Copper foil course

Second day of our copper foiling course over and one happy lady off home with a beautiful sun catcher; just a shame we couldn't catch any sun.
One of our charities a little bit better of and a very nice ladies life hopefully a little bit fuller; time well spent.

Sold already

Ok, didn't see that one coming, we have sold "Starry Night" already. So will make that one first for the client then make "The Scream" and put that on eBay with the proceeds to charity. Really looking forward to these.

Future projects

We have a few interesting projects in the pipeline; two door panels depicting scenes from the Battle of Britain, several fanlights and for myself we are going to attempt two of my favourite paintings, the scream and starry night. I might put one up for auction for one of my charities.

Mondrian stained glass window installed

All fitted and looking really good. Both panels went in without a fuss, transforming a plain UPVC window into something really magical. Sadly my photographic skills are not a match for my glazing and the pictures really don't do it justice, but even so it does look like an original feature and sits perfectly in the room enhancing the ambiance.
I think we just about nailed Mondrian; hope you like it.

Nearly finished

A bit of after dinner lead never hurt anyone. The top panel is almost complete, a couple of hours tomorrow to clean and polish then we are done. I can't fit for a few days which is good, it will give the cement time to fully cure making the panels rigid enough to handle with confidence.
I can't think of a better way to spend my 28th wedding anniversary, and yes, I forgot the card; again !

Stained glass tuition

Here at Bishopstrowglass we also undertake one to one tuition. Here the student is at the end of the first day and has already learnt glass cutting and the intricacies of design. The sun catcher is her own design and will be finished off with a deep blue jewel in the centre.
Next weekend copper foiling and soldering.

First panel finished

First panel completed and looking very good, stood against my kitchen window the panes behind just slightly mask the true shapes but you get the idea.

Mondrian stained glass window

Coming on nicely. The glass was really quick to cut, no dodgy curves. Hardest bit was trying to reduce the waste. A little bit tedious to lead up but looking quite effective.

Stained glass set in double glazing

My next project is to design and build a stained glass panel to fit into an already double glazed window. The client lives in a lovely old Victorian house in Trowbridge which lost its original windows a while back to plain UPVC double glazing. They have recently invested a lot in a new bathroom and would love a leaded window to set it off.

The bathroom is white and light grey with various shades of blue and light green accessories and these are the colours they would like in the window. The window is North facing and overlooks a good size garden set mainly to lawn and shrubs; this gives the light reaching the window a green tint. To complicate matters, immediately below is a red tiled roof, which as you can guess, ads a red tinge to the lower part. The clients favourite artist is Piet Mondrian and they would like the window to reflect his unique style of painting.

Came back later with some glass samples and a couple of sketches, the client is happy. The window will consist of two panels, one above the other, with vertical columns of varying widths made up of the chosen colours. These will then be overlaid with random size geometric shapes in contrasting colours, evoking the spirit of Mondrian and his style. The trick in the design here is to get the balance of light to dark right for the orientation of the window. They will then be fitted on the inside of the existing glazing; I have a neat way of doing this which makes it look original.

Double Glazing and why I hate it

My pet hate is double glazing. Not just persistent salesmen you can't get rid of, but their insidious product you also can't get rid of. For modern hermetically sealed buildings they work, but in lovely old buildings they are wrong on every front.
Look closely at the photo below, to save money an angle grinder has removed the stone mullions to wedge in a plastic window; utterly criminal !
For my next project I am going to fit a stained glass panel into a double glazed unit to give a Victorian house its face back.