Blog

Cartooning new windows

I’ve been very busy with the full size drawings (cartoons) for the next three windows in our sequence of Old Testament windows for St. Joseph’s in Langley. They are Moses and the Exodus, Abraham and the Sacrifice of Issac, and Elijah taken up in Chariot of Fire.  I must admit to enjoying drawing the horses […]

Thought for the day

Thought for the day: Bee well, bee happy!(detail; acid etching and glass painting, Our Lady of the Valley, currently being leaded.)

Our Lady of the Valley Progress

Shown here are the three sections of Our Lady of the Valley window laid out on the light table and benches, prior to the final kiln firing stage for silver stain to turn some of the details amber and gold, such as the roses, butterfly and bee. Then it’s fabrication time!

Old Testament Series

  Really pleased to have installed the next two windows in our sequence of Old Testament windows for St. Joseph’s, Langley. Our mentor used to say that he enjoyed creating really stern looking Old Testament figures with their craggier appearances, John prefers the terms slightly grumpy, or windswept and interesting. Here we have Moses and […]

Progress on Our Lady of the Valley

I thought I’d post a few shots taken of my hubby John working on our window for Our Lady of The Valley, Coldstream BC. ~ The first photo shows John cutting the selected glass over the “cutline” structural drawing. ~ Each piece of cut glass after being trace-lined and fired is then placed on a […]

The Journal of Stained Glass

  This month marks my 20th anniversary of being elected an AMGP, an Associate of The British Society of Master Glass Painters. Their Journal is published annually in London, UK, by the BSMGP, and I always look forward to receiving it each year. It’s a wonderful collection of insightful essays on a multitude of stained […]

The Tale of Saint Hildegard and the Family of Squirrels.

  Once upon a time (or last week, if you prefer) there was a sure-footed artist named John who was called upon to install our latest window at St Mary’s Church, Kerrisdale. This window depicted an awesome woman of the 12th century named Saint Hildegard. Now, upon this day it seemed that everyone wanted to […]

Our lady of the Valley Completed Cartoon

  I enjoyed creating the full size drawing, or cartoon as it’s known, for Our Lady of the Valley, Coldstream, BC. I’m really happy with the flow of this window and we’re looking forward to the next stage of creating the structural drawing, known as the cutline, and selecting all the beautiful colour we’ll be […]

Spirit

  At last we have got around to photographing “Spirit”! Took us long enough…. We started it as an in-progress piece for an exhibition a couple of years ago, and only found the time to finish and frame it (in a beautiful oak) at the beginning of this year. it is now displayed in our studio […]

St Hildegard of Bingen

  We’re looking forward to starting the first painting stage of our 18th window for St. Mary’s, Kerrisdale. This one depicts Saint Hildegard of Bingen who was a 12th century Benedictine Abbess. I enjoyed researching her life; her accomplishments were pretty much unprecedented for a woman of that time. She is probably best known for […]

Our Lady of the Valley

  Really pleased to have received the go-ahead for one of our next commissions (pictured is my hand painted scaled water-colour design). I’ll soon be starting to draft the full size cartoon for this 7ft diameter window for Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church in the beautiful Okanagan.

Art Deco Clouds

We have just completed our Moses window, which we won’t get to install for a little while yet. Here is a photo of the top section depicting Mount Sinai; John is particularly pleased with his art deco inspired clouds.

CSI Stained Glass

Back to some painted restoration and identifying the paint binders and techniques of the original artist to recreate a badly damaged inscription. it was gum arabic and then oil, by the way. #csiStainedGlass    

Inspiration; Where We Find It (Part 2)

In the first part of my musing about inspiration, I wrote about my mentors; artists who directly inspired me. This time I’m thinking about an artist who I could never have met, but whose work has inspired and encouraged me. When I was in my mid teens, and I knew that I wanted a career […]

Inspiration; Where We Find It

I haven’t posted anything for a while, I think like most people I’m just trying to get my head around what is happening and I don’t think there is going to be business as usual for quite some time. Clearly there is a lot of anxiety in the news and our social media feeds, and […]

Cigar Lounge Window Installed

  Our Cuban themed window is installed! We’re really happy to have this one in its “forever” home – Chappy’s Cigar Lounge itself is still undergoing the finishing touches, but the pièce de résistance is in and everything else will follow! We loved working on this one; designing, acid etching and painting. Although we did have […]

Cuban Inspired Cigar Lounge

    We’ve just completed the painting stage of our Cuban inspired Cigar Lounge window. This project has been a lot of fun at each stage – our most heated debate was over who got to paint which section! I let John tackle the tricky tonal work on the ’59 Oldsmobile, while I painted the tricky […]

’59 Oldsmobile

  First painting stage – ’59 Oldsmobile. After completing the etching of a beautiful piece of French Ruby Flash on Clear.  

Cuban Themed Cigar Lounge

  One of my favourite things about my job is the variety of design briefs we get. Our current project is for a cigar lounge and depicts Cuba from the growing and drying of tobacco through to the unique mix of architecture and cultural influences. We will be doing a lot of acid etching to […]

Creation Windows Installed

  Installation day at St. Joseph’s, Langley. The first two Creation windows are in and the remaining ten in the sequence are being commissioned as benefactors come forward. We had some great light in the morning, beautifully casting the colours over the wall, but by the time we were finished in the afternoon it was […]