Flaws

An update...but first a bit of a nerd out....

                             ......the flaws and imperfections in hand made glass are beautiful.
And now for the update. The lights are fitted in a casing in the bottom of the box now, the panels fit well for the most part and only two stages to finish the piece.

 One problem remains. Do I add the more figurative detail or leave it in the current state of pure block shades?  Im leaning to detail as thats what i planned to begin with but it could very well lose some charm. Any input is more than welcome.

A raw sketch in glass

 Bottom layer

Top layer
Next step I burn the top layer and paint the markings on the He111's wing. I need to mount the lights inside and hang the panels one above the other in the ww2 steel tin i found on the streets of London. I know pride is a sin but not bad for a weekend ay?

Ready for burning

The next step is something I invented in university. I will burn the glass over a candle of similar low heat fire source and then Matt varnish the resulting ash. Ive done tests and it looks so much better that black paint. I do however have a 20% fail rate with this technique as heating the glass at one point to highly causes a shatter. (I must try and research a more reliable way) So in that spirit here may be the last picture of the first stage in one piece. =S

 The next layer is the aircraft wing. I've cut the pattern but this one needs painting before construction.  These pieces are rough first stages and will be painted and the metal treated to turn the lead black.

Not very good but its a steep learning curve.

First leading

I've leaded up my first ever stained glass piece. There are 3 breaks and 5 mistakes in total that i can see. It is the first layer of a multi-layered window to be fitted into a 1938 ammo tin. it will hopefully show a scene from the Blitz.

First Cuts

First ever stained glass pattern. Two breaks but nothing I cant fix. It would be better if I didn't break it in the first place but it all comes with practice i guess.

Secret Constuctions and exhibition upkeep

I am currently helping construct a secret project. Very hush hush but details will emerge in November as to why i have been slacking in the glass department. Im also a guardian of a David Blandy exhibition at my work in Haggerston. 

Next design (Knights Bridge)

It is said that Miyamoto Musashi (the greatest swords man in the Japan) met a samurai on a bridge only wide enough for one. It was agreed upon that the lesser warrior should step aside. Disagreeing on who was the lesser they drew they're swords and and regarded each other closely. After a minute without a twitch of movement they simultaneously put away they're swords bowed and left in search of another crossing.  Each man had observed the other and acknowledged that he was his equal in every respect and violence would only be foolish pride.

However this is England.

An identical situation here resulted in a fight so fierce that the area was named knightsbridge and the name has lasted long after the river itself has long disappeared. 

wilt. wither. wimple.

 Here's one from a fellow park keeper. Henry VIII during a particularly bad blizzard ejected a community of nuns into the night so as to use they're halls for a ball. They huddled together on what is now St James Park where they froze but not before cursing the king that no flowers would bloom after the cruelty he had committed. It is said that is why st James park is flowerless and why the Tudor line( represented by a rose) withered within a generation.

 Another opinion is that on finding out that the king (Charles II) was picking flowers for his mistress from the grounds of the park the queen ordered that all flowers should be band from the land. There are still no formal flower beds.

Wilt Consept sketch

This design has tiny detail that I am about to scalpel out, and so in all probability this is going to go wrong hence an insurance post. See you on the other side.

Intermission over (Mill Co)

Just completed a six week internship at the Mill co Project in Haggerston. An up and coming community arts program with a grand ambition for the future. it did however mean when i wasn't there i was sleeping and so Ive got a bit lacks on my own work. I'll work on that =S

 (this post is a binding contract that can be used on Glen Ross Riches Should he once again become lazy, Please invoke with fire and brimstone if laziness is spotted)

SOOOOHOOOO!!!! (The hunter and the hunted)

 Soho gains its name from the areas original usage as hurting grounds. The word Soho itself was a hunting cry. There is something of it's current nature that continues a predatory atmosphere. Is the human figure a neo-Artemis or the subject of a bestial gaze?

Not overly fond of this one, doubt it will ever be made.

Wealth and Taste

London has history with the devil like much of Britain.  If he's not moving cathedrals to confuse monks he's making you an offer too good to pass up.

On the 27th January 1626 the social climbing Hatton Family are rumored to have excepted the offer of wealth and power. The deal was sealed with a party in which Lady Elizabeth Hatton dance with the devil himself.

The devil became boisterous and killed Elizabeth leaving her perpetually beating heart behind.
"torn limb from limb, but with her heart still pumping blood."

The Street where the deal was struck became know as Bleeding Heart Yard and is named so still.

Make Do and Mend

 After the London blitz the metal stretchers used during the raids were used as garden fences in some parts of the city. Some areas still retain these make do and mean fences(as does the end of my road).

Red cross of rose thorn, medicl equipment and the grid of the fence.
Better to remove an component such as the tools and add more plant life.

Aldini's monster

 Giovanni Aldini unable to test his theories in bio electrical science came to London from Milan to be able to experiment in returning life to the recently departed.

Allegedly ensuring the conviction of Gorge Foster of the murder of his wife and child on mere hearsay so as the ensure a fresh subject, Giovanni Aldini began his grim experiment in 1803. 

Mary Shelly is said to have based the novel Frankenstein on these events that transpired in a little house in Newgate.

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWL (Warewolves of London)

 

America's take on British myth and legend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDpYBT0XyvA

'....And his hair was perfect'. 

Excitable Boy 1978
Warren Zevon

Balance

 Readable side

Clean side
Referring to the coins used to balance the mechanism of Big Ben.

Jenny Greenteeth

British nymph type creature. There is a brilliant version of this in a Hellboy story(The Corpse).

Break a leg and small print

 Francic Walsingham, Tudor spymaster and  agent provocateur for Elizabeth the first. An invisible man who shaped history......and 'visits' unruly playwrights on slippery balconies.

A small section of the lindisfarne gospel motif. Nordic runes. Viking (down) Raid (across)

Boudica design second try. (drawing the line)?

 

Drawing the line. refering to the stratigraphic line present in London (as well as Colchester and St Albans) caused by fires from the Boudica uprising against the Romans.

 If ever this is a real window id think about taking the skulls out and adding my patented burnt glass technique.

Boudca: main side second attempt

Why sketchbook pages need multiple attempts i'll never know. Sketchbook house pride?
Elements: London wall, iceni coin motif burn layer, cult of heads layer and the lady herself. 

fortune

St mary axe.Home of  fortune tellers

Try again.

This is in need of redoing. First layer needs a better face and it the background on the same layer would prevent the badly twisting plastic covering.

Gods of cutting

I want a record of this stencil before I attempt to cut it as it’s the smallest I’ve done to date and in all probability this will end badly. =S Its the first layer of a Boudica window.

new pages and pages yet to come

 

Great pit of Aldgate ( map version)

  

Cleopatra's Needle (readable version) 

 

                                                   Cleopatra's needle (clean Version)

                                     epic back log of page ideas yet to do.