Dulwich Artists Open House

Tomorrow is the last day of the Dulwich Festival and last opportunity to see the beautiful fused glass work of Sue King and our Glass Maids collaboration.

Work is available for sale at Sue's garden studio... 

located at 32 St Francis Road SE22 8DE.

You can also see more of Sue's work at Suzanne James caterers, 57 North Cross Road...

and more Glass Maids work!

Angela Muntus

Angela is a talented glass artist based at Thames-Side Studios, she produces beautiful fused work. Sadly this year she will miss our yearly Open Studios, though for a happy reason! Below are some examples of her latest work and are available to purchase directly from Angela via her email; angela.muntus@btinternet.com. Prices range from £25 - £100. Inspiration and ideas come from nature. Further info in our Open Studios to follow...

Art Deco Modernism!

Some designs are hard to classify crossing styles and proving how fluid and adaptable a 'period style' can be. These panels make the most of the enormous range of textured glasses produced (mainly) by Chance Brothers and later Pilkingtons across a span of 100 or so years but also mixed in some hand made glasses. A list of many of the glasses used is at the end of this blog...

Thank you to Jean Letherby and her husband for giving me this beautiful lens amongst other glass samples saved from their long career as theatre lighting designers.

Textured glasses used; Muranese, Spotlyte, Festival, Pilkingtons no's 1,2 and 3! Arctic (green, blue and clear), Muroglass, Borealis, Sparkle, Cross Reed, Half Inch Reed, Rivuletta, Ribbed Rolled, Corded, Fibroid, Flemish, Crackle, Japanese, Lustre, Masterpoint, 'Stars and Swirls', Fleur, Orbit, Stipolyte, Luminating, Pacific, Starburst, Glistre, Corella, Rimpled, acid etched, Master Carre, Kokomo. Handmade; Green Venetian, Danziger, Hartley Wood, Saint-Just, English Antique Glass and Tatra. Plus a few other glasses that I do not know the names of!

Thank you to Pete True and his father for saving the small arctic glass from his garage doors, thank you to David Encill for generously giving me his Festival glass.   

Open Studios Summer 2018 - dates for your diary!

Just heard we have our yearly Open Studios at Thames-Side Studios, Woolwich, 9th and 10th June, 12 noon - 6pm. Please check back again - more info to follow...

"Pictures have voices that the soul can hear"

In the 1870s the Haberdashers Company laid out the plans for Hatcham Manor Estate in (now) New Cross, London. The houses were designed as high quality residences with beautiful traditional stained glass in the front doors much of which remains...

For the internal decoration of doors one of the builders at least, used the services of an American company based in William Street, New York to supply a variety of printed transfers, giving the illusion of stained glass....

With different designs being used across the estate...

This technique became very popular in the Victorian era and a variety of different manufacturing processes over many years led to it being called various names e.g. "Crystograph", "Glacier", "Vitramanie" and Diaphanie". As the extract below illustrates it was exciting and new and was expected / hoped to fast supersede fusty old (traditional) stained glass.

Jones, C.S., Mrs., and Williams, Henry T. Household Elegancies: Suggestions in Household Art and Tasteful Home Decorations. 4th ed. New York: Henry T. Williams, 1877. "Transparencies on Glass, Etc.": "Vitremanie": p. 25.

Depending on the process being used sometimes the paper transfer was left on and 'cemented' to the backing glass while with later techniques the paper was removed and just the print remained on the glass. With the Hatcham Manor Estate panels the paper is still there. Photos sent to me of other panels in the same estate show clean breaks but there are also water marks and leaching on the panels that I was working to preserve and a fragment that I was given clearly had paper remaining.

Clean breaks...

leaching...

Though this type of work may be cheaper then traditional stained glass, because the glass 'sandwich' is so thin, perhaps just over 1mm deep, when it breaks the whole piece is damaged. Whereas with stained glass individual pieces can be replaced and the whole preserved much more easily.

Fortunately the damage to the panels I was asked to help preserve was not as bad as the badly cracked one above with single and a few multiple cracks but hanging together...

Single (above) and multiple cracks (below).

It seems impossible to find anyone to replace or repair this glass so the best hope was to preserve and protect it by putting 4mm toughened glass into the sight line both sides. Laminate film was also recommended but with the cracks and the water marks it didn't seem a good idea to get water near it (for floating / placing the film). End result the panels will hopefully be secured for many more years...

Transfer glass never achieved the expectations of its early enthusiasts, it never got to provide "a daily word of wisdom that will speak openly to every member of the household on sacred or historic themes, or the beauties of creation". In domestic glass it is relatively rare now and little is still known of the intricacies of the processes. Fortunately there are some great sources of information and if this post has interested you and you would like to find out more check out the excellent article 'The Conservation of Chromolithographic Windows in St Benet's Chapel, Netherton and the Origins of Transfer Printing on Glass' by Mark Bambrough in The BSMGP Journal vol XXXIX. You can order article reprints from the BSMGP here; http://www.bsmgp.org.uk/Publications/.

Thank you Paul Chasse, librarian from the Corning Museum of Glass for researching my request for info and sending a copy of Household Elegancies amongst other fascinating Victorian reference material. What a truly excellent service you provide.

If you live in the area and have any photos of this type of glass or any further information to add please feel free to get in touch and I will post your photos / info at the end of this blog.

Streatham Style

It's always satisfying to bring back together a door set with missing pieces. This beautiful Victorian house was missing it's main door panel and had a fanlight in need of repair...

 The customer wanted to restore the original street design but with some personal preferences. 

A beautiful centre was based on an original Victorian design and painted by the stained glass artist Emma Blount.

The fanlight was cleaned, rebuilt and repainted.

Before 

After.

Fanlight detail showing unusual cast glass original roundel.

 Fortunately the small door panels were intact and still in good condition.

The new door set, ready for the 21st Century...

Photo and fitting courtesy of John Mahoney.