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Goldfinches in glass

I delivered this panel today. This was commissioned to hide the buildings behind the garden. The home is part of an old converted school in North Devon. The customer watches the birds from the kitchen windows, so we continued that theme for her design.

Although this is a traditional leaded panel I have made the birds by fusing glass in the kiln and then I painted on their wings and put in the kiln a second time. The thistles and foliage have been painted onto the glass using lustre and come to life after dark when the light comes from the inside instead of from behind.

The customer is arranging for the panel to be fixed place , at a height to best obscure the buildings beyond the garden.

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Inspired by the river

IMGP7178_HDRIMG_856720191203_113017IMG_8555IMG_8557IMG_8559IMG_8560IMGP7174IMG_8562IMG_8572IMG_8573These 4 panels were inspired by the River Teign, which my house over looks and the customers house is just on the other side of in the village of Shaldon. I have included butterflies, dragonflies, a heron, a squirrel, a rabbit and even an owl! These have been painted in kiln fired enamels and lustre. The panels are made using traditional leading techniques.

The panels obscure the boot room and log store and can be seen all the way through from the front entrance, so make a good focal point and a bit of a wow factor as you move into the kitchen diner.

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Westward Ho! Surfing Stained Glass Panel

This little panel is off to its home – a newly made front door. The surfers are the customers children and this is a favourite holiday spot of theirs.
The panel is made using traditional leading techniques and kiln fired glass enamels.

stained glass surfers on the beach
surfers, stained glass
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A seaside scene for a window in the turn of the stairs

Based on the Cornwall’s Sennen Cove, this seaside scene combines traditional leading and kiln fired glass paint with kiln formed glass pieces. I made the glass for the beach specially and it has flecks of gold running through the glass. This panel was made to add privacy and hide the side wall of the house next door. It adds a really great feature for the long upstairs hallway.

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Teignmouth Remembrance Stained Glass Panel

Following on from our poppy installation on Teignmouth Lighthouse last year I have been asked to make a stained glass window to be hung in The Teign Heritage Centre to remember those lost in war from Teignmouth. This has been commissioned by the Heritage Centre and Teignmouth Town Council Remembrance Committee.

Obviously this is a huge privilege and I is my 6th WW1 memorial., that is a lot of time in a studio quietly painting; giving me ample time to reflect and I do often muse as to whether the world is learning from the warnings of history.

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Two more windows for a returning customer

Stained glass windows are a bit like tattoos, once you get one you want more! I have just installed these two panels for a customer who I made two big panels for a couple of years ago. This happens surprisingly often, its great for me as I already know the customers and repeat customers are the best advert for my business. 

These panels are fixed in front of the UPVC panels, I use this method regularly as most houses now have double glazing. 
It was a wet and very dark morning, so the panels are brightening up a grey day, I will re photograph with the sunlight streaming through in the summer.

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St Michael’s Restoration Project Part II – Working with TCS Mill Lane

My last post documented the start of my Heritage Lottery Fund Project with St Michael the Archangel Church, Teignmouth. 
Please click here to see the last post explaining the restoration 

For the second part of my project, I took my stained glass window templates to Teignmouth Community School, Mill Lane and worked with Miss Radford and Miss Goodwin’s year 4/5 classes over two afternoons. 

After a brief history and explanation of stained glass – I got the children working on their task, to design a stained glass window with a message to the world about something they cared about. As stained glass windows were the picture books of their time, conveying messages, to support the bible stories of the Vicar sermons. The pupils of Mill Lane were ALL about saving the planet, the windows reflect their frustrations and fears about plastic pollution and endangered animals. Some were about commemorating war and some were to do with commemorating dead relatives and promoting charities like cancer care charities. 

Thank you so much to the pupils and staff at Mill Lane for their hard work and enthusiasm. I hope you agree their pictures are delightful.  Here is a selection of them. 

I will begin hanging them all at St Michaels church in the next week and then all the children and their families can come and see their art exhibition. Several of the designs will be turned into larger banners for the church to display into the future. 

 

 

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St Michael the Archangel Church, Stained Glass Restoration Project

St Michael’s church is an iconic landmark on Teignmouth sea front (there has been a church on the site for over 1000 years) and the salt air has led the stone work around the stained glass to deteriorate quickly. So the church community raised money and were helped by the Heritage Lottery Fund to get the stonework and stained glass repaired. 

Part of their grant was for community engagement and I am working with some of the town’s primary school students. They are learning about how to make stained glass windows and why churches have/had stained glass. They are then being invited to design a stained glass window conveying something important to them, or a message for the world. These designs will be exhibited in the church and then our will be chosen to be made into banners for the church to display and celebrate the restoration. The banners will be made by local craft group West Teignmouth Craft Club with help from the congregation. 

Huge thanks to Mrs Gordon’s class at Our Lady of St Patrick RC School who were the first school to take part and they have made some wonderful designs. The children were very thoughtful and their designs cover many topics, with everything from WW2 to celebrate dead relatives to looking after our mental health.   I don’t know how we are going to choose 4 designs! 

The next workshops are at  Teignmouth Community School, Mill Lane, cant wait to see what they create. 

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World War One Memorial’s Unveiled

 

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I have been working on three public commission War Memorials  over several years and this week saw all 3 of them launch; ahead of the Remembrance events on Sunday 11th November. I have found these commissions fascinating and it has been a poignant experience and I am honoured to be part of the centenary 

 In 2014, I was commissioned by Devon Remembers to work with Teignmouth Community School year 7’s to create a war memorial inspired by the experiences of the people on the Teignmouth Home Front (read about it here). I completed the piece a year ago, but it was moved from its usual home in the school reception, to Exeter Cathedral for the 100 year Centenary. 

 

Wealdstone Football Club approached me in 2015 and I worked with them to create a beautiful panel to commemorate

all of the members of the football team lost in combat over both world wars.

Aqueous Sun Photography

This was a fabulous piece to make as I got to combine the ‘old crafts’ of painting and leading with the modern fusing and photographic firing techniques. Roge Slater from the club made the frame and the work is back lit and on display at the Club. 

My final War Memorial was much closer to home. My colleague Sam Lock and I were approached by the Teignmouth Remembrance Committee  to create a fitting art installation for the centenary of W1. We decided on a make do and mend theme and invited people from Teignmouth and all over the country to join us in making fabric or woollen poppies. The result was 30 metres of net covered in handmade poppies. When we had secured all the hundreds of poppies to the net I went up in the cherry picker and secured them to the top of the lighthouse. Despite very heavy weather the memorial remains in place for Remembrance week and hopefully beyond. Thank you to all the hundreds of people who made poppies for us, from primary school children to octogenarians. This has been a wonderful project and we are so grateful to the town for being so enthusiastic about the project.

Mixing history and art is when I am generally happiest and I have had such a great experience with the 180 students at TCS, the research team at Wealdstone and with my fellow towns people in our little seaside town. I just wish that humans could move beyond remembering the horrors of war to learning from these lessons of history.  

 

 

 

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‘Births, Marriages and Deaths,’ help me find photographs for my new artwork

Have you celebrated a major life event at St Michael the Archangel, Teignmouth? If so I need your help!!!

St Michael’s have kindly allowed myself and talented artist Rachael Bennett to exhibit our Devon Open Studios 2018 show  (8-22nd September) in the church and we are using the opportunity to make work in response to the history, architecture and landscape of this well loved landmark during the event.

 

For Open studios I am planning to create a large artwork on the social history of the church, so many Teignmouthian’s have passed through the building, in Christening gown, wedding dress or onto their final resting place and I want to explore all the human history of the church during open studios.

My intention is to fire lots of photographic images of people’s christenings, marriages and funerals onto glass and make a stained glass celebrating the history of the church and it’s congregation. 

BUT to make this work I need of photos!  I am asking everyone who has passed through the doors of the church to send me a copy of their favourite photos of these life events.

Did your grandparents get married there?

Did you get married there?

WouImage result for pictures of st michael the archangel teignmouthld you like to remember a special person whose funeral was held there? Have you got photos in your family album that I could scan and add to the artwork? 

I promise to use the images respectfully, to make a gorgeous glass panel celebrating our town’s social history. I intend to have a silent auction on the panel at the end of the event to raise funds for the church repair appeal.

If you already have a digital copy of a photograph you would like to share with me then please email me info@amyorangejuice.co.uk 

Thank you in advance Amy McCarthy