Strawberries….strawberries

Well, every project has its challenges…

This project started out as a north cumbrian town scape with a mountain backdrop.. it grew and grew and strawberry thieving blackbirds were introduced!

Yikes. This is quite a size… said I, when I eventually drew out the shape on my board.

(Almost 1 metre square. Almost!)

And well, I do like to scratch my head over composition and design and… layout and.. colour. This one definitely evolved as I built…

Here my drawings… (I really enjoyed this once I got stuck into it)

Here how my glass cutting and painting went… see how the watery wintry low sun washes through the vivid reds and greens…

(and those darn strawberries. You see, at first I cut and painted them as bunches of strawberries. But when I offered them up the light for appraisal I realised i did not like them at all… Back to the cutting board. Individual strawberries. Oh, yes. Much better now…. phew.)

And then.. colours for the middle ground. I wanted the birds to ‘sing out’.. as if perched in your window box and you were watching them and looking at the town beyond… the gentle pastel colours of the Cockermouth town were switched about until I was happy.. especially happy with the blue cottage at the end of the row which anchored the piece and dragged your eye to the blue clock face on the piercing church steeple.

The high mountain landscape in the far background executed in soft grey greens.

My, what a mammoth task. And all done in the lead up to Christmas. (I think really this project kept me sane amongst the rush of robins and unicorns (!) and angels and dogs (!) and… other treasured gems!)

The leadwork and grouting was completed in the run up to Christmas Eve. So satisfying and grounding and concentrated and rigorous…. it had to be done!!! It had to be completed and sitting, curing and polished over the Christmas break in order for it to be sent for encapsulation (double glazing technique) and fitted on February the 14th (aww. and they loved it)