Test Your Poole Pottery Knowledge!

The photos below are close ups of a design which is spread across 5 door panels and is a design adapted from a piece of work by a well known Poole Pottery artist. Can you guess which one?

Answer to follow....!

From Sketch to Reality

This jazzy design started off as the customers sketch below...

It was refined by the customer using the existing white laminate glass as a canvas to try out different ideas and using black electric tape to mimic the leadlines...

 With some final tweaking we tried the design 'the other way round' and found it looked even better...

Glasses used were a mix of textured clear glasses and gradients of amber.

photo courtesy of Fiona Stone

Bonus extra stained glass with reflections in the mirror!

Competing with the beautiful Wisteria - a tough competitor! Security glass at the front of the door panels shows the reflective bounce of light that you get. At night time with the lights on you see the panels as if there were no glass in front. The customer said 'We are loving the door so much! It's made such a difference to the hallway.' 

The Art Market York

Coming up this weekend don't miss Sue King Glass at The Art Market, York Racecourse Friday to Sunday. Three full days of art, design and contemporary craft for sale & commission from fantastic selected artists and designer-makers. Alongside the amazing work for sale are demonstrations, interactive areas, cafe, live music, RAW talent newcomers section, Living Plinth with performance and demonstrations plus artist talks and workshops.

Amongst beautiful fused bowls, dishes and panels Sue King will have the full range of Glass Maids ware including some of the favourites below;
                
 

The panels are free hanging so that you can have just one or a combination of any you fancy. More choices will be on show at the stall...

There is a free VIP Preview Evening on Thursday 1st October, 6:30pm - 9pm. Where you and a guest can attend. Art works will be for sale and commission, awards presented, live music and demonstrations. Get your free tickets for the preview and the whole event here.

Glass Maids at York!

The Worlds Greatest Quiz Night!

Takes place on Thursday 15th September 6.30 - 11.00pm. Hosted by Claudia Winkleman with David and Jonathan Dimbleby in aid of Dimbleby Cancer Care. The evening includes a drinks reception followed by the ultimate quiz, delicious food and drink at your table, an auction and incredible prizes. The event takes place at St Thomas's Hospital. Dimbleby Cancer Care do stirling work and Apollo Stained Glass is supporting the Dimbleby Cancer Care Auction, donating the little panel below.

To find out more, book a ticket and possibly become an Ultimate Quiz Champion please click here!

Glass Maids at Salisbury!

Sue King will be at Salisbury Contemporary Craft and Heritage Festival this weekend (5th / 6th September. She will have the complete range of Glass Maids fruit, veg, cakes and cocktails. All double hooked and ready for you to create your own mouth watering menu.

Sue will also be selling her pink glass stars in aid of Salisbury Hospitals Breast Cancer Unit along with all her lovely regular wares. Hope you can make it.

How come we all don't know about All Hallows Wellingborough??!

On a recent visit to see a friend we popped into this church. What a stunner, a Grade 1 listed building with the most astounding collection of the pioneering 'big names' of modern stained glass (rubbing alongside and not forgetting the famous Victorian studio of James Powell and Sons, Whitefriars!). Sadly my pictures were not great and if you visit this church I would love to update this blog, credit you and feature any better stained glass photos you have.

First this window by Jean Barillet, son of Louis Barillet (see earlier blog post), the sun was blazing through the strong colours of these panels dedicated to St Crispin and St Crispinian, patron Saints of the boot and shoe making industry, making the figures vivid and intense.

Looking for information on Jean Barillet I came across this write up stored in The Universal Digital Library;

The young Parisian Stained Glass Artist Jean Barillet

succeeded a few years ago his father Pierre Barillet, a great

artist himself who lived his whole life among the most brilliant

gathering of French painters such as Matisse, Vlaminck,

Utrillo; and was the first to foresee the tremendous possib-

ilities that modern Painting can bring to the art of Stained Glass.

Jean Barillet carries on, in the studio built by his father,

researches in the artistic and technical fields of his activity.

He was the first to try out and expand the fascinating

new process consisting of thick slabs of coloured plate glass set

in cement, thus, curiously enough, coming back through the

ages to the simplicity and the slightly primitive means of

expressing their Faith of the middle-Ages old Masters.

Recently, Jean Barillet contributed, with the well-known

French painter Fernand Leger, huges pannels of cement-set

glass meant for the experimental Church of Audincourt; thus

placing Stained Glass at the Spearhead of modernism.

Jean Barillet (1912 - 1997) had an extensive and impressive career working in Basilicas, Cathedrals and Churches in many countries including the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, The Cathedral of St Joseph in Hartford USA, Church of Audincourt (France) and many many more.  

Evie Hone (1894 - 1955) was an Irish stained glass artist described by the Tate as 'an outstanding religious painter of modern Ireland and a stained glass artist of international stature'. In All Hallows she made the Alice Maud Middleton Memorial Window with ideas and symbolism based on the Creation.

Evie Hone created many stunning windows including 'My Four Fields Green' showing the 4 symbols of the provinces of Ireland and this work is now in Government Buildings, Office of the Taoiseach, Dublin and a huge and complex window in the chapel of Eton College, Berkshire.

John Piper another famous stained glass artist has three windows in this church; the Rose Window (which sadly I did not see - any photos appreciated!), the Constance Chapman Memorial Window and the Helen Wells Chapman Memorial Window, all three were executed by Patrick Reyntiens. The windows date from 1961 to 1969 and you can see how much his style developed in this period. The first of his windows was the Helen Wells Chapman Memorial Window 1961 below;

this is his later Constance Chapman Memorial Window from 1969 about which he said "It is what you make it to be";

John Piper with Patrick Reyntiens, created the windows at Coventry Cathedral, the chapel of Robinson College Cambridge and the Washington National Cathedral amongst many others. On this sunny day they proved their absolute skill in working colour, light, shape and form.

All Hallows Church is the oldest existing building in Wellingborough dating from c. 1160, you can find it on the Wellingborough Council Heritage Trail and there appear to be occasional tours of the stained glass advertised on the All Hallows Facebook page.

Old English Muffle

I've just completed a repair on a simple diamond quarry patterned glass. The panel was primarily made with old English Muffle. The lovely glass has a history that stretches right back to the factory style stained glass industries of the Victorian era. It is still made today though the original daisy pattern has morphed into a kind of coffee bean hammer effect. The colours also have changed being softer and more muted originally (though with some surprising bright colours thrown in) to much brighter and stronger colours now. One of the most attractive properties of the old version is the way that the pattern can vary so much sheet by sheet so it can appear very flat but also very rippled so you end up with some very lively panels shifting in texture but all using the same glass. Here is the rebuild I just completed;

 

and here are a couple of panels I rebuilt showing the beautiful subtle old colours. 

 

and below in the rectangles is the new version of this glass, ever popular for it's good obscurity and pleasing pattern today!