I love glass as a material, especially in buildings - the vibrant colours and the way the light shines through it, so making a stained glass window was definitely going to be one of my 50 projects.
I had an idea for a design loosely based on something I’d seen in a book. I talked it through with the tutor and set to cutting the pieces from some lovely glass I already had in my stores.
Part of the design involved using tracing black to create some texture so we had a week trying out some different techniques with that, including painting on to the glass and sgraffito, a technique where you cover the glass with solid black and reveal the design by scratching the paint away.
I realised that I needed to cut the glass quite accurately, particularly as my design had pieces that had to line up with one another, and ended up having to re-cut a few sections. Overall it came out smaller than planned, which wasn’t a problem as it was always intended to be a free-standing piece.
I’m so pleased with the final result. The colours work really well together and the blackened lines of the lead really give it contrast.
Whilst exploring different crafts in my 50 projects I was hoping that I would be inspired to combine techniques and come up with some new ideas. Making fused glass pieces and building them in to a leaded stained glass panel is definitely something I’d like to explore further.
