Suppose you read a sentence in a book which says:

Glass painting has a slow and steady pace”

Yes, we all understand the words, but do we understand the sense? I mean, how successful are the words in getting you to copy what the master glass painter does?

Not very.

That’s my point: what does “slow and steady” mean when you’re talking about glass painting? It’s impossible to know from plain words or pictures which don’t move.

Now watch this short clip:

ust watch the steady pace, the rhythm: don’t you think it’s all much clearer now? And that’s a triumph of this film: you see real glass painting very close-up.

You won’t get that from a book.

And, unless you happen to know a friendly master glass painter who will let you sit and watch him or her all day – you won’t even get it in real-life.

But you will get it from this film.

Here’s another example. Most people are completely in the dark about how to trace. Most people are so used to holding biros or felt-tipped pens, they haven’t a clue about how to use a tracing brush. You see, unless you’ve used a brush all your life, you must unlearn so much.

So suppose your book tells you how, when you trace, you must focus all your attention on the brush’s tip.

And once again I ask you, What would you learn from this instruction?

The answer is, Not much. After all, the brush’s tip is so completely unlike the metal ball in a biro of the plastic in a “felt”-tipped pen, there’s no way most people can begin to imagine what is meant here.

So once again imagine that, instead of reading how to paint stained glass, you watch it being done, before your very eyes:

Tell me honestly: do you know another place where will you learn about the importance of the tracing brush’s tip? Have you ever seen the brush’s tip at work like this before? It’s the kind of thing which every master glass painter knows by instinct yet doesn’t tell you (can’t tell you, because she/he’s a painter not a teacher).

But it’s the kind of useful detail this film is packed with.