“When I’m gone …”
Did I write that?
Well, I won’t be gone any day soon, because there’s still a whole lot of hair in my blender, even though it’s been getting a lot of punishing use these last three months …
From the category archives:
Stained glass design
OK, your stained glass design - what must it show?
Which is not the best question … -
Rather, who is the design for?
Who must the design instruct, guide or persuade?
A committee? A patron? A priest? A businesswoman or man? Their secretary?
A journalist maybe?
Or is it “just” for you, the glass painter?
Yes, the design must be “fit for purpose”, we can all agree on that.
But this means you must first decide which purpose – or purposes – it must be fit for.
So if you have several important purposes which can’t all be met by one version of the design, then you maybe will need several different versions of the design.
Don’t get upset at this – don’t “shoot the messenger” …
I’m just telling you how things are.
Anyway, here’s what we often do. And even if you decide to do things differently yourself, I’ve got a really useful tip for you – just read through to the end. And enjoy the pictures along the way!
When someone visits us to learn, we always start with silhouettes. It’s never yet mattered how experienced they were, silhouettes always make a good place from which to start. [click to continue…]
Stained glass design and its greatest risk
Before I tell you about the greatest risk I face today, let me remind you of this obvious truth …
For ourselves (our egos)? Or for the client?
"Who am I for?"
(As promised last time, a return to objective points of interest! Thank you so much for your good wishes. I am reminded how a Japanese journalist once asked us why we taught and shared. Our reply was, “Open doors will keep the studio … fresh“. And you, dear readers, are like fresh air to us: thank you!)
OK, so imagine you come up with a wonderful idea for your client, and now you also worked it up into a gorgeous full-sized – maybe even full-colour – design …
And the last thing you (you, a designer, an artist, a maker, a glass painter, a student – or however you see yourself) will want to do with this wonderful design is … muck it up and kick the !>@?! out of it, right?
Yes, right, but also wrong. Because of course, it all depends.
Goodness me, yes, it’s hard to “wreck” a design. But sometimes that’s what you just must do to show you understand what’s needed. [click to continue…]
Continuing our short series on how we glass painters can sometimes escape – or do I mean, disguise? – the leaden bonds which hold us.
As always there’s a catch.
It’s only for those wise subscribers to our most excellently acclaimed free e-mail newsletter.
Sign up here.
Mephistopheles Stephen
"Where did I come from?"
How does a stained glass design evolve?
With a precedent, that’s for sure.
All the same, it’s important to know when to stop … [click to continue…]
“Plating” is the leading up of two or more glasses of the same shape, one behind the other.
Here’s what E. Liddall Armitage has to say on the matter:
“Some artists resort to plating and even tend to boast about it, but it is best avoided” (Stained Glass, Leonard Hill Books Limited, London, 1960, p. 130).
He presents two arguments. First, that it is unsound craftsmanship. Second, that medieval glass is beautiful and never, ever plated.
Before discussing these arguments, we must make an admission of special interest here. [click to continue…]
