The Glass Painter's Method

It wasn’t the virus that kept us quiet.

Those of you whom we’ve known for years will know: we don’t post articles once a week like the social media experts say we ought to.

Instead we only talk when we have useful things to say.

I wish more people would do the same.

Case in point: I like Quillette but here are three topics for their podcast published 14 May:

1. Will the Conservatives win the next UK election?
2. Can the EU recover its authority?
3. Is this China’s Chernobyl?

How this podcast lasted 40 minutes, I’ll never know, because the only answers are:

1. Who knows?
2. Who knows?
3. Who knows?

David and I, we won’t waste your time with speculation. We’ll talk when we have something to give you which we believe you’ll want.

The precondition is though, we must have time to talk.

And, because it isn’t easy to earn a living by painting glass, we can’t talk with you as often as we’d like. In an ideal world we wouldn’t work ourselves ragged the way we do.

All the same, we’re glad we have the work – which, during the shut-down, we took home.

That’s why we were silent – not for the virus, but for the work.

This is the project we have in hand, restoring 18 windows (rows 2 and 3) and 9 tops (bottom row):

In row 2, in the centre, you see the Talbot hound whose repainting we depicted in earlier videos (starting here).

All these windows were in a frightful state. Here’s a before and after of top-left:

Now we weren’t scheduled to repair the bottom row till later in the project.

But with the shut-down, it was the tops which we could easily take home, and keep on working, returning to the studio once a week to fire the re-paints.

These tops were wrecked – missing glass, broken glass, failed lead, failed paint:

Here’s a close-up of one top before the shut-down:

Here’s a photo of how it looked two weeks ago, when we returned full-time to the studio:

Which brings me to what’s coming up.

We wondered if you’d like to watch us paint a lion just like the one in the middle.

We also wondered if some of you – especially those of you who’ve done our foundation course Illuminate – might like to paint your own.

“Might like” – those of you who worked through Illuminate during shut-down: no choice. It’s great practise for everything you’ve just learned these past two months.

Here are the test pieces we prepared, one with extra shadow (right), one without (left):

Next time I write, I’ll attach the design.

Then we’ll paint our lion, make the video, record the commentary, and publish it for you.

1. For everyone, we’ll release a 10-minute overview with commentary by me and David.
2. Students of Illuminate will get the full-length film. No extra cost – all part of the teaching you get from us.
3. Those of you who’ve said you want to take Illuminate next time we teach it in October, you’ll get the full version when you enrol.

Make no mistake: this 19th-century lion is challenging in parts e.g. you need to trace it carefully, but especially you must pay attention when you flood. We’ll explain this in the video, but I wonder if can already start to think about the flooding – about why it might be difficult.

One last point: to paint these test pieces (and eventually the lion), and because the shut-down made us think how we must take care to source supplies from several different countries, Lisa from PELI Glass Products sent us some paint from Rüger & Günzel.

As you know, we love Reusche paint.

But the shut-down made us think. We need to make sure we’re comfortable with other brands of glass paint – just in case.

The Rüger & Günzel paint was very good: far creamier than what we’re used to, but, despite the creaminess (which we’re not fans of) not difficult to adjust to. After firing, it had a pleasant, dry-ish finish, even though we soaked it for 15 minutes at 660 Celsius / 1220 Fahrenheit.

We’ll say more during the film.

We’re glad to talk with you again.

P.S. this is the abandoned churchyard which lies beside the studio – plenty of space, here. At the end, on the right, that’s where we work, when I’m not out walking with my beast.