‘Tis a cactus finch of the variety upon which Darwin based his theory of evolution. Found in the region of Ecuador and the Galapagos.
I enjoyed creating this mischievous wee specimen so much I made three! And had varying results with silver stain dusting its beak and scruffy feathers.
The best made it on to the ball. (The cricket ball selected for its globe-ness. It’s lovely bisecting stitch work and lush waxy red finish)
Nice to handle and a very nice commission.
“But what happened to the others” I hear you shout…
Here. One made it on to this old relic from Morecambe. (I wonder if Darwin ever visited Morecambe…)
And my favourite (sssshhh) made it here. Beautifully tethered to this scorched and darkened chunk. Cheeky looking thing, eh!
Oh what fun. It smells of smoke and conjures memories of glowing campfires, starry nights and friends.
This was a commission from Jon the waller in Kendal. It was one of his proudest ‘spots’ from his travels and he wanted it capturing in his back door… (Back door!!… I tell you.. haha…I would have charged more had I realised)
Anyway, the exotic bird is now ensconced in his (back) door in Kendal and we are both very happy with the results. I particularly loved experimenting with the background.
Really pleased with how the vertical lead lines and the drapery effect of the layered foliage work. The simple repetitive chaos of the background frames the bird just right to me. (I’d like to do this type of background again… anyone fancy it?!)
Here, see how it grew…. Thanks for the lovely commission Jon.
After trading as Debbie’s Shed from my old home studio for the past 10 years i have now taken flight!.. haha… and flown to Kendal.
Aww, you must want to know how this came about… You do! Here goes….
So, Halloween 2017… and i first visited the workshop on Allhallows Lane in Kendal. I was bewitched (ha).
Situated at the foot of an extremely steep hill named Beast Banks (and oh, i love hills!) the space came with a lovely big shop window… a lovely big shop floor workspace.. and best of all, the big bonus of a basement! (Well i need somewhere to store the…. driftwood!)
Spookily, the Landlord was in town… we talked, we liked and we shook on the deal.
And now it is mine. (Well, by short hold tenancy in any case!)
11 Allhallows Lane, Kendal, LA9 4JH
dc stained glass – studio.
Yep, I even have a new name! (Listen to me getting all business like…. the stained glass artist now even has glass in her blinking job title… wow!)(Well, I really was far too popular with the shed dwelling bloggers.. and I love sheds, i do. But sheds i do not sell!)
So. dc stained glass
dc – well they are my initials.. and, when I recently did that lovely panel for Brantwood (there she goes name dropping again!) Howard asked me to sign my work. So i came up with a wee logo that incorporated my initials… (it has a wee bird).. so that bit was born.
and the ‘stained glass‘. Well it is what I do. It is my material. (and hey, a secret, a fell running pal on congratulating me on the Brantwood panel, parted with the words… ‘ g’ lass …’ !
Perfect. Said I. dc g lass… d c stained glass .
And I am settling in. The locals are lovely. It is quite a delight to have folks walking past the window as i sit and work at my bench. 6 music keeping me company on my right, tools to my left… and folks to the front! Happy days.
And the workshop bit… It is MY workshop. (Sorry folks. I’m not doing workshops)(Only I keep getting asked)(but no).. So, upon reflection.. I am going to rename it my studio, so as not to mislead folks! dc stained glass studio. (Get the paint pot out again!)
So all is good. Shall we celebrate? How about a party…
Yep, yep, let us wet that new bench with some nice juicy plonk… And you, my friends, are all invited…
Saturday the 3rd of March… shall we say from 10am till it ends…
Another extraordinary commission! To celebrate his sisters birthday and to be carried to Mexico for the party.. wow!
Easy. Greg came up with the tale, the captions… I just had to build it!
(Ha. Easier said than done)
Hey, i will love experimenting with shot-blasting again Greg, said I.
Oh and I did. Only, when I then went to fire the car after painting in the detail.. it er, slumped… and c r r r acked! (ouch)
Oops. Back to the drawing board. And resorted to using white glass and red glass and joining with foil. (Stressy cuts though and ate up quite a chunk of glass!)..
And, (i am not going to make this common practice) but the second Austin Metropolitan did finish up much better than the first one!
Yep…. a Morecambe Bay landscape. To be executed in portrait format. (Very tricky)
As you can see, I took my design and research very seriously…
The bay.. I started with the bay and the cliffs receding in layers to fill the box.
Challenging. Getting the lines and perspectives and foreground and horizon.. (Oh, many many cups of tea, re-draws, trips down the shore, and visits with Andrew and Rachel)
(Think we cracked it…)
Then, experimenting using paint on the bay curves and sweeps.. (good fun!)
And then the cut, the paint and the build… (this really is the easy bit). The score, the tap, the placement and again, the tap.
The solder, the grout and the polish…
And then the reveal…. oh, happy days.
Today, on this glorious sunny morn, we fit it.
Sun was streaming in, nice and low, but constantly changing. It was fun watching the shadow track across the panel and light being thrown on to the walls. I think, in its ‘sliver’ location, this panel will have many rewarding moods and looks.
Some of the details…..
It is said, (by a friend of mine!) that, ‘when the gorse stops flowering, boys and girls will stop playing..’
How beautiful is that. (And so I was very relieved to see it recently flowering on the Knott… and days later at Broughton Mills…. phew!) Keep it up, the gorse!
This glimmer of a project for Brantwood, Lake District home of John Ruskin, started one year ago.
Let me tell you how it came to be… ( a lengthy tale, but deservedly so, i thinks…)
November 2016 and taking part in Brantwood’s Christmas Fair for the first time I was lucky in that they selected my curlew image for their poster to promote the event. (Many thanks Helen!)
And so my work caught the eye of Howard Hull, Director there, who was just embarking on renovations for the Terrace Tearoom and Howard told me he was ‘hopeful’ that some stained glass might be included in this project. (So I became hopeful too!)
Anyway, Spring arrived and Howard called me. The project was good to go! (I think i possibly squealed). Then I gathered myself (!) and arranged a visit to site.
Howard and I talked things through and later I sat and enjoyed a scrummy coffee and scone on the terrace. Howard specifically wanted birds to be included in the panel, (that is why he had chosen me!) and the panel was to go above the entrance door to the tearoom. (I was blown away – really)
When you stand in that doorway, Coniston Old man and Coniston Water are laid out in front of you – breathtaking. Coniston holds real attachments for me. I was brought up in Kirkby in Furness, just a few miles south and as kids, we would cycle through the lanes to Coniston for an ice-cream. Coniston Old Man was a familiar contour on the horizon from my bedroom window. A squiggly line with Black Combe to the front, wriggling over Corney Fell, skimming Caw to then land on The Old Man, standing above all to the north.
Dad was a climber and he told us legendary tales of skipping off work on sunny days as a ‘boy’ to hitch hike to Coniston for a weekend of climbing. The Old Man and Dow Crag were his playground, he said.
We were often dragged up Coniston Old Man as we grew up and so a few years ago, for old times sake, i dragged my brother and sisters and all our kids up there one Sunday afternoon…. ‘fun for free’. I said… ‘why does Debbie always want to take us on walks’…they said! Sunny to start, the clag was in on the summit and I had to play the alphabet game with wee Eva to distract and get her to the top for her wee square of kendal mint cake.. happy days!
Anyway, I ramble(!), John Ruskin wrote a book titled ‘Love’s Meinie: Three lectures on Greek and English Birds’ and Howard asked would it be possible to give a nod to this in my design.
I nodded. And began to put some thought into the composition.
Sat on the terrace that first time I toyed with the idea of flight as swallows darted all around me. But back home at the workshop and contemplating the mighty scene that had been set before me, together with the comforting sounds and smells of the tearoom I decided to be bolder. Creativity and originality are really celebrated at Brantwood and colours used are striking and different. So, let me make this a jewel I thought!
A lovely domestic social scene is where I landed – chattering blackbirds on the rowan tree branch and mother thrush feeding hungry babies in the scot’s pine. Shall we take a look….
First thing (after lots of mulling and small doodles) is to draw out the panel at full scale. As you can see from the pics this is an evolutionary process. Lines refined and tweaked and stared at. Then, refined and tweaked and stared at some more…. until happy…
Happy to start cutting, once colours have been selected of course….
Then pop the cut pieces on the glass easel to once again check lines and colours. You can see that I made further adjustments at this stage too…
Happy!… time to add paint!
and make even further improvements to the design.. i decided upon adding another layer of foliage to the gorgeous blue background…. pale grey shadows to add depth (I really love these!)
And the Scot’s pine…
And I even had time to design a ‘dc’ logo..(That’s me!)
and add a ‘For Love’s Meinie’ for Ruskin (and Howard)…
Time to start the lead work…
Then the finish and fitting into the casement..(where brother Duncan uses his skills)
Oh, and then the fun photo shoot where friend John kindly stepped in… here’s how he did it…
And the magnificent results that he got…. Thank you John Leech.
Guess, all that remains is to pop it in place and that is just what Duncan and I did today!
A big long story… but i think deserving of it!.
And i rather more than a little bit proud of it … (ahhh, shucks!)
Why not come along at the weekend to see it when I will be exhibiting at the 2017 Christmas Fair there…
My most recent commission was for beautiful bride Kirsty and husband Tosh.. a gift from gorgeous bridesmaid Amy.
A vintage inspired wedding…. a doodle of an idea… a ratch through the crock box again and… yards upon yards of coordinating bunting …..
Personal details were added… Townsfield will be their home… St. John’s Church… vintage wedding cars… and of course the bunting. (bias binding worked a treat!)
Just thought I would bring you up to date on the Foxgloves in situ.. If you remember I talked you through the building of these before Christmas last year in the post ‘Debbie does flowers’
Taking the eldest back to uni last weekend, thought I would stick my head in the door and see how things were looking. Wow, beautiful house, but the windows, why, they even blew me away. A riot of colour in the stunning new hallway.
Amanda, the owner, tells me that they wash her walls and rug with colour when the light floods in at the right time of day. And her Mum apparently insists on dragging everyone through to see the windows before any thing else! Lovely. (Gosh. i quite proud!).
..are what these two latest personal commissions are all about.
Amy commissioned me for her own special birthday… “You know what I like Debbie, and I like your glass… chickens and tractors… I trust you,” was pretty much how it went!
Aww, a dream of a wee job. Amy lives in Silverdale; her family farm at Gibraltar Farm and, live on the Green in domestic bliss. I wandered around her wee patch of paradise and without having to use too much(!) artistic license came up with her idyllic scene.
I like to use local crock and found bits stuff in my work if I can, so I was delighted to hunt out some perfect pieces of pottery and salvaged metal bits. The lead geese and gates were found whilst ratching in an antique shop. The trailer and ‘wheel’ were excavated by Dave, my metal-tecting neighbour and the crock was found by me down on the shore over the years… How cool, I found a bit of pot with Amy’s hubby’s name on it – James! (from an old Keiller marmalade pot).
And I had fun making the wired washing flapping on the line…my favourite bit.
Detail was added with paint.. Gibraltar Farm offer raw milk from their lovely dairy cows and Amy also ‘invented’ the delicious Gibraltar Farm ice-cream.. It doesn’t get any better than a scoop of their vanilla, sat on the bench overlooking Morecambe Bay.
Happy days.
Oh, and I gave you a sneak preview of my other personalised commission at the end of the previous post…
A 25th Wedding Anniversary gift that pulled together lots of important places for the happy couple. Hee-hee… quite a bit of artistic license needed here to link home and Rivington Pike in Lancashire, Stirling Castle in Scotland and the Prom and holiday home in Arnside. Even managed to squeeze in a couple of cyclists as they are mad keen on biking too!
d c stained glass :: debbie's shed 