This is a detail from one of a north-facing pair of lancets we’ve just completed.
The theme for these two lancets – “At the going down of the sun …”.
(Opposite them, south-facing, a second pair, whose theme is “… and in the morning || We will remember them”. You can find the full poem here.)
And I want now to take time-out from the work I’m doing on some new designs to talk you through the techniques I used to make the poppies.
Maybe then, you too can use these same steps in the work you do.
“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.