New York City Installation

A little story by Ali Rogers about an installation far away from its origin in Scotland.

...so you know how your parents would tell you that one thing leads to another thing, and you never know exactly how a kindness plays out?

Well, please see the attached photo of a stained-glass piece....this was a closing gift from me to a buyer client, C.

C's day job is to hunt down corporations that are committing tax fraud, so she's really doing the Lord's work. I knew I wanted to get her something REALLY special.

As you can see, that ended up being a Stephen Richard original.

If Peter hadn't introduced me to Faith, who introduced me to John, who introduced me to Mark and Rhona, who introduced me to Stephen, it wouldn't have happened.

(Of course Stephen had to put up with about three dozen emails from me along the line too.)

But now, there's a little more happiness in the world, and a little more beauty. All because someone in Chicago thought I should meet someone in New York who though I should meet someone in England who thought I should meet someone in Scotland. Thank you all!!

Ali

Another view of the panel in place.

I'm really pleased that the panel arrived in New York City in one piece.  I'm also pleased that both "cleints" are pleased with the result.  It is the second NYC project.  It would be nice to get more.

Cupola Progress

I showed some pictures of a design for a cupola the other week.  Progress is being made. The glass is cut and the assembly started.  This post gives some pictures of the first panels to be completed.

These panels have been soldered and are waiting to be cemented.

This panel, the first to be cemented, is the other side of the above panel on the left.

So progress is being made, and the installation date should be met.

Last Before Christmas?

Yesterday I installed my final piece of work for the year.  This was a pair of windows for a bathroom that looks onto the tenement stair well.

The client picked the image from the gallery section of my site.  We worked on the colours and final design together and produced a result pleasing to both of us.  The design is based on my "Piquant Bouquet" series of autonomous panels.

view from the stair well

Evening Classes, 2011

Together with two colleagues, we have decided to offer evening classes in Leaded Glass and Kiln Formed Glass. These will run on Tuesdays from 7:00 - 9:00 pm for eight weeks each. They will take place in the studio.



Details about the classes can be found here:
Leaded Glass
Kiln Formed Glass

"Your glass has faded"

I act as a consultant to a traditional window frame restorer. The other week I was called out after a variety of alternatives were offered to the householder. The householder wanted to keep the leaded glass which dates from the 1920's. It turns out that such radically different alternatives had been offered that an independent assessment of the windows was wanted. As a service to the restorer, I went out early one evening on my way home.

Upon arrival, I was told that so far she had been offered the options of:
- Replace the lot with a new design. The existing windows are so old that retaining them will be difficult
- Triple glaze. Put the leaded glass inside a double glazing unit
- Replace the lot with a new copy. The reason you need to do this is because the glass has faded and is not as bright now as it was originally.

The glass is a mixture of a lightly tinted textured glass background in which the milky glass that turns amber in strong sunlight and a few streaky colours were combined into a stylised motif. The Stained Glass Overlay man was adamant that his material was superior to the original and was guaranteed for ten years.

Well, of course, I disagreed with all of them. The windows are sound. The ties are all still attached to the glazing bars. No work at all is required, as there are not even cracks in the existing glass.

However some work is required on the door. One of the nine light door panels requires re-leading and most of the others require re-puttying. The others had made no comment on the door at all. Oh, and the sidelights were sound too.

Maybe this illustrates why SGO is a thriving business and I have not yet been able to franchise my business over the world. It also shows the underhand - in my opinion - business practices of some people in the stained glass world. The other two companies do traditional leaded glass as a large element of their businesses.

But for me, the statement "Your glass has faded" now ranks along the statement that "All your leaded glass windows are going to flow until they become a puddle on the sill. You need to have these windows recreated on toughened glass to preserve them."

Somebody needs to preserve the clients from such "unethical" practices.

Leaded Glass Workshop

This workshop is appropriate for novices as well as experienced people. It introduces you to the traditional skills of making stained glass windows. You will produce one panel from a stock design or your own. You will be taken through the skills of complex glass scoring and breaking, leading, soldering and finishing through a variety of exercises.

Cutting with Confidence or equivalent experience is a prerequisite.

This workshop is held in a large, bright and airy (but warm) working studio. The workshop is limited to a maximum of six people to give you individual attention. All kiln-forming classes are taught using Bullseye glass - the première fusing glass. All tools and materials (and where relevant, the kiln firings) are provided in the workshop fees.

Date: 1 - 2 August

Time: 10:00am to at least 4:30pm

Price: £150

Booking: A deposit of £50 is required to book your place which must be received one week in advance. For further information contact: Steve Richard at Verrier, Studio 8, 77 Hanson Street, Glasgow G312HF. Telephone: 0771 883 1117, e-mail: s.richard@verrier-scotland.demon.co.uk

Installation finished

The finished installation was successful. I had a call from the client saying he was thrilled by the result. He did not say "at last", but I did for him.

These photos show some of the windows created from the design of the door's fanlight.

The two above are the fourth and fifth rooms off the hall from the left to the right.

This is an image of the fanlight for the third room from the first.

A really nice part of the whole project was the request to design a window in keeping with the Arts Nouveau for the bathroom. This is a big window (approximately 1.4 metres by .9 metres). The object was to obscure the view inwards, but let a lot of light into the room. It is a very long corridor of a bathroom (Don't worry it is a dead end). This window is important in allowing natural daylight into the room.

I looked at a number of themes from the period. I used both books and my own images to come up with the modified water lilly theme shown below. The client agreed. And I began work. I enjoyed the process, although the leading is very complicated in places. I finished it in about a week and a half. So it was under priced, but more enjoyable than many other projects.

I am happy with the result and, more importantly, so is the client.

Installation problems

At last I have finished an installation of five fanlight windows in a posh Glasgow flat/apartment. The client wanted windows that reflected the time the building was constructed. This was during the full flowering of the Arts Nouveau.

There is a nice design in the fanlight above the door that is original to the flat, so I suggested this should be taken and adapted for all the fanlights around the central hall. The photo shows the existing design that I took to make "reproduction" windows.

All went well until it came to installing the windows. The facings on the openings ran from floor to the top of the fanlight. They were impractical to remove. So the spacing timbers had to be pried out of their location between the glass and the facings. Fortunately the glass could be sacrificed. It was truly horrible. I won't even consider putting a photograph up (not that I took one anyway). This then revealed that the size of the space was larger than allowed for by as much as 20mm in some cases.

The windows were manoeuvred into place by bending leads and panels. Then the windows needed extra strips of lead to keep them in place. Also because the spacing timbers had to be destroyed during the removal, I contracted a joiner to replace them. However he did not realise the importance of matching the spacing timbers to the lines of the facings.

The client called me back, because the panels must have slipped or something. In fact the panels were OK except for one which had genuinely slipped. In looking at the placings in the fanlights, I decided the best would be to remove the existing leaded windows, and make templates of the openings to enable me to remake the outside parts of each window. I got the joiner back to help take out the spacing timber.

Now I know how to do it much faster than before - destroy the timber with a chisel, rather than trying to pry it out. It always helps when you know your materials!

I took the templates on stiff card, and rebuilt the outer parts of the panels, using 16mm(5/16") lead came. This enabled me to bend the leaves of the top and bottom cames so the panels could slip into the opening through the facings. Then the effort was to straighten the flanges while in the opening. This is a two person job. One to hold the panel, the other to work the flanges. They all fitted.! One fitted so snugly that the bottom flanges had to be cut off. Now another firm of joiners is coming to fit a shaped spacer that will set off the windows very well.

Community projects - Kirkintilloch

Among the community projects I have completed was one for the Hillhead Community Centre, Kirkintilloch just outside Glasgow. This picture shows the bleak setting for the work in the entry just the left of the wood clad structure.

The view from the inside is barely any better. It is not used as an access point to the paved area outside, but as a relaxing area outside the Relay area, as well as the creche to the right. It did not present a welcoming appearance, so a number of the group from Relay, consisting of people from 12-20 years old, prepared a number of ideas and came to me to help them realise the project of making this area much more welcoming and depict some of what the community centre does.

I took their ideas and worked them up into a unified theme on a large piece of photographic backdrop paper at full size. The picture below shows many of the ideas worked into a unified structure for the whole area. The astragals and door frame are represented here, so a flow can be obtained for the area as a whole.

The day of the presentation to the Hillhead Community Centre proved to be sunny. So the colours were vibrant for the community's first view of the glass. The central theme is the winged relay symbol spreading over the activities of the people of the area. A number of symbols are used to indicate some of these. The canal was an important part of the economic life of Kirkintilloch and still has a recreational use today. The houses of Hillhead overlook the canal. People of various ages and races live in the area and their relationships are indicated by the ribbons spread throughout the window. Among other images is one representing the musical interests of the people. The tune is represented on the amber ribbon and when played reveals the tune. There are a number of other symbols used to represent other activities also.

The completed glass on the day of presentation.

Community Projects - Queens Cross Housing Association

One of the community projects that I became involved with was for Queens Cross Housing association http://www.queenscrossha.org.uk/ where a number of groups provided ideas for the entryways to the houses shown below:

A vew of the houses on Maryhill Road, Glasgow

There were a variety of themes from the various groups which ranged from school children's groups to adult groups of various kinds. The suggestions were arranged according to themes and styles. Some of these are illustrated below:

This entry has a transport theme

This entry has a theme relating to children and is done in a simpler style

For this entry a theme of buildings was used

For the final entry, the QCHA wanted a Mackintosh theme, so one of the banners he and his wife designed, was used to fill the sidelights of this entry.