Christmas is coming and soon there may be snow

I was lucky enough to be in Northern Italy last January during a snowfall and for the first time in my life saw single, huge and beautiful snowflakes. I have seen pictures of them under microscopes but this was the first time I had actually seen the little six sided spiky crystal shapes with my own eyes.



Inspired by those flakes and my love of the colour cobalt blue, since it reminds me of delft tiles and Nordic 1960s designs, I worked at recreating some snowflakes using cobalt blue enamel and fused clear and opal white glass. Each one has been individually hand painted and by the end of the week, they will be ready for hanging on the Christmas tree and will be for sale in my Folksy shop. http://www.folksy.com/shops/Redhenglass

A gift of bread

P1060873b, a photo by Ajay Jayne on Flickr.

There is something very special about finishing a piece of glass work and delivering it to the customer. When delivering the repaired sailing boat to my customer on Friday, I was delighted to receive an example of his skill as he presented me with this beautiful hand baked loaf. If you are interested in food and home baking, do follow him on his food blog http://www.paneartigiano.wordpress.com

All ship shape and ready to go home

After some tricky moments, the sailing boat is ready to go back to its home now. The lead is now glossy and the whole window much more rigid than it was originally. The broken glass has been replaced and all the old paint and dust removed. The original glass really sparkles and it has made me wonder while working on it, just when it would have been made. I have never seen the whirled glass used in the sky before and all efforts to find a good match for the clear bubble glass were met with blanks but fortunately not too much of that was damaged.



This is not the best way to show it but at least shows how bright the refreshed and repaired window looks.

Sailing boat window repair

I have on the bench at the moment a sailing boat from a home in Amersham. This window has lived in a shed for some time and the current owners are keen to have the broken pieces repaired so that they can install it in their front door and enjoy a piece that was originally made by a neighbour.

The leads have become quite weak in places and the panel has flexed, damaging some of the glass used to show the sea. Now that it is ready for mending, I have removed all the border leads and have separated the sea from the rest of the panel.



While I have some really good glass colour matches, the sea has some texture on the glass that I am trying to copy. To do this, I have made some simple plaster moulds that have textured surfaces inside and will kiln fire the blue glass to pick up the textures before cutting and matching it to the pieces that are not broken.

The Hares are home

Spent a rewarding day in Northampton over the weekend with the lovely people who commissioned the hare windows. Have to say they look very classical in their late Victorian home.

P1060775_edited-1, a photo by Ajay Jayne on Flickr.

Thanks to some additional help from my husband ...

the windows are now safely fitted and we had an excellent lunch which included blackberry and apple crumble. It's a real pleasure to see them in place and I have to confess, they really do suit the couple that they were designed for. It was only during the design stage when cornflowers had been sketched that I found out that cornflowers were included in their wedding flowers.

Copse of trees in for a repair

Kings Langley window repair, a photo by Ajay Jayne on Flickr.

Due to an unfortunate mishap, the copse of trees window that I made a couple of years ago is having to be repaired. Although it is a shame that it got damaged, I have enjoyed bonding with it again and getting the broken glass re-cut. The bits that were tricky to lead last time are just as difficult to lead this time but by the end of today I am expecting to have it soldered and ready for cementing and it will be just as bright and shiny as it was when it was first made.

The Hare windows are ready

The twin hare panels are now finished and ready to go to their new home in Northampton on Sunday. I'm really looking forward to seeing them in place, it's always an exciting part of the process since they were designed for a particular family to go in a particular room and they are as excited about it as I am which is great.

The photo shows just one of the panels since I was terrified of it sliding across the table, excuse the background which is a blurry outline of my shed and the Autumn leaves from the garden.

New website is ready and Hares nearly finished

Finally, my Red Hen Glass website seems to have been hosted at last and although I already want to change some things, I'm glad that it is finally published and ready for visitors. You can see it here www.redhenglass.co.uk

It has been a windy afternoon here in Watford but with the lovely Autumn sunshine throwing leaves and seeds down on the shed roof, I have finished leading the second Hare window. Tomorrow I will spend carrying out the final soldering then the cementing so hopefully, by the weekend everything will be dry enough to lift them up and get some proper photos. I'm really looking forward to letting the lovely people whose home the hares will live in know that they are ready.

Hare In The Cornfield Windows

These windows are coming together well now, the small inner panels with the cornflowers have been soldered and one complete panel has now been joined together. I am gathering my energy to begin cementing now but already the window looks like a proper window and I'm keen to get working on its twin. This photo is of how it looked yesterday, another photo soon to show it cemented (when it sets :-) )



Close up of the cornflowers, I had to adjust the lighting but this shows the blue for the petals pretty accurately.



So, back to the shed....

Normandy and conservation experience

Back home after our trip to Normandy and straight into a fantastic work experience placement with a stained glass conservation studio near Watford. The week has passed far too quickly and I am constantly inspired by the generosity of time, patience and excellent skill demonstrated by the people I have had the good fortune to find myself working with.

Back to Normandy, I have managed to find little information about two of the churches I visited and took photographs of while we were away so if anyone can add information about these windows it would be most welcome.

These first images are from the large Cathedral in the centre of Dieppe.

The style of the following window is very familiar, and I would appreciate any additional information on the designer/maker.

A small town further south called Neufchâtel-en-Bray also had some very beautiful glass, I was particularly taken with this modern window above the doorway.

I also spotted further along the Nave a rather vivid piece but couldn't resist the rather fed up expression on the Lion's face. The saint is rather portly.

Hare In The Cornfield Windows

The rain has brought me inside to catch up on making some entries about the pair of windows I am in the process of making for some very lovely people in Northampton. The cornflower pieces and the hares in the corn are now painted and fired :

The side pieces and tops have also been cut:

And I am just cutting, cleaning, foiling and arranging the cornflower pieces with the leaves for the top and bottom parts of each panel - this is likely to take some time but they are coming together nicely and it has been enjoyable seeing all the components and colours working together.

I'm also going to mention to the "lovely people in Northampton" that the whole window, especially the hare pieces, look much darker flat on the bench than they do held up to the light so they will look much lighter with the sunshine streaming through from the hall.

The sample panel will also have its hooks for hanging up very soon too.

Well, this isn't going to get the foiling done........

Chicken (and cat) suncatchers part 2

It has been an interesting few days just trying to get good photos of these pieces in order to really show the colours and the work in the designs. Finally, the sun shone brightly and it was possible to get some of the photos that I needed.

These are all included in the online shop Folksy now so please visit if you would like to see them all. http://www.folksy.com/shops/Redhenglass

Chicken suncatchers

I have spent some time working on the designs for these cheeky hens. They were based on the lovely characters of my brother's chickens that live in Skye pecking, chasing bugs and laying the most beautiful eggs.

Each chicken has a very individual character and I wanted to capture this in the design. A gift to my brother and his partner Debbie at Christmas led me to work on some slightly larger pieces and the first couple have now been assembled and will be the first items for sale in my Folksy shop very, very soon.

Getting off the ground

This is my shed and wonderful garden where I get to work on my glass. It's a fantastic place to work and look out at the birds and other wildlife as well as getting ideas and inspiration.

This is a shot from inside the shed with a panel that I made for my brother. It's half a foxglove window and now lives in his home in Northampton.

It's a busy time at the moment since I have a pair of interior door windows to design for some very good friends. They will be partly painted and based on a leaping hare and cornflowers. More pictures to follow soon, can't wait to hear how they found the designs I sent over.