The Challenge of the Tycoon’s Casket

It is not every day you sit in a tycoon’s boardroom (nice Gothic lion-clawed chairs, by the way) and receive a challenge:

“The commission is yours if, within seven days, you can forge me two fine pieces of ancient-looking glass …” (the tycoon growled)

The boardroom was littered with other makers’ samples – wallpaper, curtains, rugs, table-tops …

I could see the tycoon’s problem – I’m quick like that …

And the problem was -

Everything looked new.

Beautiful but … new.

Indeed, money can buy most things.

And that’s why it’s often nicer to make the impression that money bought these things a long, long time ago …

Anyway, we accepted the challenge. Why ever not?

There was also you, our loyal readership, to consider.

With so much interest on your part, we now find ourselves compelled to seek out adventures and commissions to entertain you.

Indeed, I imagine how Simbad felt a similar emotion each time he cast off anchor, thinking of how the Sultan’s court would long for his return to hear his marvelous tales.

It’s not like we find your attention is addictive or anything like that.

All the same …

It’s official – The Independent says so …

Today’s copy of The Independent features a rather exciting centre-fold 2-page full-colour picture of me and David. I hope it’s not too racy for their readers.

And we’re described as “one of the Britain’s leading makers of stained glass”.

Oh yes?

Who are the others then?

Anyway, let’s not get distracted by all this media attention.

Yes, let’s focus on the challenge of the tycoon’s casket!

1. Arouse curiosity

This was already an interesting aspect of the challenge: what exactly to depict?

There had to be a narrative, an imagined story.

David and I walked spent a dutiful morning, walking around various ancient English churches, until we came across a window in the corner of St. Laurence’s in Ludlow: The Adoration of the Magi.

These are Casper’s hands, bringing gold:

"I wonder what's inside"

2. Choose good and appropriate glass

The faces in a 19th century stained glass window may look white (and we must leave aside the cultural implications of this choice of colour here).

Yet, in your hand, and out of context, you’ll often find them to be green.

The reason is, their colour was purposefully chosen to hold its own against the strength of the bleaching sun.

The colour in hand is not the same as the colour in context

Our tycoon is a lifelong collector of stained glass. He will therefore know this fact. So we found an interesting piece of tinted English glass and cut it down to size.

3. Map out the main lines

This often means laying down a smooth undercoat (and if anyone wonders why, please see strategy #3 on this page right here).

Then, with the glass on top of the design, you use a fine tracing brush to make a literal copy of the outline.

Copy-trace the main lines

Note: it’s often easier to prepare a pencil tracing from the water-colour design, and work from this.

4.Initial highlights

There are so many different ways you could go forward from here. for example, it’s often possible and advantageous to build up shadows right away (see strategy #7).

And yet … and yet – here we settled on a more immediate approach, setting down some highlights straight away:

Rough highlights to give an impression of where light falls

5. Giving body and weight to the image

It comes as a relief (because you thereby move away from a provisional state of affairs) when you strengthen and/or thicken your original trace lines, and block in around the edges of your glass, in order to contain the light:

Blocking in quickly adds substance to the painting

This close-up draws your attention to the roughness of the blocking in.

The point is, perfection under a microscope can sometimes conflict with the wider and more important objectives, such as being legible from a distance, and also – crucially – gaining the tycoon’s confidence.

6. Other appearance of ageing

Always remember the back of your glass.

It is your second canvas.

Working the back of the glass you can either add shadows and thus create a greater sense of depth.

Or, as here, with a light wash plus a good toothbrush, followed by some gentle rubbing, you can start to mimic the  ravages of age.

These spots are on the back of the glass

To be clear: these spots are on the back of the glass. With a suitable firing schedule, and a suitable mix of paint, you can fire both sides at once.

7. Authenticity

It is a modern luxury, and sometimes even an indulgence, to run the risk of firing your glass several times.

Yes, it’s easy when you have a computer wired up to your kiln, and you can walk off and get on with other things.

In earlier times, you’d pay a great deal of attention to the firing, and chance it as infrequently as possible.

So a lot more painting would go on between your firings.

In particular, you’d often resort to oil, as here, to build up further shadows:

Oil adds a new dimension to your glass painting

Just look at the subtle shading on the hand here.

I don’t say this to boast.

I say this to remind you how, with oil, you can give tremendous expression and delicacy to your shading (see strategies #14 – #16).

8. Secondary highlights

Another wonderful quality of oil is how you can take your time to make exactly the highlights you want:

You can take your time with oil highlights

And you can also blend them afterwards (see strategy #17).

9. Older still and older …

You can add texture to the front of the glass by flicking water onto the oil you applied earlier:

Flicking water on untroubled oil ...

The effect is largely random, so you have to pray you get what you want …

See how the water has caused the oil to separate ...

10. First firing

Then a few anxious hours while the kiln does its work:

Incidentally, when you paint with oil, you lose less in the kiln - so what you see before you fire is pretty much the density you get after you fire

11. Tracing and shading with silver stain – it really is that easy …

Time was when you’d have been anxious about staining – it’s such a messy and frustrating job with water or vinegar.

With oil, it’s so much easier (though you always have to run suitable tests):

Silver staining with oil really is that easy - when you know what you must know ...

12. Second firing

If you’ve done your tests, there’s little cause for worry now.

Unless there’s a tycoon who wants his proof …

Did it work, the stain?

And was the tycoon pleased?

What do you think happened?

13. The Tycoon’s Casket

I’ve added a 20-minute video to the collection which comes with Silver stain – how to trace, blend, shade and flood from a reliable batch that lasts for months.

There’s also a free copy of the original water-colour design for you to use. (And why not? – We borrowed it from St. Laurence’s in the first place.)

Best,