was done a little differently. It is possible that certain techniques are specific to Germany but I think in this case it is simply that there is no 'one' way of doing it but in fact a multitude of varying possibilities and people just grow accustomed to their own. I think that Professor Strobl, who was in charge of the restoration of the glass at Canterbury cathedral for a long time, perhaps had a stricter view on the ethics of restoration and conservation than some of the other studios I had worked for, and it was very interesting to learn from him some of the debates that rage over the proper and correct ways of doing things.

For example, the first task I was set at the university was to smash a piece of float in order to learn how to glue it back together again. Although this was something I had done before, it was interesting to learn the differences between how it was done here and how I had been taught to do similar jobs previously. In another studio I had been told that when restoring glass, if there is a fly (the beginning of a crack) in the glass it is necessary to break it, as delicately as possible and in a manner where it will be least conspicuous. There are two reasons for this; firstly because a fly is unstable, it will eventually run its course due to the retraction and expansion of the glass, or other stresses. If you break it, you can then mend it, and this will make it secure. This is prevalent particularly if the glass is then to be returned to somewhere that cannot easily be got to, such as high in a church, and therefore may not be repaired when broken for some time, and could when eventually broken even fall out and be lost. The second reason I have been given why it is important to always break flies is that they cannot be properly resined to the end (because the cracks become very tight and the glue cannot slip along them) so they will continue to glint (shine when the sun’s rays hit them) and this draws attention and is unattractive.

Strobl was horrified when I informed him that I had been told this. He said it was important that flies are never broken with pliers but left as they are. He believes that the principle is to protect glass no matter its age or our personal views on its artistic merit, it is all of equal importance and must be preserved. In his opinion glints are not that obvious and if the glass is treated well there is no reason for flies to break. I am not sure I have developed a definitive opinion on this matter, but it was interesting for me to hear such widely differing opinions on the subject and that is why I have included them.

Once I had smashed the sheet of float glass with a hammer (something that was thoroughly enjoyable) I then had the job of piecing it all back together again. This took me a number of days and when I was finally successful in completing this mammoth jigsaw I was irked to find I was missing a section. When preparing it for resining I was instructed to do it in a more relaxed manner. Instead of cutting

(Fig.1. Preparing float glass for resining.)

small strips of tape and joining each shard together meticulously so the surface was flush, I was instead told to only tape it where completely necessary and judge the surface by eye. Tiny squares of wax were cut to sit under the glass in order to hold it off the table and support it so it was roughly level, rather than the combination of great strips of vinyl and wax that I had been used to. The reason for this was because Strobl believes that the wax and vinyl done the way I had been taught was likely to damage the glass or pull off the paint and the same went for the tape. In Erfurt they chose an uneven surface over possible paint loss, and once I had glued it with Araldite the glass seemed just as secure even though the outcome was less smooth.

For my own interest I tried an experiment in order to see if there was an easier way of re-glueing a panel like this for artistic application without the time consuming jigsaw routine. I cut a new sheet of glass and securely taped up the back of it so the whole surface was masked. I then tried once again to smash it with a hammer. The first few times it did not break at all, which must be due to the tape strengthening the glass or absorbing some of the impact, I conjecture in much the same way that laminated safety glass works. When it finally broke the tape held it together and I could apply the resin without having to reassemble it. It also resulted in a completely flush surface.

I used a red pigment in the glue to make the cracks visible and because I thought I would appreciate the aesthetic result. The powder pigment was mixed with the araldite (not the hardener) the night before and sealed in a small container. Strobl said this was often done in order to dye the

(Fig.2. Smashed float with tape on back and red pigment in cracks.)

araldite to the colour of the broken glass, especially in the case of infill's (where a section of glass is missing and araldite is moulded into the space as a replacement), so cold colouring is not needed after. The next day I mixed the two part resin together as usual and applied it using a syringe, which is their chosen tool. I can definitely see the benefits of the syringe because as well as applying the fluid it can also suck it back up if you have added too much. The down side is it injects bubbles into your cracks if you don't let it sit for a while and tap it first and even then it did seem prone to doing this, although it could have just been my poor handling. Another advantage of the syringe, over say the use of a metal instrument like a dentists pick, scalpel or wooden stick, all of which I have used in the past, is that the araldite can sit in the syringe for hours without hardening or thickening too much and so you do not end up throwing loads of the solution away, you can simply wait until you are ready to do your next project and then use it again.

I put quite a lot of the pigment into the mix, which you would be unlikely to need to do in a traditional setting, because I wanted my cracks to be tinted with a very strong colour. Although the pigment had no effect on how well it stuck, which had been a concern of mine it did make the mixture a little blobby and so was hard to apply neatly.

I was very happy with the results in both these projects. The first needed a little more work because of the missing section, and the hole that was left when the glass turned to dust at the strike of

(Fig.3. Both smashed and resined float sheets layered together to show the results.)

my hammer. This I filled with araldite in much the usual way, except instead of using vinyl and wax I just taped the back with magic tape and filled in the front. This worked just as well and was a lot more straight forward, although would not be practical for larger applications as the lines left by the edges of the tape where they have joined together would be visible.

With regard to the mending of broken glass in conservation, there is an argument that araldite and other glues like it are too strong. This is bad because if there is a strain on the glass again and it breaks, it make break in a different place thus causing more damage. In order to make the repair less strong it is possible to apply paraloid to the edges of the crack and let it dry before resining the normal way. This makes the bond weaker.

Another problem with araldite is that over time it has been known to yellow. The formula is better than it was twenty years ago, so it shouldn't happen to the same degree or so quickly, but it is still a consideration. Strobl told me that some conservators choose to dye the araldite black as a solution to this, in order to make the repairs obvious and prevent yellowing. It was however his opinion, as it is mine, that this looks much worse, and the possibility that it may go yellow in the future is much preferable to it going black now.

2010-04-22T09:10:00.000-07:00

The last project I got to work on was St Cross, a church in Oxfordshire just outside Newberry. It had been a practising church but it was now a storage centre for a college, full of paperwork. Once the windows are repaired the containers will go back in and nothing else can be fixed. It's a bit sad not to be able to see that glass once it's all made good but I guess it won't be a storage facility for ever. Among the windows being fixed are James Powell and Hardman windows. Hardman are the company who made the one's I was personally able to restore.

The first job I had to do regarding this was to take rubbings. I spent about a week doing rubbings alone of all the windows. First, when taking a rubbing, I lay the piece of glass face up on a light box. I then use a brush and a hoover to remove loose debris on the surface. Once this had been cleared I cut two sheets of tracing paper to size, to fit over panel with extra room for annotation. I tape down the edges so the paper is taut and secure. The first rubbing I do is the glazing copy, that's the good copy. On this all the lead sizes are to be me marked on, the height and width. This is done with heel ball, a black stick purpose made for blacking out the heels of scuffed shoes. The company called it Ball, Astral, Stick Wax and it really is better than anything else is to make these rubbing's, although a little hard to get a hold of these days. The lines on the inside and outside of the lead are to be scored on, so the lead lines themselves stand out clear. The purpose of this is that when you take the panel apart you know exactly how to put it back together again. The second rubbing is made with linseed

(Fig 20. Taking rubbings of St. Cross window 11)

oil and lamp black mixed together. This is then rubbed on with a sponge wrapped in a pair of tights. This is quicker but less accurate. It is the conservation copy that the glass will be laid out on and then leaded up on, so it will get more damage.

Once the rubbings were completed I was given a whole widow to restore. This included two large windows and two traceries. This was a very exciting project for me because I've never worked on anything this big and it's great to know that what I do will actually be put back in the church. I work on window eleven for the last few weeks I am at chapel. First I take apart the traceries. I use side cutters, which really look like wire cutters, to pull the lead away from the glass before snipping it. I work through the whole thing removing all the glass and laying it out on the conservation copy.

All the glass is then cleaned with de-ionised water, tissue and cotton buds. Some of the paint work is quite faded so I have to be careful not to remove any paint. I cut replacements for some of the border pieces that cannot be savaged, paint and fire them. I then copper foil the broken pieces, making the joins as slim as possible by trimming the foil with a scalpel. These are soldered and both (Fig 21. Image of one of two St. Cross Traceries ready for leading) traceries are set to one side.

The next challenge is to repeat this process on the large windows. My table is quite small so it is tricky to negotiate the space to de-construct the window. Once both large windows are taken apart and repaired, they too are laid to one side. These big windows took are really long time to fix up. About two and a half days to take apart and clean, then maybe a day to copper foil and solder, so more than a week to do both of them.

I then returned to the traceries to lead them up first. I was using 3/16th and ¼ inch leads with ½ inch border and a ½ inch lead at the bottom with an extra large flange on the outside so it can slip over another window. I had a bit of a false start to begin with because I was left to get on with it myself and didn't really know what I was doing. I found it quite hard to work out where each lead

(Fig 22. Leading one of the traceries)

line went, started and finished. I guess this is something you just get to know the more you do it. After I got some guidance and took most of it apart again it looked better. I put in lots of long curved leads rather than breaking it up into different joints and it made the piece flow better. The glass was not cut that well, and the panel had gaps in places. The gaps can be disgusted and filled with putty, but Laura my mentor thought the reason they needed to be replaced so soon in the first place was because the gaps were there. She said having gaps like this where the glass isn't supported by the lead puts more pressure on the putty which makes it crumble and go sooner than it would otherwise.

The outside lead is Stillmans and it is very soft, getting lots of kinks in the ½ inch when you try to bend it. These can be flattened out again with an oyster knife, but you can still see it's a little uneven. Another brand is Heeps which, so I am told, makes the same lead only it is stronger getting less bent, the

(Fig 23. Both traceries completed)

downside being it is harder to cut. Bending the lead around the border of the tracery was hard and took a long time. There were very tight curves so I made joints and did it in sections. Once complete I soldered, making sure not to go over the heart on the border leads, so they can later be cut down or bent without difficulty during instillation. In some corners that had bad gaps I dribbled solder over to mask. After the first tracery was complete it was much easier to do the second one. They were the exact same so I could just follow the pattern the lead followed from the first. I did it much quicker and also felt I learnt lessons from the first one that I could implement in the next.

When I had completed the traceries to a good standard I was let loose on one of the big windows. It was a real challenge doing such a big piece but lots of fun and a really interesting

(Fig 24. Leading up large St. Cross window)

process. I worked from the bottom left upwards, making sure all the glass stayed within the lines. In places the glass was too thick and wide heart lead was used. To make the other lead meet this for soldering would be tricky because there was quite a step up. The lead adjoined to it was cut along the heart so the top flange could be peeled open this was angled to touch the wide heart lead so there wasn't such a drop for the solder. I used long strips of continuous lead in the window, so it flowed together better, and as a general rule I was told to also lead faces and hands with their own individual lead to frame them. It took me three days to finish. That is probably a really long time for a professional, but as this was my first time I was very happy with that. It was now very close to the end of my placement so I got to lead and finish of that first big window but not the second. It was still thrilling to have been able to do as much as I did.

So as a final note on Chapel Studio I found it to be one of the friendliest places I have so far been to. The staff were all very kind and welcoming and the work was very geared towards my personal learning and what would be good for me, rather than just getting me to do the grunt work, or be a part of whatever was going on at the time in the studio regardless of its educational merit. I think because it was such

(Fig 25. St. Cross window restored)

a big studio and big operation it was more able to cater to me, I never felt rushed or hassled into anything so I really only have good things to say about them. Urban Glass had a very different vibe and was a very different set up but I still felt very welcomed there and I enjoyed the work. These two placements therefore have been wonderful, the experiences were some of my best and I feel I have used the time well and come away knowing much more than what I went with.

Chapel Studios Continued....

2010-04-22T08:56:00.000-07:00

The next project I worked on at Chapel was the restoration of a face. The studio didn't know which window it had come from, how old it was or who made it, only that they had had it a while. It was very badly broken so it is likely that they removed it from its window when restoring it and made a copy to replace it instead of repairing the original. This project is really split into two because I was given the challenge of both restoring the original face which I will go on to discuss in a moment, and also copying it to make a replacement in which I will discuss later. It has been very useful to me to see both ways and be able to compare their success.

The first thing I did was clean the broken sections of glass and tape them back together with magic tape (because it is low tack). I cleaned them using de-ionised water and cotton buds. I cleaned the edges with a dry (not wet as I was instructed in Holywell) fibre brush. I went over the edges a second time with acetone and a cotton bud. Some of the original glass was missing, perhaps it had been so turned to powder in the damage that it wasn't kept, or they had been lost over time. I went downstairs to the glass racks to match the colour of the glass, and from this I was able to cut two inserts. I painted them to match the panel, first guessing where the trace lines would have been and firing those, then attempting to copy the faded matt by scratching it to give the impression of erosion. The Ancient Brown paint was

(Fig 15. Image showing face panel to be restored)

mixed with vinegar for the tracing and Bistre Brown was mixed with gum arabic and water for the matt. Both were fired to 680C. Once fired I taped them into position.

To glue the panel back together I first covered the back of the glass with vinyl, then dental wax to give the glass strength and fix it in position. This also stops the resin from seeping out or the glass from becoming stuck to the table. The glue I used was araldite and I measured the amounts out by eye. The resin was coloured in the same way the silicone was in Chapel Panel. In Holywell we resined cracks by dabbing tiny dots of glue along the cracks, this would then seep into the crack and the same dot would have more glue added until the crack was full and the dot no longer moved. In Chapel they did it a different way, dragging a knife with the glue on along the crack to encourage the resin to flow into it. After a couple of days the glue was completely dry and I then needed to fill in the shales and air bubbles left on the opposite side. I didn't need the vinyl and wax this time because I was only doing a small amount and it would no longer be able to seep through but I put the glass on a piece of paper just in case so it didn't adhere to the tabletop.

It was important while filling in the back that the araldite was not too lumpy and stayed flush with the surface of the glass. That's because I was about to cut a duplicate from the same thin float glass I'd used before to go on the back. Because the glass was so thin the very tricky angles that the original thicker glass had accomplished became very hard to manage. On the first couple of attempts flies in the glass forced me to start over and when I asked one of my mentors to help she had the same problem. Eventually we managed to cut, what were practically right angles and I ground back the edges to make it fit snugly. I matted a very light bistro brown was on the back of the back panel. This was light enough that it didn't change the colour of the original panel but would remove the shiny reflective quality of the glass when completed. This is done so when the glass is in-situ people are not distracted by glints of light.

The studio had a larger flat bed electric kiln and I sieved whiting onto a section of this. It had to be quite thick because we were going to use it to slump glass. I took the original face and coated the back again with vinyl. I then added two sellotape handles to it so it could be picked up without touching the edges. This was then pressed into the whiting so the whiting took on the contours of the glass. The replica face was then placed into this shape to be slumped to form the same shape as the original. This way when they are later attached together they will fit perfectly without gaps. The kiln was still only taken to 680C but of course being electric it took a lot longer.

(Fig 16. Image of original panel restored)

I then set about cold colouring the original face on the front and the back. The vehicle that is used for the colour is a clear substance called paraloid B72. It comes in gel crystal beads which are stewed for fifteen hours or so in de-acetone alcohol until they turn to a liquid. This is a conservation resource that is also used in other types of restoration such as restoring marble statues. It is acetone soluble but waterproof. Chapel does not cold colour with acrylic paints like in Holywell, because they believe this is better and say it is more durable. It is mixed with pigment in powder form like the glues before and in this case a brown to mimic the original paint work. This is painted on everywhere the paint is eroded and once completed the effect is really startlingly better than before. The two separate pieces of glass were later plated together with silicone. I was very impressed by how well it could be fixed.

While restoring this face, as I mentioned before, I was also tasked with creating a duplicate. I traced the original and cut a piece of spare glass from the rack in a similar shade. I lay this duplicate on top of the original so I could look through the glass and so trace the design. First I copied the trace lines, with bistro

(Fig 17. Image of original with tracing paint copy)

brown and vinegar, which I felt I did quite well but some of my strokes were thicker in places than the originals and the tips of my strokes were not always sharp enough. After this was fired I painted a matt layer onto the head. I was shown how to age this by first letting the matt dry. Then spraying a plume of water into the air and waving the painted glass into it so that it picks up all the dots like light rain (apparently glass cleaner also works well at this if sprayed making a different effect). When you then work into this after it's dry with a scrub or stipple brush lots of dots show up. This produces an aged effect in this instance but could also be used in contemporary work.

In the end I fired on two different matt's using this technique because I wasn't happy the first time. I didn't feel my shading was quite right and I thought it was a little light so I did a second darker matt over the top. The result had more depth and shadow than the original, but I liked it for this. As we planned to fix the original I was allowed to keep the replica.

(Fig 18. Stippling matt replica to look like original)

I set about planning a border for it so the whole thing would be the size of an A4 piece of paper. I chose a wavy 70s sort of pattern and picked glass I thought complimented this. I cut and ground it and used the same dot matting technique on it as I used on the face so they looked like they belonged together. I made a mistake though and I fired it too high, about 100C out, when I lost track of time. Some of the pieces became warped and needed to be re-cut and they all needed to be repainted. When it was all finally done and fired to 680C I was very happy with the results.

I leaded my design together using ¼ inch round lead for the inside detail and ½ inch flat lead for the outside. I finger puttied it and polished it with a brush. I cleaned up the detail with tissue and cotton buds dipped in acetone. When this was done I added copper hooks inside the top lead so they were near invisible but could hang it. I am very happy with the results and am really proud of this panel because it was my own design and with it I had tackled a lot of techniques I'd never used before.

Fig 19. Image showing my finished design incorporating replica face

Award For Excellence - Chapel Studios

2010-04-22T08:35:00.000-07:00

The next studio I went to was Chapel Studio in Kings Langley which is not very far from London. The Studio was set up by Alfred Fisher and Peter Archer in the 70s and is now run by Bob Holloway a partner in the business. During my time there I was under the instruction of Rachel Helleur and Laura Hobson who took care of me and showed me what to do. This studio does new work but mostly restoration and there was only restoration work being done while I was there. They have nine permanent members of staff and several freelance so there was always plenty going on.

I worked on four main projects, Chapel Panel - restoration of an old tracery as a practise exercise, Face Restoration - the restoration of a shattered face from an unknown window, Face Copy - the replication of the broken face to incorporate into a new modern design, and St Cross - church restoration project where I helped to restore some windows. My experience at Chapel Studio was a good exercise in practising processes I was already familiar with and engaging in new methods of doing the same things. It is always interesting to see how a new studio practice differs from an old one. In this next section of the report I will take you through all that I have worked on breaking it up into separate projects so the information is more manageable. It is worth noting that in reality I was working on them all in tandem but for the purpose of keeping it bite-size I will start will Chapel Panel and work through in the order given above.

Chapel Panel was the working title given to the tracery Rachel had in storage at Chapel Studio. She did not know where it had come from, who made it or exactly how old it was, but it is likely to be Victorian. In the studio they have a collection of pieces just like this that have perhaps been left over from jobs or not wanted back because they are too badly damaged. I was tasked with the job of restoring this panel, however it was still meant to look old, so not restored to former glory but restored to something in between.

The firThe first thing I did was to take two rubbings of the panel using heel ball, over a light box onto tracing paper. One copy was marked 'conservation copy' and this had the cracks marked on. The other was

(Fig 9. Image of Chapel Panel being taken apart and laid out on rubbing)

marked 'glazing copy' and this had the full size height (16 ¾ inches) and full size width (14 ¾ inches). This in itself was a challenge, never having been required to use inches on anything in my entire life, it is no longer even on school curriculum. I'm not sure I wrote them all out properly but nobody at the studio seemed to understand the metric system so I had a bit of a crash course. The lead sizes were also done in inches, the internal lead profile marked on as 3/16 narrowheart flat lead, and the perimeter lead 1/4 narrow heart, cut back to the heart.

Once all of this has been written up I began to take the panel apart and lay out the pieces on the conservation copy. I used a tool that looked just like a wire cutter. This cut through the lead to release the glass. The lead did not have to be conserved so it was thrown straight into the lead bucket. I wore a dust mask and opened the window while doing this. I also sprayed de-ionised water onto the panel to minimise dust. The inhalation of old cement is bad for you because it has lead in it.

After Chapel panel was taken apart I cleaned all of the glass with distilled water, cotton buds and

(Fig 10. Image of Chapel Panel after Cleaning)

paper towel. Some of the paint was quite loose, much of it very faded and some non-existent. First I tried to replace these pieces of glass. I went downstairs and matched the old glass to similar colours in the racks at the studio. I cut this new glass to replace the old. I used paper to draw by eye the ghost impressions of where the paint had been and what it looked like to later replicate.

Once I'd drawn out all the paint lines I tried to match the original paint to test samples the studio had of different paint mixes. I settled on Bistro Brown and a red pigment mixed four to one. I traced the paint lines through the glass and scratched back with a nail. It was then fired to 680C. However when they came out of the kiln, although they looked good, they were too perfect and so didn't go very well with the eroded painted parts which really stood out against them. As this project was purely for me to practise it was decided that we should back plate the old glass in order to conserve it instead of simply replacing it as this was something I'd never done before. I cut the shapes again using clear thin float

(Fig 11. Image of new paintwork made to look aged)

glass. The glass had to match exactly the original pieces because they would be layered together in the finished panel. I did this by tracing the originals with a pen then cutting the glass just inside the pen line.

After I had cut these to fit together exactly, I painted them with the same paint mix only far waterier and blotchy so they were dark and light in different areas. This helped to give the effect of natural fading and eroding paint. To enhance this illusion I then stippled on top of the dried paint to further erode it. This worked well and looked really similar to the original paint work. They were made so the original glass would go on top and the new glass would be sandwiched underneath with the freshly painted areas facing upwards to meet the old glass so it would be more protected from the elements.

(Fig 12. Image shows original glass silicon plated on top of new glass)

Once fired I re-cleaned both sections of glass and taped slithers of magic tape to them to hold each paring in place. I then silicone glued them using 'Ace Silicones; Silcoset 153' to stick them along the edges. I was told I could also use a different silicone 'Bluestar Silicone CAF 3' which is more liquid and good for cracks. I used a knife to apply the glue and once the glue had dried I removed the tape and re-glued over the gaps. I was told it was very important that there be no gaps whatsoever because when putting the panel together putty can slip between the gaps in the silicone and slide between the glass layers making a mess. I therefore did several layers of glue before the segments were finally ready to use.

On less important areas I copper foiled cracked glass, trimming back the foil with a blade to the bare minimum so the soldering would be less visible. On more prominent areas I used silicone to piece back together straight cracks. I first cleaned the glass then taped it securely on both sides with magic tape over where the cracks were, completely covering them. I then cut along the crack line with a sharp blade one side, leaving the tape intact on the other, so that the cracks are able to flap open but remain held together. The tape is both sides including the side where it has been cut for a reason. When the crack is siliconed this tape will prevent the silicone going onto the surface of the glass because it could leave a residue that may scratch any paint during removal. The tape therefore acts as a barrier to the glue.

Silicone is squeezed from the tube onto a glass pallet where it is coloured with pigment to the shade of the glass. Different resins can be dyed in the same manner. Tracing paint, Winsor and Newton Artists Pigment and Orasol a fabric colour for textiles are all used. They had a collection of a whole spectrum of colours for this purpose. They are all dry powders, the tiniest amount of which is scooped up with the tip of a scalpel and mixed into the glue. Several may be added to get the right tone, and it was suggested to me that it is better to make the final product lighter rather as opposed to darker than the original, so that it will not stand out.

Once the silicone is made up it is dabbed into the open cracks which are then shut firmly and pressed flat against the table so all the excess glue squeezes out. When the glue is set the excess is scraped off with a knife and the tape is removed.

When all the repairs and repaints were completed I began to lead together chapel panel. I used 3/16 inch wide lead, although it was previously narrow, to encompass the extra layer of glass. None of the glass fits together properly; some pieces are quite drastically different. This was the case with the original as well, so it wasn't just that I'd cut it wrong. It did however make it challenging to lead up, especially as the lead was so thin. In some places I doubled up the lead or added strapping to cover gaps. Strapping is when you cut the lead in two, leaving only one flange placed in an area with a gap and soldered on so the hole is not seen. It can also be used as a temporary measure to strengthen glass, maybe if there are cracks in it that can’t be repaired this will be added as a quick fix. At Chapel Studio

(Fig 14. Image of Chapel Panel restored)

they like the leading to be under the lead, where as at Lincoln Cathedral they liked it to be put on top. At Chapel they believe their method makes it stronger. It took me the whole day to put it together and solder it, but in the end it actually looked good, and it was not noticeable how badly it had fitted together. One or two tiny cracks of light that could be seen I simply filled when I came to putty. I finger puttied it with leaded light cement before cleaning up the glass with de-ionised water and a cotton bud. The areas where cracks were siliconed I had to mask off for this process as they can be stained by the black putty. I was very happy with the finished piece and felt proud that I had managed to put back together such a wonky collection of shapes, which I wasn't sure I would be able to do.

Urban Glass Continued...

2010-04-22T08:23:00.000-07:00

(Fig.6. Shows me dismantling the broken quarry.)

While at Urban Glass I also worked briefly on other project, which was the restoration of a simple quarry window. Two windows and a tracery needed mending at St Mary's Church, Somerstown near Euston Station. They had been broken by kids throwing things at them and were in an area where they were likely to be targeted again. For this reason when restoring them John decided to use a larger lead than the one they came with so they would be stronger and more able to withstand future abuse. He used a Fein Tool osolating blade to remove the lead. This electric tool cut through all the lead very quickly so the window could be taken apart with speed. It could break the glass if you weren't careful however and isn't something that I imagine would be used on a window of importance. Neither the glass nor the lead needed to be kept though so it was a good tool to use. John was keen on it because the tool which had a flat circular blade span quickly from side to side rather than round in circles so it minimised dust.

(Fig 7. The Somerstown window being brush puttied.)

John used some of the original glass and also a lot of new glass. Once it was made I brush puttied it. He had it installed with somebody else but let me come and see it with him when he was putting the final touches to it. The window was in a U channel which is a channel in the wall of the church in the shape of the letter U. This type of channel is usually wider at one side than the other, so the window can be slid into the wider side then shunted across into the other to fit it. The flanges have to be bent down on the glass the outer edges to fit because it is a tight squeeze. An oyster knife is then used to straighten the lead back out again once it’s in because this will help to support it.

In most churches the window is compiled of different parts which are slotted together. A lancet is the word used to describe the whole window while the fancier shaped piece at the top is referred to as the tracery. Usually a window would be fitted from the top down because the tracery is a more awkward shape, and the bottom panel would be the hardest to fit and need lead bent down. On this occasion the 8mm lead of the tracery needed to be bent back all the way and a rasp was used on the stone to make the glass fit. Two people were needed to fit, one on the inside of the building and one on the outside, on ladders all day.
(Fig.8. This is an internal picture of the reinstalled window.)

The U channel is jammed with bits of lead to initially hold the window in place. It is also held with copper ties. Copper ties are essentially just strips of copper wire with loops in the middle. The loop has a blob of solder stuck on it and this is then melted onto the lead in the places where the panel meets steel bars in the window frame. These bars are tie bars and are there to support the glass. The copper is twisted onto the bars and this keeps the window in place while a mixture of lime mortar, sharp stone dust and cement is applied to the U tunnel blocking it up. Once hardened this is very hard to remove and it is serious work trying to release the window from the channel using chisels and round hammers.

I felt John also gave me some great advice. He said when going for a job you needed to be competent and accurate at cutting glass or there would be no point employing you. You must be able to follow a cut line perfectly first time and be able to demonstrate this with speed. If you can’t do this you will waste so much time grinding glass back to the shapes you should have been able to make in the first place. So cutting is very important to practise.

Tips for the future are to set up a PayPal account so when people come to look at your studio you can log them on to the computer right there and then and they can pay you. This is good because people don't tend to carry that much cash or have cheque books on them and if they leave they might change their mind. Get them to buy it straight away. He also said to get attention contact local papers to say you've an exhibition on – a run of 100 or something that sounds like it might run out. Try exhibiting in libraries and public places.

A final piece of advice is to get good at Photoshop. That way when entering competitions draw your design, then Photoshop it into a church with people walking by and looking at it. You can add designs like these of things you haven't done to your portfolio to bulk it out and show off your ideas.

I hugely enjoyed my time at Urban glass and found the experience rewarding. The next studio I went to was Chapel Studio in Kings Langley which is not very far from London. The Studio was set up by Alfred Fisher and Peter Archer in the 70s and is now run by Bob Holloway a partner in the business. During my time there I was under the instruction of Rachel Helleur and Laura Hobson who took care of me and showed me what to do. This studio does new work but mostly restoration and there was only restoration work being done while I was there. They have nine permanent members of staff and several freelance so there was always plenty going on.

Award For Excellence - Urban Glass

2010-04-22T07:59:00.000-07:00

I started the second stage of the Award of Excellence, gifted to me by the Worshipful Company of Glaziers and Painters of Glass excited at the prospect of all I would come to learn in the weeks ahead and how I would be able to apply this new knowledge to my own practice. I had a very positive experience on the first leg of my journey, visiting Swansea Institute, Hollywell Glass and Lincoln Cathedral, all three of which provided me with very different and unique skills and techniques that I was able to apply in the studios visited in my second stage. The second stage I have looked on therefore, after getting to grips with the basics in my first three placements, as an opportunity to hone the skills I have already learned and expand on them.

In this report I will look at the two very different studios I had the immense pleasure of being sent to, what projects I was allowed to work on or observe at them, and what I have learned both technically and more generally from the experience. The two studios I was placed in were Urban Glass ran by John Reyntien in London and Chapel Studio's run by Bob Holloway in Kings Langley. I was resident in London from the 5^th of January 2010, starting work on the 6^th and finishing on the 12^thFebruary. I travelled to Kings Langley on the 13^th of February 2010, working from the 15^th of February till the 31^st of March and departing on the 1^st of April for home and a brief break before the third and final section of the award. I will talk first therefore, about Urban Glass and follow on chronologically through my placements.

John Reyntien's Urban Glass studio was set up by him around fifteen years ago, and unlike any of my other placements he does contemporary design work as well as restoration and he does not employ any permanent members of staff. The experience of this studio was also different for me because more so than any of the others my efforts there were solely focused on one project and although I saw John Reyntien create some of his own work and I worked briefly on a broken church quarry, my main drive was towards completing a single undertaking.
(Fig. 1. Patrick Reyntien reclining beside an artwork he created to demonstrate painting techiniques at Urban Glass)

John Reyntiens´ father, Patrick Reyntiens is one of the country’s most famous living glass artists and because he is now in his 80s, although still very able, John felt this was an apt time to start thinking about his father’s legacy. Patrick has enjoyed a long career, working on a diverse range of projects and with other important artists, and before he dies his son wanted to make a film about his life, chronicling his career and doing it at a time when his father would still be able contribute to it. I felt this to be a really fantastic idea and I could tell it was something John had really had to pour himself into and was very passionate about.

The fact is however that making a film, and John wanted it to be of high quality, would cost a lot of money. Once it is made he aspired to being able to sell it to a television network if possible, and certainly to sell copies of the video to glass enthusiasts. He was quoted a minimum of £26,000 for this project, although it may inevitably cost much more, and he therefore needed some means of funding it. Although a family trust was set up some years ago he felt he really wanted it to be an undertaking he had sole control over and so would need to raise all the money himself. In order to do this John had the rather fantastic idea of getting his father to create relatively cheap one-off pieces that he could sell to raise the funds. He would also host lunches where his father would give demonstrations and the public could meet the artist and buy his work. I helped at the first of these during my stay there and will give a more detailed account of it later in the report. Finally John will host a talk in April where people can view all of the art and by raffle tickets to win a one on one painting lesson with Patrick himself. All in all a very smart game plan in my opinion that I very much hope raises all the money he needs for the film as it would be wonderful to see.

The one down side to all of this is that John himself will not see a profit from any of this hard work, not at the very least until the film is made and he does have his own studio to run and bills to pay. My placement therefore was aptly timed because my free labour was very much needed and I feel much appreciated. During my stay I leaded and puttied over 150 of the 200 panels his dad had created at an average of seven a day. My presence allowed John to get on with his other work and it gave me the opportunity and privilege to assist on a project I have great admiration for and on the work of an artist whom I very much admire. Patrick himself was often in the studio. He would paint the panels, John would fire them, and I would lead, putty and clean them before John could finally add hooks, black up with zebu and photograph. We worked like our own mini production line. John was very focused on how we could best do things to speed things up and had lots of methods for doing this for me to follow such as not curling the solder because he believed it would waste time and leading several then soldering them all at once because this made it more efficient. These small measures don't sound like much but I think they did make a difference and as there was an awful lot for me to do in a fairly short space of time it made sense for him to get as much out of me as he could in the time that I was there.

I will now take you through the process in some detail of how I leaded up each panel. First I stretched several cames of 8mm round lead and 8mm flat lead in a lead vice screwed into the table. The table itself was a hard wood with a long sheet of white card nailed down to it for leading up on top of. The white was actually very helpful because you could see what the glass looked like when you put it down, rather than a dark wooden background as it would be without the paper, which stops you from seeing what you are working on.

I would arrange my bench with the lead all stretched and halved, making it more manageable, towards the back, along with the other things I believed I would need. These included; a small hammer (used for straightening out bent nails and making sure the lead vice bites the lead); an oyster knife (this helps to shape the lead around the glass, especially at tight curved and lifts the flanges to flatten out kinks); A

(Fig.2. image of painted panel being leaded and the tools used)

lead knife (there are different styles but the one John used was straight edged long and flat. It had actually been a pallet knife that at some stage had broken and he'd since filed down. The knife cuts the lead using a side to side wiggling motion as opposed to a sawing motion so as not to bend the lead.); Plastic tool (Aka: a Fid, Larkin or All Nova Tool) used to open flanges by running it inside the lead. It can also close them and fold them down.) Heavy thick based oyster knife (this was just used for hammering in nails which this better than a hammer because it was so wide, unlike a hammer I couldn't miss and hit the glass and I couldn't get the same power behind it.) Pre-cut squares of glass which are slipped in and out of lead as you’re working to hold it in place. Some people don't bother using it and I was never taught to but I found it used in Lincoln and again in London as a very good way of securing lead without marking it. If you just put the nails in right next to the glass they can leave a dent. Pre-cut short lead strips (these are used in conjunction with the glass squares to hold the lead in place. Nails press into the strips as opposed to grating across the glass. Later the strips may be used on their own without the glass as a quick measure for holding it, but without the glass to distance the strips during soldering the extra lead can become attached to the panel, something you don't want.) I also had several sticks of solder, tallow, a wire brush, a plastic brush, a polishing brush, whiting, white spirit, plastic disposable gloves and lead light cement on the table although I would not be needing to use any of these until a little later on.

All of this would be arranged neatly along my bench with everything necessary at arm’s length. Onto this I would then place seven glass panels, as seven was as many as I could comfortably fit in my space and as many as I could complete in a day, and I would prepare to lead them all up in one sitting. I would start at one end with the 8mm round lead winding it around each panel and securing it in place. All joins

(Fig.3. several panels being leaded together and soldered all at once.)

would be mitre cut for aesthetic. Once all seven were done in this way I would turn the gas iron on to heat it up and work my way back along, cleaning the joints with the wire brush and adding talo. When the iron was hot wearing a mask for the fumes I would tack all the joints together being careful not to let the solder go more than half way so I could still easily work with the flanges. If it went to the edge it would be very hard to open the flanges as the joint becomes quite solid.

Once they are all tacked on one side I remove the nails, glass and lead strips holding them in place and put all of these things neatly where they are supposed to be. I have found that it is extremely important to keep your working area completely clean and clear so you can always find things and tidy up as you go along. This being said I would next give the area a sweep to get rid of any lead scraps or dust. Once clear I would use the plastic tool to open the flanges on all of the leaded panels so they are ready to have the second lead added.

I would lay out the 8mm flat lead along the bench and flatten down the flanges along one edge on both sides with my oyster knife. So to look at it, it is open to the heart at one side and completely closed at the other. I would then lead the panels again with the folded side facing into the other lead so it fits into the round hearts open flanges. It was decided the double lead should be used like this on all the panels because it made them look like a more desirable item and gave a nice effect. It was purely aesthetic.

I worked the second lead around, following the joins of the first lead and mitring them. I again used the glass squares and lead strips to temporarily hold the panels in place while I worked. I wanted everything to be as tight as possible, so there was no movement in the glass and no shafts of light would shine between the leads. Once the second leading was completed on all of them I used the oyster knife to close down the outer edge by running it along the lead at an angle. I also pressed down the inner lead

(fig.4. image shows second lead being added onto panel.)

where the leaded layers met so there was no gap between them. All this needed to be done before soldering because the lead is harder to manipulate afterwards.

Once this is done I solder the front of the panels in their entirety. John wanted me to solder in a stylistic way to give effect, using excessive solder so it was raised in lumps, with the gas iron. I would also solder places around the boarder where there wasn't a joint with these lumps so the panels looked studded. This was for aesthetics again so the panels stood out more, but it was also so the design appeared balanced. The panels all had different amounts of joints based on their individual shapes so some would have looked uneven, if say, all the joints had been on one side that was jagged and the other side being smooth needed none. Then it would not look symmetrical and the joints would really stand out. Instead I spaced extra solder around the borders of all the panels so they all looked similar.

After soldering one side I turned them over and soldered in the same place on the other side. I then scrubbed off the excess talo with a hard brush. Once several were completed I would spend a day puttying them on mass. Some were brush puttied others finger puttied. I used a hard plastic brush the scoop up leaded light cement straight from the tin and literally brush it underneath the lead. For the ones I finger puttied I mixed the cement with whiting until it was of a doughy consistency and no longer stuck to my fingers. Then I coaxed it under the lead by hand. It is hard to say time wise which is best. Certainly the brush is quicker at applying the cement, but it is also far messier and takes longer to clean up. I used a horse shoe nail to go around the edges on both to get off excess cement. I then rubbed whiting onto the surface to soak up oily residue. At the end of the day I would then brush off this whiting so it didn't get the chance to stick.

Once the cement was dry the next day I would go around it again with a nail to neaten up the edges. It was important that no cement should stick out from under the glass and that the lead should be properly filled with no gaps. If the cementing is not done well it looks messy, but it is also not watertight and so on an actual window it is very important to do it well.

I cleaned all the lead with white spirit and tissue. I had to remove all the residue, so the glass was really clean and the lead went back to a dull grey. This took a long time, but once they were all cleaned I polished them with a clean tissue, scrubbing them to produce a mirror shine. They were then polished

(fig.5. Shows a selection of completed leaded panels ready for sale.)

with a soft brush and a little zebo to blacken them up, before John added copper hoops to hang them. To make these he made a loop in a bit of wire and then twisted the two legs together, so it was a twist and a loop on the end. He then tallowed them and blobbed solder onto the twisted section. He made up many of these at a time and stored in jars for use. To fix them he just held the hoop in place with pliers and reheated the tallow so it would drop down and adhere to the lead. He placed them on the back so they couldn't be seen.

This whole process was repeated many times in the exact same way with the exception of the slightly more expensive and more special additions of which a limited number were made. These also included a painted glass border and were larger. They were however put together in much the same way.

Before the end of my time at Urban Glass I was present for John’s first meet and greet, of which he planned to stage a few. This was an occasion where people, who had prior arranged with John, could come to the studio and view the unfinished work with the intent of buying up the best pieces before they were launched to the public. On this Saturday all of the group were made up of students studying glass part time who know all about Patrick Reyntiens and were very excited to be there. There were fourteen in all and my job was to cater and generally help out behind the scenes while John was up front selling. Patrick also did a painting demonstration which he really got into. It showcased his different painting techniques including mark-making with a plastic hairbrush and feathers. The day was extremely successful. Twenty two individual panels were sold and the demonstration panel itself was sold for £400. Altogether he made £2300 which is about 10% of the twenty six thousand needed to fund the whole film. So a fantastic event that everyone present seemed to enjoy. John was glad of my help because there was a lot to be done and I freed him up to host the day.

Lincoln Cathedral placement continued...

2010-01-03T13:08:00.000-08:00

Sash window repair.

I also got to see a sash window getting repaired ready to go back into one of the cathedrals rented properties. Jar of putty was mixed up with extra linseed oil and the wooden lip on the window frame was covered in this putty before the glass was pressed into it. The glass stuck to the putty and the excess seeping out was cleared off. Stack points, which are like pointy nails are fired from a special gun into the wood around the edges to hold the glass in place. More putty is them squished ontop of the nails to secure the glass and give an aesthetic finish. A putty knife that has flat blunt edges is used to smooth of the putty which dries in a week and is painted with an oil based paint. The painting of the putty is important because it stops it from cracking.

Repair of Cathedral window.

The only time I got to see the sort of thing that they would do on sight is one morning when Steve took me into the cathedral to let me watch him repair a small broken section. It was a lower area of a very large window designed in 1855 by Henry Hughes and Thomas Ward who ran a London based firm. Eve’s head had been broken by a football. A new piece had been painted and I watched it being installed. Another figures dress robe was also replaced. There were two repaints and also some original pieces that had come loose. It was just a quick job. There were a lot of other breaks in the window but in four years the whole thing is getting taken out and repaired so all that was required was for this section to be secured. Extra lead was soldered on as strapping to stop broken bits falling out and they were also secured with magic tape which is transparent. I mostly just watched, but I also ground down the pieces that were not quite fitting and puttied some of the sections. I puttied it with butyl, a black non-setting substance that allows the glass to move precisely because it does not go rigid, thereby preventing stress.

Eve's head being replaced.

To squeeze the glass back into its warped surroundings Steve used a broken pallet knife, a Stanley knife, a dental pick, a little hammer and grozing pliers. He bent back the lead and hammered it, cutting solder with a knife to make the space wider. Eventually it was all fixed up and from the ground you couldn’t tell it had been tampered with or see the breaks.

Other glass in the cathedral was designed by the likes of Henry Holiday, Clayton and Bell and William Whales. It is a magnificent building with glass dating back to 1220. The cathedral was originally built between 1072 and 1092 although they were still expanding up until the 14th century. It was great to be able to stand up close to some of this magnificent glass and see it being worked on.

Vinyl being removed from acid etched glass I created.

Before I left I was able to try some acid etching, something I’ve always been interested in. Everyone who visits their studio makes them a diamond shape for a quarry window. The idea is after a few years they’ll have enough to make a whole quarry out of. I cut three diamonds, the idea being that I would give one to them and keep the spare. I also used the leftover glass to experiment with. I cut the shapes out of red and blue flash glass. These shapes were then covered on both sides with vinyl before the designs were scalpeled out. Once this was done I painted black Bitumen paint around the edges to protect them from erosion and left them to dry. On the left over pieces I painted with the bitumen as a resist on the front and vinyl on the backs.

Some of my acid etched designs.

The acid comes at a volume of 60%. It is them watered down to a two to one formula. It then becomes two parts water and one part acid. So it’s really only 20% acid, which is still quite ferocious if it gets on you. It works quite slowly at this concentration taking about forty minutes to see a difference. Steve told me however that different glass is eroded at different rates and different colours are eroded at different rates, which is logical. When the acid is brushed onto a sample at 60% it works instantly. The results are very similar to sandblasting, except acidic areas stay shiny but a little opaque – like fire polishing. The shading is also very subtle.

I was very happy with my results and could see definite potential for the use of acid in my work in the future. Some of the tonal variations and effects that can be achieved are very aesthetically pleasing. My experiences thus far at all my placements over the last three months have been really useful. They have all been very different but there are defiantly skills I have picked up from working with so many different people along the way that will be invaluable to me in the future. I’m looking forward to the next three months and what they will bring.

Lincoln Cathedral placement

2010-01-03T12:36:00.000-08:00

I left Wells on the 21^st of November and started work at Lincoln cathedral on the 23^rdwhere I was on placement until Christmas. The Lincoln Cathedral glass department is run by Tom Kupper and Steve Lewis and also employs one other person. Although work was being done on the cathedral while I was there I didn’t really get to take part in any of it. Instead I was set educational tasks that they felt would help me hone important skills.

The main thing I was working on while I was there were two sets of small leaded panels. The first set of six were meant to be free gifts for people who donated a lot of money to the cathedral. The second set were purely for my enhancement, but may later on be sold at a fundraising event. During the course of making these I got to observe other things that were being done in the studio and help out a little on small jobs. On the last two days I was also able to try acid etching, something I have long been interested in.

Refurbishing the cathedral has been an ongoing project since the 80s. There are a lot of people employed under the umbrella of ‘works department’ including glaziers, joiners and stone masons. For years to come they will be working there way around the cathedral repairing it. All of this costs money, and although the cathedral owns a lot of property that it rents and is funded by the English Heritage it still relies on donations.

First the glass is cut for the souvenirs.

Those who donate a lot get a small glass souvenir, a sort of replica of a section of window in the cathedral. I made six of these, following a cartoon given to me of a simple design. I cut and grinded each piece using red, blue, yellow and green glass then painted the designs. The first layer of paint used a mix of debitus and rouge for trace lines. Once this was fired it was touched up and fired again. Finally every piece was given a matt lavender wash which was rubbed back in places to bring out the colour. Each panel was leaded from the inside out because they were circular, before being put to one side to be puttied.

Souvenir once painted.

During this time I also cut and leaded together a different design. I did this three times so I could see the improvement I was making. I hadn’t done any lead work in a long time so my early works were much worse than my later creations. Everything was soldered using a gas soldering iron, something I hadn’t used before. Previous students had also been told to make these so there was quite a collection. Mine were added to the rest, which I soldered the backs of and spruced up ready to be puttied later.

Alternative panels leaded and puttied.

I had never brush puttied anything before but was given my first opportunity on a window that had recently been fixed up after being removed from a nearby church that was demolished. I mixed white spirit and linseed oil into leaded light cement to thin it out. It was very hard and lumpy at first and I worked out all the lumps with a metal scraper. Once it was the right consistency I worked it under the lead with a stiff brush, running a pointed dowel around the edges to remove excess as I went. I used whiting on top to dry it out but it seemed to dry quite fast anyway. The brushes were cleaned after by leaving them overnight in white spirit.

Souvenir being leaded.

I later went on to putty all of the souvenirs and leaded panels I had made along with some I hadn’t. Having never used leaded light cement before I wasn’t aware of its differences with linseed putty a product I am very familiar with. Plaster can be left on putty overnight to dry it out but when it left the whiting on the cement overnight it stuck. Obviously this combination works differently. To counteract this I brushed in lamp black carbon powder with a toothbrush to darken it down again. This worked quite well although it still wasn’t as dark as the original cement.

Six finished souvenirs.

These panels were not brush puttied but finger puttied so I had to thicken up the rest of the cement that I had been using before by adding whiting until it was the consistency of putty and didn’t stick to my gloves when pinched. Once they were puttied and left to dry they became solid and sturdy and that’s when they were finished.

Holywell Glass Studio continued...

2010-01-03T11:42:00.000-08:00

Grisaille Panel mid clean.

In the short time I had left in the studio I was able to observe some of the other commissions they had on the go. The first I got to see was a Grisaille panel. It was bought by an art dealer called Sam Fogg from another studio and Holywell was supposed to clean and re-lead it so it could be sold for a profit. It was a French panel made from a special green glass between the 13^th and 14^th centuries. There were four panels in quite good condition that needed cleaned with water under a microscope so as not to disturb any loose paint. It suffered quite badly from pit corrosion because of weather damage but the painting could still be seen clearly. I loved the design, it was really interesting and beautifully interlinked, with an almost celtic quality. I was not permitted to work on it for very long however. I think the man in charge got a little nervous because it was so old incase I damaged it.

Compton Pauncefoot after cleaning.

Instead I got to work briefly on a Victorian pressed glass panel from a place called Compton Pauncefoot in Gloustershire. The church it came from placed it at being around 150 years old and the studio thought it had been made at a London firm ‘Whitefriers’. It was a good example of an early attempt to industrialize stained glass. It used a new technique with modern thicker heavier glass. The glass was heated before a mould was pushed into it creating a relief shape. After it was pressed it was painted. Over time the weight had caused it to bow and it was falling out. It was extremely dirty but cleaned quite easily and looked a hundred times better afterwards.

Arundel window before lead is removed.

I also did a small amount of work on a window from a house in Arundel. Holywell had actually already fixed it up, but as the owners house was redecorated the glass was broken and she wanted the whole piece done again.

The type of metal frame it was in is called a crittle. It had a rebate like a picture frame for the glass to sit in and was held down with gardening clips that acted as a spring. A thick layer of putty had then been put around the edges to secure it and make it look neat. I had to pull all of this apart again and start undoing the leadwork. The same glass was to be used but all the leading needed redone, much to the irritation of the studio because they had to make it themselves.

What was interesting that I learnt from my small contribution to this project was how to take lead apart without damaging it so it can be reused. I was shown how to heat the joint them brush away the solder, trying not to make too much of a mess. Once you can see the lead below you have to work a lead knife back into it and lift the flanges. This has to be done on both sides before you can pull it apart.

Tiffany style lamp after I've removed the pieces needing fixed.

My final project at Holywell was to fix two tiffany style lamps belonging to the next-door neighbour that were broken and falling apart. First I looked it over and marked all the areas with a pen that needed removed or resined. I got two buckets and filled them with bubble wrap so I could sit the ceiling lamps upside down in them with the trim sticking out.

I then made a template rubbing of the glass by cutting paper to the shape of a half circle. I poured a mix of lamp black and boiled linseed oil onto scrap glass. A sponge wrapped in the foot of a stocking, to stop the sponge soaking up too much liquid, was then rubbed into the mixture. The sponge was wiped onto newspaper, removing any excess, before being rubbed over the paper stuck on the glass to pick up the lead lines. This process was repeated onto the second lamp and one was named A, the other B, so as not to get confused. These templates were used when I removed sections of the glass, so each piece could be laid out in the place it was supposed to go back.

Tiffany style lamp once I have repaired it.

I had to cut at the copperfoil and solder with pliers and a Stanley knife to free the broken sections. I then cleaned all the glass with 100% acetone which removed all the dirt and green gunk that had formed as a reaction to the patina.

I resined the broken glass that was salvageable and cut new pieces for the parts that weren’t. In the end about half of each lamp needed taken apart and it took seven working days. Once the resin was dry I copperfoiled everything again and soldered it with a slightly dodgy electric iron. I then cleaned up the glass with a wire brush before going over it again with acetone. Finally I patina’d all the solder using cotton wool and a toothbrush for awkward areas, before cleaning it up with acetone one last time. They looked really good, but it was unfortunate all the broken pieces could not have been replaced, as it would have looked even better.

Holywell Glass Studio, St Alkmunds

2009-12-31T11:18:00.000-08:00

Me in hundreds of jumpers because it's freezing standing outside Holywell Glass Studio where I worked on a placement.

Holywell Glass is a studio in the rather scenic Cathedral city of Wells in the South of England. It does not do any design work of it’s own but concentrates on restoration, a field I knew nothing about. It is run by Steve Clare and had a workforce of eight not including myself, although all of them were never there at once. It was a very nice studio and the staff were all very friendly and welcoming. My experience was a positive one. I saw Steve only briefly while I was there and was introduced to the studio and told what to do for the first few weeks by a very nice woman Emma Russell who hadn’t worked there for very long but had done a degree at Swansea and had a lot of technical expertise certainly in comparison to myself.

I was in Wells for a relatively long placement lasting two months. I worked on five different projects while I was there. St Alkmunds, Grisaille panel, Compton Pauncefoot panel, tiffany style lamps and Arundel window. From September 29^th when I started until the 11^th of November I only got to work on one project, St Alkmunds, because that was the big commission and the whole studio was only really concentrating on that. From the 11^th St Alkmunds was reinstalled, so I got to observe some of the other work that had been put on hold in the studio. From the 11^th till the 20^th, my last day, I worked on four different projects. I enjoyed the diversity of their nature and feel this meant I learnt a lot from them.

St Alkmunds is a church in Shrewsbury near Birmingham. The East window of this church was designed by Francis Eginton (b1737 – d1805) in 1795. It bore the image of the Virgin Mary surrounded by clouds with a bible, a crown, a goblet and other religious illusions. It was many different shades of brown with reds, purples and yellows but was still quite a dark window. It is quite an unusual piece because Eginton had tried to make it look like an oil painting, something that was popular at the time, and so it had no leading at all. It was held together by a metal structure and over time this structure had warped. The joints holding it together were being pulled in and this broke the glass. Some of the glass was really very badly broken. Only one panel from the bottom two rows of glass survived the weight of the rest pushing down upon it and could be salvaged. Although some of the panels had been mended and some were replaced the whole window had never been taken out before. Ministers of the church had painted cold colour quite badly onto the glass at different times and some of the broken panels had been plated to keep them together. No-one was sure exactly when this had happened but it was a long time ago.

I arrived after the glass had come to the studio although barely any restoration had been done so I came early on in the process. Each panel was photographed, cleaned, inserts cut and fired, resined, cold coloured, photographed, copperfoiled and photographed before it could be re-installed. When I arrived the first set of photographs had been taken but everything else still had to be done. Most of the work was quite straight forward but labour intensive. The window had about ninety panels and several had two or three layers of plating. Some had to be completely repainted and the project ended up being a few weeks behind schedule.

This is a broken panel that is being cleaned

The first thing I was to do along with my colleagues was to clean the panels and prepare those that needed it for resining. The glass was cleaned with fifty percent acetone and fifty percent water (50/50) or using synperonic a soapy cleaner. These liquids were applied again and again as the surface was gently rubbed with cotton buds and fiber glass brushes to remove the thick sooty residues that had built up over time. Panels with a lot of cracks could take hours to clean so it was a long process. Some of the cracks had been puttied over in the past as a way of holding them together and it was very hard to get this off again. A surgical scalpel had to be inserted under the putty and hammered to break it off. Even after it had been soaked this temporary measure still often resulted in more of the glass breaking.

Some of the glass had been plated as a way of holding the cracked pieces together. Some kind of animal glue had been used for this and it was near impossible to get off and left some of the glass pitted. To remove the glue sections were soaked in pure acetone and pulled at from time to time to help loosen them. This did work a little but really stubborn bits still wouldn’t come apart. The most broken panel was the surviving bottom row panel and it had cracked into miniscule pieces. About five of these small pieces were still stuck onto a plated piece even after the rest had been wrenched off and to remove the remaining parts it was put in the kiln. The first time this was tried the glass seemed to come apart but was left to cool down and so stuck back together. On the second attempt they were separated hot and triumphantly slotted back were they belonged. Nobody was sure if this would work but it worked beautifully.

To resin a panel back together the glass must first be completely clean. After cleaning it as before the crack lines need extra cleaning. Gary Flex an abrasive block is rubbed along crack lines to remove dust. 100% acetone is then used with cotton buds, going over these cracks until it is completely clean. Sometimes while cleaning you’ll notice hairline cracks, these cannot be resined because they will just continue to travel so they must be broken then properly resined back together. I broke them using grozing pliers. The glass was badly annealed and under a lot of stress and so when it cracked it would curve in unusual directions sometimes at right angles something I’ve never seen glass do before.

This panel has been taped together ready for vinyl

Once all the cracks are dealt with Magic tape is cut into tiny slivers and stuck along the crack lines holding them back together. Some of the glass was quite warped so it was difficult getting it to match up again precisely. This is very important however, for aesthetics as well as strength. If you rub your finger along the surface of the glass you should not be able to feel the cracks if they have been lined up properly. This needs to be done really tight too so light can’t be seen coming through them badly.

Once it is taped the panel must be turned over. Clear vinyl is cut to the shape of the cracks, so it is larger than them but not too large. The reason we don’t cover the whole thing with vinyl is because it’s sticky and we don’t want it to remove loose paint. Caution must be taken before applying it because, stick it on the side that has the least paint. The vinyl should be placed down slowly, taking care to minimize trapped air bubbles. It should then be rubbed all over, especially on the crack lines, with the back of a scalpel or something similar to make sure it’s stuck down properly.

Dental modeling wax called ‘Anutex’ is used next for support. It holds to glass in place while the resin dries. It is cut a little smaller than the vinyl but also follows the crack lines. The reason it is cut smaller is because it leaves a residue on the glass that is hard to get off. The vinyl will protect the glass. When the vinyl and the wax are cut there will be some areas that the edges of vinyl will meet vinyl, and wax will meet wax. Either because the vinyl/wax is too small to cover it or because it’s a tricky shape. When this happens make sure these joins are not taking place over complex spidery cracks because the resin can seep up between the joins.

This panel is in the process of being resined.

The wax is hard then it comes out of the packet. Once it is cut to shape is can be heated with a hairdryer so it softens. Once soft it can be moulded to the shape of the glass. The wax will then harden again and give an even surface that the resin can be applied to. It will support the glass so the cracked pieces will stay at the same level to one and other and not sag.

Once all of this is done the resining can begin. Holywell used 2020 Araldite by Huntsman found at www.araldite.com . It is described as ‘a transparent epoxy ideal for bonding glass and ceramics’. It comes in two parts, part A and part B. Part A contains bisphenol A (epichlorhydrin) and part B contains isophorone diamine. The resin is only activated when both parts are combined. To use mix ten parts of A with three parts of B. For example ten grams to three grams making thirteen grams of liquid. We measured it out using electric scales and a dish to mix it on collecting the liquid with separate pipettes. Put each liquid in a separate part of the dish incase you make a mistake and then mix it at the end. Mix well. The glue should dry completely within 24hrs if it’s warm enough (the studio was really cold so sometimes we’d leave it overnight on the light box for warmth) but is only workable for about an hour and a bit so if your doing a lot of resining it’s better to mix up less then mix more, rather than mix lots but have it set halfway through.

The resin was applied in tiny dots along the line of the break. The resin will fall down into the crack and run along the crack line. One the dot of resin deflates into the crack another dot is added in the same place until eventually after a few times the crack is full and the resin has nowhere to run so the dot remains. All the dots must stay really round like this at the end of resining so that when the resins almost dry (around 20hrs approx) they are easy to ping off. It is done in dots rather than just painting lines because that would make it hard to remove and also may leave a visible residue. The residue can be removed a little with acetone but other chemicals are available that remove araldite although the studio had none of them.

Once the panel is dry and dots have been pinged off with a scalpel the vinyl and wax can be removed. When held to the light you can see whether or not gaps remain between dots. Sometimes the resin does not run properly and you need to resin the other side as well. It is hard to tell on heavily painted areas but what you are looking for is darker patches that catch the light, that glint at you. Those areas still need resined. The resined areas become invisible because the resins refractive index is the same as the glass, meaning the light passes through it in the same way. It is therefore very effective.

Resin can be used to fill small missing sections and shales where glass is missing, but for bigger areas a new piece of glass must be cut and painted to match before being inserted into the panel. Conservation diagrams are made for every panel showing where the cracks are, where resin infills are and where new painted inserts are. This is so in the future if it is restored again somebody in theory will still have these records and be able to pass them on.

On the 21^st of October after a lot of cleaning and resining had been done we started cutting pieces to be used as painted inserts and Emma Russel and Dan Humphrys both employees, began the job of painting new panels where the old ones were either missing or badly replicated. This was extremely difficult. I had a go and wasn’t very successful at it. The problem is all the original paints and enamels are no longer made so thousands of paint combinations have to be gone through to make new ones that look the same. I think this is a skill that must take years to master, I do not have a good enough knowledge of all the different paint types and companies to be able to do it and even the experts really struggled with some of them.

I cut shapes for inserts into the glass out of equally thin glass and got it to the right shape by using a grinder. They were later painted with a mix of enamel and tracing paint, fired, and resined into position. When I rather unsuccessfully tried to match the colours myself I used red for flesh, umber brown and bistro brown combinations of tracing paint along with red, purple and blue Kansa Craft enamels. Mixing these together in different quantities, different thicknesses with different brushes creates different effects, but I still never got it to look exactly like the original. Emma also suggested mixing powdered flux into the paint to make it thinner/more transparent while retaining the strength of colour.

Once the inserts were properly painted, fired and resined into place they, along with the rest of the crack lines and resin infills, need cold coloured. I always thought one needed a special substance for cold colouring but in reality we used ordinary acrylic paint. In particular we used Daler Rowney ‘cryla’ artists heavy body acrylic colour. This was preferable to oil because it dries quicker. It was combined with slow drying gel and glaze mediums also by Daler Rowney. It is important to use the most expensive acrylics because the qualities better so it will last longer. This is mixed to a colour similar to the glass and painted on in dots with a tiny brush to block out the light and hide the cracks. Anywhere glints of light sneak through the acrylic is applied. We did however leave areas where the paint had simply worn away because we wanted to conserve them and thought it ethically wrong to touch them up with cold colour.

This shows some of St Alkmunds panels laid out on a lightbox to be resined.

Once this was done it was time to have the panels photographed. From the 27^th of October till the eleventh of November I photographed all of them. They needed a photo of the front with reflective light and then with transmitted light, before capturing the back with reflective light. All surrounding light had to be removed from the image using black paper cut outs and each was photographed with a ruler to show size. Once they were photographed separately they were copperfoiled and photographed in plated layers.

The copperfoiling was very straightforward. Plated panels had silicone glue smeared along warped edges so pressure wasn’t put on them before being copperfoiled together. This helped to keep them in the correct alignment, helped for transportation and was a preventative measure to stop moisture getting in between the glass and creating mould in future. They were not solderered so they would remain flexible to stop the glass breaking as the building moved.

We made up spring clips to hold the glass into the metal frames in the church. This was done by putting a dot of silicone glue onto a clip before sticking a ‘D’ section of rubber onto the top of it. When dry the rubber will cushion the stainless steel clip, which would otherwise be pressing into the glass. Several of these were needed for each panel of glass so we put a lot of them together.

On the 11^th of November St Alkmunds window was re-installed. This was done up until I left although I was not permitted to be involved in this. I found that to be a real shame because I have no sight experience and even just to watch something like this being installed would have been of huge educational value to me. Instead myself and one other employee were left in the studio when everyone else went on sight. I will make a point of visiting this church under my own steam in the future if I can find it because I feel like I have unfinished business with it and having spent such a long time on the project, not to see what it looks like reinstalled is very sad.

Swansea Course with Johnathan Cook continued...

2009-12-31T11:05:00.000-08:00

'Soldier from Afghanistan'. Painted in several layers before firing using a process I learned on Jonathan Cooks Swansea course. I lightened up areas like the eyes by scratching through the paint with a nail. I think these highlights really make the image. The panel below 'Cat Lady' was done using the same technique.

Swansea Course with Johnathan Cook

2009-12-31T10:33:00.000-08:00

This year I was awarded the Award For Excellence 2009 – 2010 with the Worshipful Company of Glaziers and Glass Painters. It is a huge honour to be given this opportunity. As part of this travelling scholarship I am able to tour around different glass studios and get an insight into the way they work. So far it has been really amazing. I have attended three different studios already this year between September and December. The placements I've been to to date are Swansea where I studied under Johnathan Cook while attending a glass course at the Swansea Institute; Wells at Steve Clares studio Holywell Glass; and finally Lincoln at the Lincoln Cathedral Works Department under Tom Kupper. I learned new skills and benefited from each of these placements in different ways. I want to talk about what I was allowed to work on in each of them and how I've enhanced my own knowledge of architectural glass through this experience.

First I am going to give a detailed account of my time in Swansea Institute. I arrived in Swansea, Wales on the 24^th of September 2009 after a long journey from Edinburgh and started the course on the 25^th under the instruction of Johnathan Cook. I had never been to Swansea before but was aware of the degree course there in glass painting and conservation and had considered doing a masters course there in the future so was interested to visit.

The course ran for four days from Friday the 25^th till Monday the 28^th. It was therefore much shorter than my latter placements but I feel I probably learned just as much in that short amount of time as I did in each of the others so although it was short he managed to cram a lot in and the experience was very valuable. Had I known about it, it is definitely something I would have done under my own steam long before and only helped to further illustrate to me how much I still have to learn after what was to all intents and purposes a self taught four year degree at Edinburgh and how lucky I am to get the opportunity to hone my craft with this award. I have never actually been ‘taught’ how to paint and so to have someone so knowledgeable go through his process as he did step by step was hugely beneficial.

Each day I was there the first half he spend talking to us around a table in great detail about a certain technique or process and then we’d spend the afternoon meticulously trying to emulate said process. I am an avid note taker and I am going to go through some of those notes now to demonstrate the particular activities we took parting and what I learned from them.

On the first day we learned about painting a base layer of either clear vinegar or water. This would be painted as a matt and then we would paint other brushwork on top of it. The particular technique he wanted to show us was how to construct an image with different layers of paint but using only one firing. He said this is how painters used to do it in the past and it was better because it used less energy heating it and so was quicker and more cost effective.

He told me a good way to tell if an old painting had been done using this method was to look at the scratch marks in the paint that have been scraped with a stick. If you can see clear glass through them it was done in one firing where as if there is a matt underneath it must have been done in two.

The first layer, when building up layers of paint in this way, is a base layer or matt. That is all we worked on the first day. We cut several squares of glass and practiced mixing up brown matts of different shades using different quantities of gum Arabic with the vinegar mix then the water mix. First we tried no gum, then a little, then a lot. We applied the paint using a flat brush then created a matt finish with a badger brush and an English stippler. We mixed the paint using pipettes to add a drop of vinegar/water at a time and then folded it into the paint. We covered it with a lid after so it would not get dust in it and sealed it by rubbing a wet finger around the lid so the paint would not dry out. John told us that if we did this we could re-use the paint up to three or four months after it was originally mixed.

Another tip he gave us that I had never heard of before was to add a tiny amount of fresh earwax to paint to stop it frothing. This didn’t seem to do anything when I tried it but perhaps the stuff he kept in a jar from his children was not fresh enough.

He taught us about how to blend paint. We were to use our fingertips or a make up brush to dust the surface or we could use a scrub. If we were to make our own scrub we would need a good quality brush such as a hog hair. It could then be chopped up until it was very short and rounded, pressed down into a heated Chinese take away tin to singe the ends, then sandpapered. The bigger the brush the subtler the blending. Mark making can also be achieved using a pin, nail, feather (goose or peacock quills are best) or a wooden point.

Once the base layer is painted and dried it is not advisable to try and stipple or badger on top with another layer of paint because it will remove the first. I could however paint lines over before firing, but I could only do so once, not going over it so the texture below could remain. When painting over dry paint he advises we mix the paint a little wetter than usual. If vinegar mix is left two or three days it goes harder and more paint can be added without the need for gum.

If you are to paint lines, as we were, you need a brush with a point and not a flat end. His line brushes were long but not as long as some I have seen. He usually works flat on a light box with an easel to check things. He uses a bridge to lean on but advises that one needs a variety, long sweeping lines need height and short ones for detail.

On the second day we painted trace lines over the base layer we created the day before using the water and vinegar mixes like before, but also using lavender. Johnathan also taught us more about badgering. A good badger brush should stand up on it’s bristles on it’s own. You can get flat tips or rounded tips. Flat may be a little better but it’s negligible. Badgering paint forces the paint to dry faster so it is advisable to do it early in the morning when it’s dead cold so you can smooth it for longer. Always take the sharp edges off the glass so you don’t loose the tips of the brush.

Paint needs to be very well ground up when badgering because dust or lumps will really show up and a clear halo will appear around them which will stand out once fired. Glass dries from the edge to the middle so mix paint well to avoid tide marks appearing. Little badgers can be used to pull the paint around when it’s wet. Sizes four and five are good, any smaller and it’s scratchy.

In his opinion when using a paint vehicle, vinegar is usually preferable to water because it dries slower but water mixes good skin tones. He says the best oil to paint with is lavender and paraffin can be mixed with it to help it dry and smooth it out. He said to be careful not to get it on my hands however because your skin absorbs it so if it’s mixed with paint you’ll be absorbing that too. After painting with it the brush isn’t clean until you can’t smell it.

When your mixing up your paint he suggests that usually you should use sandblasted or abraded glass because it will help to grind down the paint. With lavender however it’s best to mix on a clear palette because oils heavier than water and it sits in the sandblasted areas so doesn’t mix as well. Dust shows up very strong in lavender so everything must be kept clean. Use leather to clean glass and get excess paint off brushes so there is no dust from tissues going into the paint. The leather rag can then be washed with washing up powder and re-used again and again.

Gum Arabic has no effect on lavender but copaiba balsam does if two or three drops are used. It makes lavender strong when dry and hardens after a few hours. In a few weeks it won’t move at all. Because lavender takes so long to evaporate the paint mix shouldn’t be too wet. Lavender paint gets better with age and like the vinegar/water mix if it is kept covered it can be used again in the future.

When painting with lavender he suggests the use of synthetic hair because real hair brushes pick up too much and make paint drippy and hard to control. A round brush is better than flat and the brush should be dampened with lavender before it is put in paint. When lavenders dry a line of vinegar or water can be layered on top.

With my newfound knowledge I created several test pieces using his techniques. These were pattered imagery from my imagination with which I tried to apply all I had learned. On the third day we were allowed to take this a little further and paint from an image of our choosing. I photocopied and blew up a couple of pictures from the local newspaper that caught my eye. I painted a woman holding a cat and a soldier in Afghanistan. We all used a mix of black and brown paint. Brown for the background and black on top so we could distinguish the different layers when we were done.

Johnathan suggested firing at 600C and soaking for twenty minutes rather than firing at 650C, which is what the paint suggests. He says this is because at 650C texture from the kiln can be picked up and lighter shading can be lost. I thought my tests fired very nicely at this temperature.

On the final day he taught us about some other techniques and gave us other information that we could experiment with on our own at a later date. The first thing he suggested was drawing on glass with a pen nib using balsam and clove oil (lavender too runny). He says this mix can be kept in jam jar forever and used like an ink well as long as it’s air tight so the balsam doesn’t harden. A stiff nib is needed, one that doesn’t bend with pressure and it will file down quickly against the glass. Once it’s dry you can paint over it with water/vinegar.

He tells me that Hartlewoods and Lamberts are the best makes of glass to paint on, but not to use Tatra because the paint and detail gets lost in firing. He showed me a set of examples he had of this and it was a startling difference. Other tips he gave were to add blackboard chalk to silverstain to lighten it and charcoal to darken it. Although he admitted that this didn’t always work.

With silverstain and enamel he suggests firing at 565C. He warns that silverstain needs ground more than paint and that gum arabic is not necessary because it hardens naturally. The same layering process can be done with enamels although apparently no earwax will be required. Oil can sometimes make green enamel blue and he feels degoussa is the best make. Painting on the tin side can make enamels iridescent, so that’s something to bare in mind.

I left Swansea on the 28^th straight after his talk and headed straight to Wells ready to start work on the 29^th. I remain incredibly greatful for my trip to Swansea as I found it an enlightening experience and I learned a lot from Johnathan who proved himself to be a superb teacher.

Bill Cliffe Gallery Exhibition

2009-09-23T12:44:00.002-07:00

These are images of my work at the Bill Cliffe Gallery in Glasgow where I exhibited with other recent graduates in all disciplines from across Scotland. The gallery hand picked the artists from each art college and invited them to take part. I exhibited my work in the window along with other glass artists from my year that I have mentioned and given website details of in a previous post. Although I was really happy to exhibit at this gallery and felt privileged to have my art chosen with all these other great artists I did feel the display didn't show the panels to their full potential and looks as if it came about as a bit of an after thought. The gallery commission also meant that even after dropping my prices substantially the work was still too expensive.

To see images of the other displaying artists work look on the Bill Cliffe Gallery website

Dundee BSMGP

2009-09-23T12:44:00.001-07:00

Detail from larger panel by Douglas Strachan a famous Scottish stained glass artist.

Extract from larger panel by Willie Wilson.

The British Society of Master Glass Painters annual conference 2009 was located in Tayside in the kingdom of Fife from Thursday the 27th till Sunday the 30th of August. I got to go to it for free although it's usually quite expensive so I was very lucky. We went and looked at a lot of historic stained glass in and around Dundee. We looked at the work of notable artists such as Christopher Wall, Louis Davie, Herbert Henry, Alexander Walker, Henry Holliday (some of the nicest), Willie Wilson (really, really fabulous), Margaret Chilton, Douglas Strachan (always a favourite) and Steven Adam Studios. It's well worth a look at some of the local churches if you happen to be in the area. St Andrews especially has a lot of great glass, All Saints church, St Salvadors college and Holy Trinity Church to name but a few.

Glass From the Third Floor

2009-09-23T09:48:00.000-07:00

Arabic Panel

The Long Farewell

This panel is three layers thick and copper foiled. It is painted with brown and black tracing paint, fired and sandblasted. When looked through this layering creates a three dimensional effect. It is a family portrait of my parents the day my dad left for the Himalayas. I was very little at the time and it felt like he was gone for ages. This long farewell I feel however is synonymous with many other departures of loved ones, and with the pack on his back it looks a little like he's off to war. I suppose a lot of different interpretations can be read into this one image and although they look happy the title I feel anchors a slight feeling of sadness and maybe even foreboding. All goodbye's are hard and I will always remember my dad leaving as it was the longest time he'd ever been away from us. This portrait for me captures a moment for all of us that would otherwise be lost in time, and once immortalized in glass it could well outlive the people it is of.

Summer Winds

Two layers of fused glass, coloured with frit and sandblasted.

Circle Circle

6mm slumped glass with sandblasting

Underwater Monster and Me

2009-09-23T09:33:00.000-07:00

This is a small glass panel with an example of gilding using gold and silver leaf. The leaf has been scratched away to reveal the underwater scene. I then pained the back with sign paints in red and blue. It's actually a really interesting process that I'd never tried before and it was simpler than I thought it was going to be. Definitely something I will try again in the future.

New Designers

2009-08-04T12:08:00.000-07:00

These are images of my work at the New Designers exhibition in London where I exhibited with other artists from my college (click to see their degree show work). Some of there work can be seen in these photographs, and can be viewed again at an up and coming exhibition in Glasgow's Bill Clyffe gallery shortly. They include Amey Dalton, June Morrison, Rachel O'Dell, Julie Chapman, Ramon Beaskoetxea, Ida Wieth-Knudsen and Emma McGarvie.

I had to build a lightbox in order to exhibit the five panels you can see in the photographs and it was quite a job getting it to London and back never mind getting it up on the wall so I want to say a big thank you to everyone who helped me with this. Thank you.

Amey in a sexy little dress looking at the camera next to June who is hiding behind the mans head.
I'm standing between Amey (left) and Emma (right) who I do not appear to be entertaining very well.

My panels reflecting onto Junes glass table.

Over 8 ft in length my lightbox containing five of my Botanical panels. From left; Lilly, Pine, Swiss Cheese, Rowan, Hogweed.

Migrate

2009-07-25T13:26:00.000-07:00

My work is currently exhibiting in the Scottish Glass Society exhibition 'Migrate' celebrating it's 30th year.

Exhibition Dates:

Inverness Museum & Art Gallery, Inverness: 4th July – 1st August 2009 St Fergus Gallery, Wick: 7th August – 12th September 2009 Iona Gallery, Kingussie: 19th September – 17th October 2009 Broadfield House Glass Museum, West Midlands 14th November – 11th March 2010

There is an online catalogue which has images from all the artists involved (including myself!) available at;

http://www.scottishglasssociety.com/pdf/DOWNLOAD%20Migrate%2030%20Years%20of%20Scottish%20Glass%20Catalogue.pdf

There is a review of the exhibition from The GLASS Quarterly;

http://blog.glassquarterly.com/2009/06/18/exhibition-takes-a-closer-look-at-scottish-diversity-identity/

and Hi-Arts has also written an article on the exhibition;

http://www.hi-arts.co.uk/default.aspx.locid-hianewpf9.Lang-EN.htm

New Designers

2009-07-05T10:52:00.000-07:00

Some of my Degree Show work, the Botanical Panels to be precise, are being exhibited again at the Business Design Centre (BDC), London, N1 0QH. It is a two minute walk from the Angel Station (Northern Line) by tube. The preview evening is on the 8th of July and it is open to the public from the 9th to the 12th. 11am - 6pm Thurs to Sat and 11am - 4pm Sun. Book online at newdesigners.com for discounts, they also have plenty of other info on their website.

Video of my work

2009-07-05T10:37:00.000-07:00

A lovely lady Karen Bryan who came along to my degree show filmed the work of myself and a fellow student Emma McGarvie. If you would like to view a short video of some of my work visit her blog Europe a la Carte.

Botanical Panels

2009-06-10T16:28:00.000-07:00

Cherry Blossom

Botanical Panels Continued...

2009-06-10T16:20:00.000-07:00

Swiss Cheese Plant

Hogweed

Rowan

Rhododendron

Pine

Botanical Panels

2009-06-10T16:11:00.000-07:00

Umbrella Plant

Lily

Christmas Cactus

Artist’s Statement

As a little girl I used to spend the weekends in my grannies house where she lived with my uncle. The house was always in disrepair, the garden a jungle, no hot water, no heating. Rooms ran into other rooms and there I could get lost as my mother did before me. The memories that stand out to me the most are those of my uncle. How he took me up on the roof to show me stars; how he watched the football with the TV on mute because the radio commentary was better; how he used to play with the hairs on his arm by wetting his fingers and flattening them down; how he loved to draw bunnies and was never too busy to play with me.
I remember that the house was so cold the inside of the windows would frost. I remember his love of trees. How one year he went into the garden and collected all the seeds that had fallen and planted each one in its own pot and every pot inside a window. I remember how he fooled around with me at his fathers funeral. How shortly after he too succumbed to cancer. How he left behind him all his trees.
Each of us took a few home to remember him by. For years mine lined the bedroom window and when I left home they came with me. The day before I started art college the very first drawing I did in my new sketchbook was of my last remaining tree, his tree, a rowan. And when it died I felt him die again.
I’ve chosen to make these panels as a way of remembering him, so that little tree can live on and so can he. Glass is fragile the way we all are, and life is fleeting and impermanent. I have chosen to depict plants in my panels in a way that will show this. The backgrounds are dark and the sandblasted engravings leave them as white silhouettes. I have constructed them in this way so they appear ghostlike. We do not look at the plant itself but the absence of it. So many creatures of this world are dwindling, so many are ready extinct and as my father says ‘we are the generation that ate the planet’. I wanted these panels to be reminiscent of ancient fossils, where a trace of life remains, or amber where insects are trapped and an echo of that life can be seen long after the life itself is extinguished. These ghost plants are symbolic of death and the destruction man has left in his wake.
The tree with its transparent leaves is to carry the same message, it is the autumn of our years on this earth, with its leaves turning and falling to the ground. I love nature and I wanted to capture a little bit of it. Like taking a snapshot then watching it diminished, before it is finally and eternally gone.

The Echo

2009-06-10T16:05:00.000-07:00

The Echo (detail)

2009-06-10T15:58:00.000-07:00

Glass Leaves

2009-06-10T15:16:00.000-07:00

I made 133 glass leaves for my tree piece 'The Echo' in my Degree Show. These are a few examples of them.

Toothbrush Panel Continued...

2009-06-10T14:07:00.000-07:00

Seven individual panels, each three layers deep, painted and sandblasted to create this almost cartoon stripy graphic design. It was inspired by my own ritualistic dental hygiene routine. Brush, floss, tepe, mouthwash. Not the worst obsession to have...

Toothbrush Panel

2009-06-10T14:02:00.000-07:00

Glass Corset Continued...

2009-06-10T13:53:00.000-07:00

I coated my body in mud rock in order to make a mould of it that I could slump glass over. This glass was drilled to form holes which I later laced with ribbon, before being heated in a kiln to take the shape of my body. I'm really happy with the result. I worked even better than expected. I sandblasted the inside to give it a fuller more sculptural quality. 2006.

Glass Corset

2009-06-10T13:49:00.000-07:00

Mechanical Tree

2009-06-10T13:27:00.000-07:00

Migrate
The Scottish Glass Society Annual Exhibition 2009

As a student of Design and Applied Arts I work mainly in Architectural Glass, by which I mean two dimentional free standing or hanging panals. I construct these to be seen in gallery spaces, but they could just as easily be used as windows in an interior setting. I combine the use of ceramic, oil and glass paints with sandblasting, engraving and fusing to create images. My pieces achieve depth through a process of layering glass, each layer with separate complimentary forms which when brought together create new imagery. I use a lot of copper foiling and soldering in my work often contrasting the soft, bright, whispy glass design with dark painted wood, which is not just used as a method to frame my glass but becomes part of the art itself.

I take inspiration from a lot of different sources when it comes to my glass work. I am a very visual person and every second of every day my eyes are picking up on the subtle nuances of the world around me and channeling them subconciously back into my art. Recently I have been hugely stimulated by a mixture of industrial machinery and organic form, the juxtaposition of which has heavily influenced a great deal of the glass I’ve done over the last year. When starting a new piece I often spend a week or two just drawing in order to generate new ideas and to help me focus in on what I want to make. I will draw from human form or walk around the city stopping to capture street scenes or lamp posts or dead leafs that grab my attention. I go to the library or onto the internet and find images of similar things and try to mimic the mood or esscense of a photo or a day.

Currently I am obsessed with curved organic lines and their juxtaposition with hard industrial shapes. I love the linear quality found in the work of artists such as Egon Schiele and H. R. Giger and the flowing form of Barbara Hepworth. When I’m starting a new project I look at the work of artists like these and from them take huge inspiration.

My uncle used to grow trees from seed, and hundreds of little pots would line all his window sills. When he died I kept a few. Recently the last of those few, a rowan tree, has withered and I drew it sad in its pot. That drawing became a print that now sits on my window sill where I see it every day. I still draw a lot of inspiration from it, and its contours and carved lines can definatly be seen running through my glass work. My influences continually change and evolve, focusing on whatever aspect of my life most excites me at the time.

Exhibition Proposal

‘The Wandering’ shows the epic journey of a tree uprooted and forced to roam the land looking for a new home. I tried to capture this sense of movement and isolation as it journeys for a new land to lay down its roots. I wanted it to seem half living, half mechanical forced to migrate as a lone creature wandering with nowhere to go. I wanted to explore my own sense of identity and how I feel rooted to Scottish soil, what it means to feel Scottish and what it would mean to be forced to leave.

The Panel itself is comprised of a large wooden frame with glass inlaid into it and lights behind it. The glass tree is made of three layers of float glass. The first and second layers are painted with tracing black and the bottom layer is sandblasted and painted with red oil paint. These layers were then copperfoiled and soldered together before being held in place by silicone glue and builders caulk. The MDF frame was jig-sawed into the shape of the tree and will be attached to a lightbox and held to the wall with mirror plates. The work will be an installation.

Approximate Size: 167.7 x 100 x 18 cm

Small Botanical Panels

2009-06-10T12:45:00.000-07:00

Rhododendron: sandblasted, painted, silverstained. 2008.

Fused painted glass with trapped bubbles to create an organic tar like design. 2008.

Beech: Painted and silverstained. 2008.

Pine: Painted and sandblasted design. Two layers. 2008.

Rhododendron: Painted and sandblasted design. Two layers. 2008.

Christian Schmidt Masterclass Engravings

2009-06-10T12:22:00.000-07:00

Tree carved into a tumbler using diamond turning wheels.

A tumbler carved with different patterns using diamond turning wheels and a flexible drive engraver.

Hand blown (but not by me) red flash glass vase deeply sandblasted to create a multi tonal pattern.

Bunny kidnap: Blue flash glass, sandblasted and engraved using diamond turning wheels and a flexible drive pen. A dream like scene of dragons stealing hapless bunnys.

The Boys Room: Float glass engraved with diamond turning wheels and a flexible drive.

All of these designs were created while I was on a masterclass in Stourbridge with Christian Schmidt in 2008. It was absolutely wonderful, really insightful and I would highly recommend their courses to anyone interested in learning more about glass. Well worth the money.