d c stained glass :: debbie's shed

Cavort swallows and hares.

Dancing amongst grasses and

Swirling through seedheads.

Between the sun and the moon

Tossing a riot of colour.

This one made me smile. Beautiful subjects… (and not least because I was to ensure the hare was at no point to resemble the angel of death of Watership Down horror)(yikes… yep.. him and General Umvert… twas the stuff of childhood nightmares!)

Oh what fun I had designing this… from the scribbliest lovely wee doodle.. through hares gazing at moon to hares frolicking under moon to streaking hare with defo no red eye!

And then some beautiful palette of colours and textures and i was a happy bunny with my glass cutter. Check out the wee red flashes.. the glance of pink… the rustle of texture… and of course some sparkle!

And then. Yep. Down to painting. I laid down the shadow of Ingleborough first and fired all these pieces. I often try to do everything in one firing but I knew the top layers of seedheads would just cause me headaches if Ingleborough was not fixed. Sepia brown for the hare and black/brown for the seedheads. Lots of careful layering, scraping, smudging and lining.

Rhythmic leadwork was just a joy then straight on with the grout and….. polish.

Oh and these guys let me keep this one in my window through Christmas. Thanking You!

…And so now door and panel are in place.

And this door and window composition work well on many different levels…

Solid beautiful oak door. Simple gentle floating panel. Shiny polished leadwork complimented by burnished iron mongery!

When viewed from outside you appreciate the lovely texture of the paintwork… the speckles and streaks… the ridges and blobs. You want to reach out and stroke the feathers of the swifts and rustle the foliage at the base…

From inside, the window glows as panels always do… but what I hadn’t anticipated (ha. and this is where i should say I that i had really thought all this through!) is how well the subjects dance against the outside world. The pale blues of the sky and the wispy vapour trails work well against the white painted boards of the porch roof…

The shrubs and trees beyond distort and shimmer and sparkle in the reamy pale glassy greens and creams. It is hard to tell where my handpainted foliage ends and the outdoor foliage begins.

Awwww, it is always so rewarding to see your panel sitting so well where it belongs. (I really do like my job).

Well I know I know this works…

So when i got asked to do a panel to work with existing leaded lights… and i saw the colours… and i saw the classic shapes. I thought I could make it work again.

I presented my ideas to the customer and apparently a slow smile spread across Hannah’s face as it dawned on her what she was looking at. (Jamie her Dad had commissioned me to design the panel as a surprise for his daughter. I sent Hannah a drawing for Christmas. And now she has the real thing in her home).

Red and yellow goldfinches I presented. On spiky spiky teasels. And oh how these resonated with Hannah. She grew up in the cotton towns north of Manchester. Where teasels and goldfinches danced in abundance.

Here i show how this one came together….

Lovely old muranese glass and some gorgeous reamy clear (that came from somewhere!)(wish I knew where. I’d like some more) that complimented the reds and yellows of hand rolled tatra glass.

Painted in shades of sepia and tracing black.

And i loved them goldfinch so much i made a whole charming lot…