Thanks for your message. And thanks also for the important tip when the time comes for us to take Texas by storm with our glass painting designs of frogs …

Yes, we’ve laid out a scheme for the other windows. And we will look forward to working on them in due course.

We’ve added a whole lot of new information to the new site which is right here. And there’s a shot of this window actually going in right here.

All the best,
Stephen

PS We add all new content to this place right here. Really important to go here for glass painting tips and videos – plus the newsletter.

I, too, am not a big fan of abstract art – probably because I live in Texas where, if it’s supposed to be a frog, then it should LOOK like a frog!

Anyway, I DO like the sketch on the left. For some reason, it reminds me of a collection of muted Tibetan prayer flags gently swaying in the breeze.

Any idea yet of how the other windows are going to look?
Judy in Texas

Otherwise, over the years, the heat and cold build-up between the two will cause the window to bow.

Since it is necessary to have some kind or screening to allow air in, that will also present a problem with oil and soot and smoke from the chimney entering in and settling in between the storm glazing and the leaded window.

This could certainly be a major issue, and it had to be dealt with before the work could continue.

Rest assured you are not the only one who does this.

In Rainham, Kent we have a wonderful church at St Margaret’s with some really good painted windows.

And I have to admit the best part of the Sunday service for me is in the Summer when the sun moves around during the service and highlights different faces on the different windows.

My kids love Sunday School and come into Church halfway through the service and always have to look around to spot where Mummy is sitting this week.

My kids are really patient with me and are quite used to me just popping into churches wherever we are just to look at the windows.

My own Gran passed away before Christmas and we went to the local crematorium: very plain, boring windows there.

In the car on the way back, my 8 year-old son said to his twin sister and older sister who is 11 that the service was OK but there was no way he was having his funeral there! He wanted it in a proper church.

On the subject of crematoriums, I have been very lucky.

I mean that, even with my own Mum and Gran, it was not a bad experience, mainly because they had both done such wonderfully silly things which we retold and so made the peole there laugh out loud.

My problem is actually with churches …

The last funeral I went to at a church was for the mother of some good friends. She was a great lady. But my problem is that churches (especially very old Norman ones) usually have some nice glass!

And it is difficult to keep up with the service and not look at the glass and try to find a makers mark or how they achieved a certain effect.

I shame-facedly admitted this to these good friends. They laughed out loud, thinking that their mum would have thought that quite funny.

They imagined me hopping around to various seats through the service so I could get a better look at the glass!

So at least I behave myself in a crematorium!

Thanks for your thoughtful responses to different aspects within each sketch.

The whole business of stained glass design is so odd!

Consider that the “problem” is an architectural space measuring five square metres (something more than five square yards) which will be filled with a largely transparent medium, glass.

And here we are, approaching the solution to this “problem” by means of a sketch on a small piece of white paper that we can hold in our hand.

But we all have to start somewhere.

And, once we’ve made a start, then further discussions suddenly become possible.

And it would of course be possible for a client to say, “No, I don’t like either of these ideas, but now that I see those suggestions of sunshine and companionship [for example], that’s what I want you to achieve”.

And then we’re off again!

Your last point is brilliant. It also connects with Marlena’s post and my response.

That is, the design for the stained glass window cannot be considered in isolation from the architecture of the building and its environment in every sense.

Even the colour of the paint on the walls inside could make a difference.

And the other windows will certainly make a difference. (More of this in Part 3.)

The sketch on the left flutters like rags on a kite tail, leaves on the breeze, documents on a desk by an open window. The pinks give a sense of the dawn of hope. There is sunshine, but there are also barriers and stumbling blocks. To my mind, it is rather too stimulating to be entirely helpful or resonant in this environment.

The calming curves and more muted colours of the sketch on the right strike a meditative note. There are still definite stages on the long and winding road, but they are gentler and lead more naturally into each other. But it is not an easy road. There are rocks. It will be a climb. There is sunshine, but it’s temperate. I can see love and companionship in heart and bird-shapes, so there’s comfort there as well as calm.

So, if I were the client and had five minutes to choose between two small digital images, I would choose the one on the right. However, I’m mindful of the fact that the client will be spending a lot longer with the original sketches, and may see nuances that simply don’t show up here.

Stephen, at this stage do you know what will be happening with the other windows? It strikes me that they are key to the success of this central window.

Thank you for your post. In response, two points come to mind.

First of all, thank you for your direct honesty in saying that – albeit initially – neither of the designs appealed to you. (You also were direct and gave a reason, which is important, and I want to respond to later on).

(a) For our part, we are convinced that each of us has an absolute right to our individual responses. So, even if you were never to respond “positively” to either of the sketch designs or to their evolution, we would always want to engage with you and find out whatever else you wanted to tell us.

(b) There are so many cases where the work we do can be improved by engaging with other people. David and I find this every day in our engagement with you and other people around the world who work with glass. So it would almost be a tragedy for someone to shut themself off from comment or for anyone to arrive at a place where they were (for whatever reason) above or beyond criticism. We all know what this does to politicians. Isn’t it awful when artists and makers are comsumed by this outlook?

(c) It is also sometimes difficult to achieve the necessary degree of objectivity about one’s own work. This is then the place where friends, colleagues and acquaintances – and indeed, clients – play a wonderful role.

(d) Our commissioned designs are not “about” us. That is, there’s a distinction between work that we do simply because we feel like doing it – exploratory work, perhaps, recreational, therapeutic and so forth – and work that we do for someone else and for a particular building. So, even if a particular design “just had to be painted”, it would not follow that this particular design was right for the client or the building. Once again, other peoples’ comments are vital in many senses of that word. And if we ever were to design and make something simply in order to express our own emotions, then I don’t think we would show it to other people or ask for their views.

Second, about abstract art. You say that you are not a fan. I don’t know if I know what you mean (and, of course, I’d love to talk more with you), but, for my part, I think that abstract art poses many problems.

For the “consumer” (that is, the viewer in the case of glass or painting, the listener in the case of music etc.), it is difficult to find the concepts and the words with which to come to an honest understanding of our own responses. Put simply: I don’t know what I’m looking at! Yet we often feel pressurized into responding quickly; and, which is perhaps ever worse, we often feel pressurized into accepting the verdict of “those in the know”. (But how do they know? Who vouchsafes their certainty?)

For the maker – but there is so much abstract art that I am tempted to say “for the manufacturer” – it is difficult to know in every part of one’s soul that one has done the best work possible.

As if these difficulties aren’t bad enough, they result in something far worse: the artist’s statement. We will return to this topic on another occasion.

Once again, thank you so much for your post – also for your comment on the Fibonacci sequence. And I need to say that the owl isn’t present in either of these “thumb-nail” sketches!

I have to admit that when I first saw the sketches, they did not appeal to me (I’m not a fan of abstract but I love Monet’s work).

I sat back, took a deep breath and looked at them again. By then the sketch with the accent of pink/mauve caught my attention (probably the pastel colours).

I went away and came back later wanting to get away from an upsetting situation (nothing major) to my surprise this time it was the sketch with more yellow that appealed to me. I could see different calm & reasuring images & faces in the background (my imagination tends to go into overdrive sometimes). So, I guess this window would be the one I would need in moment of grief should I have to spend time in the crematorium at Hereford.

Now all I need to do is find the owl (I’m sure I will if it’s there).

All the best to all in the New Year
Joanne
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

P.S. I had forgotten about the Fibonacci sequence of numbers: each number (after the first two) is the sum of the previous two numbers. Thus the sequence begins 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, etc. The higher up in the sequence, the closer two consecutive “Fibonacci numbers” of the sequence divided by each other will approach the golden ratio (approximately 1 : 1.618 or 0.618 : 1). The golden ratio was used widely in the Renaissance in paintings