Nearly there

After spending all day slaving over a hot light box, all four pieces are painted and the first two just out of the kiln. Happy with the results, no blistering which is always a relief when there are large dark flooded areas. I normally only fire each piece once, no matter how much work has been done to them, but these will all be going back in again tomorrow because I will be painting some white highlights on. 

Stained glass Ulster crest

Just a lot of painting and firing to go now, probably three days in total. The green will appear quite a bit darker on the whole, with the light colour as seen here only remaining as highlights. 

Beautiful isn't it. 

Ulster Coat of Arms

The Ulster Coat of Arms is progressing nicely; glass cut and shaped and it looks superb. The camera just can't quite catch the real beauty of the glass, the wispy opal yellow is just stunning the way the light plays through it and is brilliantly set of with the Red Cross in water glass. 

I don't normally deviate much from the original plan and the simplicity of the shield with its bold colours and shapes is its strong point, it does seem to miss something. So I have drawn up a reversible small cartoon of some heraldic mantling which will be in green cathedral glass and have the detailing painted on and fired. This will also stabilise the finished article increasing the scope of its display. A mother load of extra work though. 

New projects

Below are two basic proof of concept sketches for new projects, both intended to be copper foiled. The Red Hand will have the detail painted on for a realistic hand. The blue "comet" is intended for greens and blues, brighter colours central going to deeper colours as it radiates from the jewel. Both are close to A4 in size, much larger and it becomes too heavy to hang in a window. 

Sweet pea window continues

The sweet pea transom light continues, the next step is painting the rope effect pattern on the blue centre surround. Traditional stained glass painting is completely unlike any other form of painting. The paint is very finely ground glass with pigments and other noxious substances in. It is mixed with water and gum Arabic and is kept either as a dry powder or ready to use in a foul looking lump of paint. Little bits of the lump are then cut off to mix into a useable paint, varying the ratio of paint to water depending on the effect required into a pool of working paint which is carefully re-mixed and tested every time the brush is loaded. 

First we paint a very thin undercoat onto the glass piece, this is then very quickly and gently blended with a special badger hair brush to an even coat. When this is dried, the piece is put over the cartoon and onto the light box. The basic lines of the pattern are the copy traced onto it using a fairly light paint. When dry it is removed from the cartoon and the trace lines are then strengthened with a darker paint and finer details are also painted in. When dry, paint is selectively removed to add shape, shadow or highlights. It is then fired in a kiln, this paint at 680 degrees, the firing cycle taking around four and a half hours which includes annealing time. 

Sounds like a lot of fuss, but the paint is now fused with the glass and is permanent.