My workshop is in the garden, and just to prove spring really is just around the corner I’ve added one of several crocus studies produced this week on my way to work. The sequence of glass shots show the progress of a commission this week from cut glass laid out – to the gradual removal of a stipple matt on the glass easel. Some of the flash glass has been heavily etched in stages providing the textures in the final photo.
BHOC is currently undergoing a redevelopment programme known as Refresh. As part of this scheme I’m working on a series of five glass panels for the buildings stairwells. Ideas for the work are centred around “a sense of place” and refer to Woodland, Flower Garden, Water Garden, Beach and Bristol Harbour. The making of the glass is due to begin soon.
Beach
Woodland Walk
Flower Garden
As January gets under way and projects are resumed I’m always reminded of the things I was working on a year ago. January and February of 2009 saw the drawing up of the Wanborough Church window cartoons. I can particularly remember doing this in the warmth of the studio with snow falling outside. Rather nice memories! Here are two shots of work in progress a little further down the line.
waxing up the cut glass for the final paint application
matting the angel
Quietly working in the dark against a light box, on waxed up pieces of antique glass covered in a wash of dark paint. Using sticks, fingers, old brushes and rollers to scrape away the paint, gradually revealing textures and colour that bring the glass to life. One of my favorite things………!
“Returning Home” 50cm x 50cm
“Leading the Shoal” 40cm x 30cm
Works currently on show at the Courthouse Gallery, Somerton.
I’ve kept some prints on the move around the studio walls over the last few weeks, returning to them now and again with ideas of somehow translating them into glass. These two glass panels are perhaps the first in a series? We’ll see.
“Angel in Flight” – 1 and 2
25 x 25 cm
I designed and made these two windows recently as exhibition pieces for the Somerset Guild of Craftsmen’s Courthouse Gallery in Somerton.
wet sky with bird – 45 x 45 cm
drifting angel – 25 x 25 cm
In recent weeks I’ve been trying to set time aside to work on a series of new drawings and prints, intentionally staying away from my usual themes and ideas. Right now I’m not entirely sure what’s going on here but the recurring thoughts are of human and angelic figures, time and its passing, transcendence…….
I’m working through a series of ideas for a private commission. The idea is based on the clients vision of a tryptic of sky/birds land /flowers water/fish. Many drawings have been produced and adjusted over the last couple of weeks. Here are two which are beginning to feel right.
