Abinger Stained Glass

Christmas Fairs and Birthdays

2011-11-27T07:41:00.000Z

I had a year off last year! Not the whole year you understand, just from 'doing' Christmas Fairs. I use them as a way of advertising my work and I need to have stuff to sell so it's a great opportunity for me to break out of the architectural stained glass mould and burst into making kiln load after kiln load of little pocket sized glassy gifts. Yesterday was day one of Petworth House Christmas Fair, Sussex. I'm off in an hour for day 2. I'm glad I made loads of £3 stars 'cos it means that most of you can afford a little bit of glassy sparkle in your houses this Christmas. It's a tough economy out there, no mistake, but through everyones generosity and gift buying fun I took the same yesterday as I did 2 years ago.
It was FANTASTIC to see so many of my students visit me yesterday and Im really looking forward to today. And of course my glass wreaths sold very well!

Oh yes this is not just any cake! This is a 50'th Birthday cake carefully crafted by my lovely sister, Helen, and it's being carefully consumed by me!
See you at Petworth today!

1 Guinea Pig Left

2011-10-18T23:28:00.000+01:00

What a sad week, we are now down to 1 little piggy. Wilbur was the first to go followed by his hutch mate Kevin who we think died of a broken heart. Gone to join Skye the first Collie Dog and Indie the first cat in the garden! Bingo, bulging eyes and all is still going. Ahh the joys of Guinea pig ownership......

On a happier note, Christmas is coming, remember this weather?

Lets cosy up,light the fires and celebrate all things winter. Chocolate, roasted root veggies, scarves, mittens, mulled wine and spices. My children remarked that my workshop smelled of Christmas today 'cos the kiln was on full blast and stuff is happening a plenty! I'm allowing myself to get just a bit excited, despite the sad demise of Guinea pigs.

Stained Glass Courses, Fused Glass courses and more

2011-10-03T22:45:00.000+01:00

It's not easy running your own business as anyone who does so will tell you. Add in 2 children, a dog, 2 cats and 3 guinea pigs and a husband who often works nights and it all gets a bit hectic around here. Meals are a bonus!
However I like to think have achieved a lot in the last couple of weeks. Christmas stock making is in full swing so the kiln is on every night (yes I said the C word) and I have been working hard on getting commissions made and installed and have 16 on the job board to finish this year. I'll be working nights then.
But that's not the end of it.....
I love teaching and my courses are not only great fun but are providing me with an ever growing family of fellow glass enthusiasts with whom I can share my passion and skills. I am delighted that so many come back again and again to create beautiful things in glass and so pleased that their skills so obviously improve with each visit. Below is just a small selction of some of my students work, some have been before, some complete beginners and all are great at creating lovely original work in glass!

Roll on the rest of 2011 courses and 2012 is just around the corner!

Been away

2011-09-13T22:42:00.000+01:00

This Blogging lark has got me mystified. Could this be the reason I am so terrible at keeping up with it? This is my first Blog in a year! Who is really interested? Unless I can write something of real merit with meaty long, high falootin words (not sure if High Falootin is spelt this way at all and my spell check thinks it should be High Fallopian, that may be better!) You may be able to put me right, however I digress.
Blogging, who cares?? Well, I suppose if I had more time I might like to use my Blog as a way of passing on my skills and tips about stained glass. Goodness only knows, I have a million pictures and notes and jotted things that might be of interest to someone. But I think I may try a different tack this year and use it as a sketch book for me! Not care if anyone else is watching, add notes, pictures and links I think might be of interest to me in the future. They will be dated and numbered and it may turn out to be a diary of a stained glass artist. So forthwith as of tomorrow I am writing a Diary of a Stained Glass Artist in the 21st Century

If I remember.........

oh and by the way.... I love it when Autumn is just popping up ...

Life Saving Light?

2010-10-03T09:33:00.000+01:00

Chartres, France

They were designed as windows unto the heavens adorned with images of the afterlife and the myths and stories of the Christian faith.

However medieval designers of stained glass windows did not realise they also had equipped their houses of worship with a high tech air filtering system.

It seems that it's not just seeing the light in church that matters it's standing in it and allowing the rays to bathe you.

Australian scientists have discovered that European stained glass windows have powers that are scientific not only spiritual.

In 2008 a group of researchers from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) found that microscopic gold nanoparticles, small enough to pass through human cells, when exposed to sunlight reveal interesting new properties.

Gold pink glass is known to be the most expensive glass we can buy but what a surprise to find that associate Professor Zhu Huai Yong, from QUT's School of Physical and Chemical Sciences, says that gold's ability to act as a catalyst to speed up chemical reactions, worked in the ornate church windows to strip the air of dangerous chemicals!

"For centuries", Professor Zhu says, "people appreciated only the beautiful works of art and long life of the colours, but little did they realise that they are also, in modern language, photocatalytic air purifiers with nano structured gold catalysts.

Professor Zhu Huai Yong

"When people use gold as a catalyst in a reaction they need an energy input to heat it up 100 or 200 degrees Celsius ... but when the particles (of gold) show colour they get the energy for the reaction from sunlight already," Professor Zhu said.

"The electromagnetic field of the sunlight can couple with the oscillations of the electrons in the gold particles and creates a resonance.

“The magnetic field on the surface of the gold nanoparticles can be enhanced by up to one hundred times, which breaks apart the pollutant molecules in the air."

These pollutants are known as Volatile Organic Compounds(VOC) and are found in new furniture, carpets and paint and give that distinctive 'new' smell as they slowly leach from the products and can be harmful even in small amounts.

"You smell a chemical smell, it's not good for your health," Professor Zhu said.

The by product of the chemical reaction with the gold nanoparticles is small quantities of carbon dioxide, which the researchers say is much safer compared to the pollutants.

Perhaps when designing our stained glass windows we should be bearing this in mind and creating works of art which are not only beautiful but possibly life saving!

A Very Potted History of Stained Glass

2010-09-26T09:45:00.000+01:00

I used to have this history page on my website but thats so full of 'stuff' now that I had to move it. It's back here with a few updates!

Stained glass is unique in the world of art in that it is the only medium to fully exploit the relationship between glass and light. Light is an intangible phenomenon and since the dawn of time has been associated with philosophies and religions. It symbolizes life, goodness, revelation and beauty.

The desire of the early architects to bring this light to life and to educate a mostly illiterate congregation brought about the golden age of Gothic architecture and stained glass.

The Medieval Christian Church used coloured glass deliberately, aware that colour and light are both spiritual and sensual.

We still look in amazement at the beauty of a rainbow and marvel at the pureness of its colours. The rainbow, according to the book of Genesis, was Gods covenant with man after the Flood.

At the end of the Dark Ages there was a boom in church building and these churches and cathedrals were filled with colour and light. Difficult to imagine what the people thought of this as they gazed at these pictures and stories brought to them in this way. They would have never seen any thing so beautiful or spiritual.

It is hard to trace the exact origins of stained glass. It does have some similarities in materials and techniques used by the goldsmith for cloisonné enamelling. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloisonne

Its not beyond imagination to think that the first stained glass artists saw the goldsmith running his band of gold around glass or filling it with enamel and decided to try it with glass. Using a cheaper alternative, lead, and with the advent of the invention of lead milling and casting, it was then possible to hold the glass together in large portable panels.

These artists then discovered that iron filings ground together with flux and powdered glass could be painted onto the surface of the glass pieces. When fired in a kiln to melting point and cooled they were able to produce glass pieces with detail on such as faces, hands and drapery.

The earliest surviving examples of painted stained glass are the head of Christ from the abbey church at Wissembourg in Alsace from around 1060AD

and the famous five prophet windows in Augsburg Cathedral Middle of 12th Century.

These windows show us that there are already styles and techniques being used that one would expect from a practised artist.

This is a detail from a 16th century window in St Marys Church, Fairford and depicts a two headed Satan illuminated by the glow of hell. Love these windows!

There was a revival of stained glass in the nineteenth century. With the advent of the Gothic Revival the artists and architects of the time designed using forms and patterns that had been used in the middle ages. They combined serious study with romantic visions of romance and chivalry. Two major artist of this time were William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones.

Edward Burne Jones was the most influential stained glass designer of the late 19th Century.

The link below will take you to a brief history and some pictures of his work.

http://www.visitcumbria.com/edward-burne-jones.htm

The techniques and materials I use differ very little from those used by the earliest stained glass artists and craftsmen. There is a larger colour range of glass available, the tools have been improved with time and designs and styles change year after year but the basics are still those of an ancient tradition. That being the case I feel honoured to be following in their footsteps. We stained glass artists of today are taking stained glass to a new dimension. Adding fused and textured detail and also by encapsualting the panels into sealed units to save energy. As with any craft it is evolving year on year and we embrace change with great enthusiasm, as it will bring yet another way of working or another style to our work. And like all artists it is this that keeeps us awake at night designing!

Repairing our little gems of Domestic Stained Glass

2010-09-19T10:56:00.000+01:00

Stained glass is the term usually used to describe highly elaborate painted church windows and domestic leaded glass is generally called leaded light. However now there are occasions when stained glass is used to great effect within a domestic setting.
In 1840 the Gothic Revival was just beginning with renewed interest in all things Medieval. Very soon the Arts and Crafts movement were promoting the use of leaded lights in a domestic setting and this was usually around the front door. These panels most usually depict floral motifs and natural forms. Some stained glass in the more grand houses, had painted detail too such as birds or local scenes depicted in roundels. These days we take this form of decoration in domestic architecture very much for granted in buildings of a certain age. Of course being a stained glass artist myself, I am still excited when I am asked to work on these little historic gems! Lead cames have a life of approximately 100 years so its no surprise that there is a steady stream of front entrance panels in need of some tender loving care and expertise. A recent project I have worked on is just one of these beautiful windows dating from the 1890's.

Taped to avoid falling apart

The door had recently slammed and as the lead was very weak the centre had 'popped'. There was a risk of the whole painted bird roundel dropping out and so, as I was unable to get to site for a few weeks my customer took the sensible decision to apply a sticky tape to the inside and out to protect it from falling!

A comprehensive rubbing, much like a brass rubbing.

Once in the studios my first jobs were to remove the tape and to take a rubbing of the panel. The lines represent the centre of all leads and I use this as a guide to cut new pieces of glass and to lead the panel back together. On this rubbing I made notes on the lead sizes, the position of the strengthening bars and the sizes.

Taking apart the old lead

Then I started to carefully dismantle the stained glass. There were some previous repairs and also a few badly broken pieces of glass. I wanted to retain as much of the original glass as possible but in some cases this was out of the question. I was able to source glass of the closest possible match for these areas.

All glass cleaned and new pieces cut

Once apart I can recut any badly broken pieces and clean the glass ready for leading.

Leading can begin, note the traditional horseshoe nails used to hold the glass and lead together in progress.

I lead the panel together using leads of the same width and profile as the original. Then I apply a tallow flux to each joint in preparation for soldering.

Tallow to act as a flux for the solder

I use a gas soldering iron for soldering my stained glass. The electric soldering irons are great for a hobby and for copper foil work but when faced with acres of leaded lights to restore I need the constant heat from a traditional iron. Standing waiting for the electric iron to re-heat is not an option in a professional studio! I show the iron here with a yellow flame so you can see it but usually I have it on full with a hot blue flame.

My treasured glass iron!

When the panel has been soldered I can then cement it and give it a final clean before soldering on the copper ties. We use these to fix it to the bars withing the door as added strength.

Then we fit the panel and it is back to its former glory. Hopefully it will be good and sturdy for another 100 years or so (door slamming not recommend!)

And the window is in.

Sparkling and looking great.

Books, do we really need them?

2010-09-12T09:18:00.000+01:00

The children's Summer holiday is a fantastic time to have a good clear out of the workshop, done! Fewer distractions as so many people are away. So now I have more space, yippee. New book shelves are already groaning under the weight of my books on glass. I have to admit that I am a hopeless book lover. The smell of a new book, the feel of the new pages and the way it slides perfectly onto the shelf,finding its home between the Andy Goldsworthy,'Wood' and the Calendar of Saints. The anticipation as we wait for the Amazon parcel to drop in the post box (we have no letter box!) That rare half hour we snatch on the way to the shops as we divert from our food shopping duty and slink guiltily into the bookshop to peruse the art book shelf yet again. Ooo I haven't got that one,and yet another book finds a new home. The joy of discovering an old bookshop tucked away in a side street. Children raise their eyes to the heavens as I HAVE to pop in. The musty old smell of books transports me back to somewhere in my childhood and I surreptitiously open a book and sniff!
Have I got enough books on glass and art? Of course not I just need a bigger studio to house them all!

Playing with Glass!

2010-09-06T12:51:00.000+01:00

It never ceases to amaze me how different 3 pieces of leaded glass can be! All made within inches of each other (well the workshop is certainly not palatial!) Friday 3rd September saw the first of my autumn stained glass courses followed by another on Saturday. I teach 3 student at a time on the leading course. This has turned out to be my magic number. With 4 of us milling around in the studio it's cosy without being too cramped. Your tuition is almost one-one without the intensity of me looking over your shoulder all the time. Without fail we always 'click', after all we are there for the same reason, the love of glass and wanting to try something new.
The day starts with a cuppa and chat. We look at our drawings (or lack of) and decide what we are going to make. I have loads of drawings and inspiration here so there is no problem if you turn up with just your enthusiasm!
Then we get down to drawing our cutline.

This drawing is the guide you will use to cut your glass and to lead it all together.
It stays with us through the whole process and each line represents the heart of the H section lead. Following this we have a little practice at cutting glass. Its not that easy for everyone but I do have a few different styles of glass cutter and in the end we usually find one which works for you. Of course I am happy to cut for you too, especially the very tricky pieces.

Then we have the best bit of the day ...............LUNCH. By this time you will need a sit down a cup of tea and a chat! If the weather is good we sit in the garden but in the winter we cosy up next to the Rayburn in the house.
The afternoon is a bit more relaxed as we lead the pieces of glass together. I love leading and find this part of the process particularly therapeutic!

Soldering follows this, the waving about of a flame! Do not fear most people find this such fun!!

Then a brief instruction into cementing process which I do for you over the next few days. We also stand about a bit by this time admiring our handy work and chatting to our new friends. The panels below were made on Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th September.

An amazing 86 people have so far made panel with me in 2010. Goodness knows how many chocolate biscuits and cups of tea and coffee have been drunk!!

To Flow or Not to Flow?

2010-08-23T17:59:00.000+01:00

Now heres the question.... I am often asked glassy questions, most of which I can have a stab at and reply with a good informed answer. However occasionally I am asked a question, the question, the one I have been asked on many occasions over the last 20 years. "Why is some glass thicker at the bottom? Is it because it flows downwards over the years"?
Well my first instinct has always been to stifle the giggle and then sagely inform, 'Well no as a matter of fact I believe its the way the glass is originally made".
I was asked this very question yet again and felt that now was the time to do a bit more than give an educated guess. Imagine my delight when I found this article. Answering all my queries! Thank you Henry Halem!

http://www.glassnotes.com/WindowPanes.html

No, It Doesn’t Flow

Robert H. Brill, Research Scientist The Corning Museum of Glass July, 2000

Early one spring morning in 1946, Clarence Hoke was holding forth in his chemistry class at WestSide High School in Newark, New Jersey."Glass is actually a liquid." the North Carolina native told us in his soft Southern tones. "You can tell that from the stained glass windows in old cathedrals in Europe. The glass is thicker on the bottom than it is on the top."Now, more than half a century later, that is the only thing I can actually remember being taught in high school chemistry. I didn't really believe it then, and I don't believe it now.In the years that followed, I came across the same story every now and then. Most often it popped upin college textbooks on general chemistry. And now, thanks to the Internet, our Museum has received dozens of inquiries about whether or not this is true. Most people seem to want to believe it.

It is easy to understand why the myth persists. It does have a certain appeal. Glass and the glassy state are often described by noting their similarities with liquids. So good teachers, such as Mr. Hoke was, like to quote the story about the windows. As is the case with liquids, the atoms making up a glass are not arranged in any regular order-and that is where the analogy arises. Liquids flow because there are no strong forces holding their molecules together. Their molecules can move freely past one another, so that liquids can be poured, splashed around, and spilled. But, unlike the molecules in conventional liquids, the atoms in glasses are all held together tightly by strong chemical bonds. It is as if the glass were one giant molecule. This makes glasses rigid so they cannot flow at room temperatures. Thus, the analogy fails in the case of fluidity and flow.

There are at least four or five reasons why the myth doesn't make sense. Some years ago, I heard a remark attributed to Egon Orowan of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Orowan had quipped that there might, indeed, be some truth to the story about glass flowing. Half of the pieces in a window arc thicker at the bottom, he said, but, he added quickly, the other half are thicker at the top. My own experience has been that for earlier windows especially, there is sometimes a pronounced variation in thickness over a distance of an inch or two on individual fragments. That squares with the experience of conservators and curators who have handled hundreds of panels. Although the individual pieces of glass in a window may be uneven in thickness, and noticeably wavy, these effects result simply from the way the glasses were made. Presumably, that would have been by some precursor or variant of the crown or cylinder methods. One also wonders why this alleged thickening is confined to the glass in cathedral windows. Why don't we find that Egyptian cored vessels or Hellenistic and Roman bowls have sagged and become misshapen after lying for centuries in tombs or in the ground? Those glasses are 1,000-2,500 years older than the cathedral windows.

Speaking of time, just how long should it take theoretically-for windows to thicken to any observable extent? Many years ago, Dr. Chuck Kurkjian told me that anacquaintance of his had estimated how fast-actually, how slowly-glasses would flow. The calculation showed that if a plate of glass a meter tall and a centimeter thick was placed in an upright position at room temperature, the time required for the glass to flow down so as to thicken 10 angstrom units at the bottom (a change the size of only a few atoms) would theoretically be about the same as the age of the universe: close to ten billion years. Similar calculations, made more recently, lead to similar conclusions. But such computations are perhaps only fanciful It is questionable that the equations used to calculate rates of flow are really applicable to the situation at hand.

This brings us to the subject of viscosity. The viscosity of a liquid is a measure of its resistance to flow-the opposite of fluidity, Viscosities are expressed in units called poises. At room temperature, the viscosity of water, which flows readily, is about 0.01 poise. Molasses has a viscosity of about 500 poises and flows like... molasses. A piece of once proud Brie, left out on the table after all the guests have departed, may be found to have flowed out of its rind into a rounded mass. In this sad state, its viscosity, as a guess, would be about 500,000 poises. In the world of viscosity, things can get rather sticky. At elevated temperatures, the viscosities of glasses can be measured, and much practical use is made of such measurements. Upon removal from a furnace, ordinary glasses have a consistency that changes gradually from that of a thick house paint to that of putty, and then to that of saltwater taffy being pulled on one of those machines you see on a boardwalk. To have a taffy-like viscosity, the glass would still have to be very hot and would probably glow with a dull red color. At somewhat cooler temperatures, pieces of glass will still sag slowly under their own weight, and if they have sharp edges, those will become rounded. So, too, will bubbles trapped in the glass slowly turn to spheres because of surface tension. All this happens when the viscosity is on the order of 50,000,000 poises, and the glasses are near what we call their softening points. Below those temperatures, glasses have pretty well set up, and by the time they have cooled to room temperature, they have, of course, become rigid. Estimates of the viscosity of glasses at room temperature run as high as 10 to the 20th power (1020), that is to say, something like 100,000,000,000,000, 000,000 poises. Scientists and engineers may argue about the exact value of that number, but it is doubtful that there is any real physical significance to a viscosity as great as that anyway. As for cathedral windows, it is hard to believe that anything that viscous is going to flow at all.

It is worth noting, too, that at room temperature the viscosity of metallic lead has

been estimated to be about 10 to the 11th power, (1011) poises, that is, perhaps a billion times less viscous–or a billion times more fluid, if you prefer than glass. Presumably, then, the lead caming that holds stained glass pieces in place should have flowed a billion times more readily than the glass. While lead caming often bends and buckles under the enormous architectural stresses imposed on it, one never hears that the lead has flowed like a liquid.

When all is said and done, the story about stained glass windows flowing-just because glasses have certain liquid-like characteristics-is an appealing notion, but in reality it just isn't so. Thinking back, I do recall another memorable remark by Mr. Hoke. One day, our self–appointed class clown sat senselessly pounding a book on his desk at

the back of the room. "Great day in the mawnin', son! " shouted Hoke. "Stop slammin' your book on the desk. Use your head!" That was good advice–no matter how you read it.

Reprinted with permission from Dr. Robert Brill, brillrh@cmog.org

2010-08-21T11:16:00.000+01:00

Just checking to see if it works!

Not waving!

2010-08-21T11:02:00.000+01:00

Saturday and like all good hard working citizens I should be snoring or reading the paper but here I am struggling with a computer and putting off the moment when I put pen to paper and work out my 6 quotes I have outstanding! The joys of running a business from home are many and varied ;-)