‘Are you sure you don’t just want a number five’ I asked, of Penny and Tom, my ultra-enduro-ironman-BG holding friends…
‘No way,’ they said!
Ha-ha, so, the only five in their panel is the pair of size five fell shoes that are leaping off the Knott..
‘Something that reflects us’, they said, ‘and where we live….’
(A friend of theirs visited from the south this week and he found their house from the stained glass panel. Hee-hee, he knows them well)
So, here is what I gave them…
The panel is a fanlight above their front door measuring 740mm wide x 390mm deep.
Drawing first… I wanted to capture movement and a sense of the place… (the viaduct helps with that!) And Penny and Tom’s beloved Cumbrian hills to the north.
Then cut glass… apply paint….. build up layers and details…
Fire and fire again for depth of colour.
Relaxing leadwork, soldering and grout.
Then polish and polish till it gleams. (I make it sound so easy don’t I. Trust me, it is dead tricky!)
Yeah, they live at number five!
d c stained glass :: debbie's shed 
I am new to stained glass, absolutely love your work and was hoping you could recommend a ‘How To’ reference for painting and firing glass. You are certainly an inspiration. Just this week I finished a 5-week class here in N.Y., and I don’t believe our instructor knew anything about pinting/firing.
Any feedback would be so appreciated. Can’t wait to see your next post!
Hi There,
Many thanks for your comments. I’m just teaching myself too as I go along really..i did a one day course at a local glass company a couple of years ago and have a friend who offers pointers. I also checked out the Williams and Byrne website and tutorials. They have some good advice…They come across as very informative at first but there is usually something a little vital missing that you only find out yourself by trial and error. I think the main thing is just to keep practising and maybe jot down what it is you do…and learn from that! Best of luck, Debbie