Squares

Left: from my 1996 sketchbook, drawing before making the kitchen window. Right: photo of window 500mm square.

I made a window for the kitchen door in our old house which I sold to a friend who was visiting. It was a simple thing, an arrangement of squares of glass scraps, mostly enamelled, and mostly featuring the stripes I use for my samples. This window was much better than the snap I have of it (above right), but luckily I also have my sketchbooks from a time when I drew everything, before I made it (above left) and even after I made it (below). The before drawing in coloured pencil shows that I changed about five pieces before leading it up, with the thinnest possible lead used for the verticals. The arrangement spiralled around the central circle on a square of orange flashed glass (that I remember breaking when I was sandblasting off the thick orange layer) becoming paler towards the edges of the window.

Pencil drawing (not rubbing) of the window.

Left: glass squares on the lightbox. Right: centre of the new panel.

I’ve never found a pattern for putting sample pieces together that I like as much as that simple mosaic of squares, and as I had a lot of small ones (40mm sq.) in my sample box I thought I’d make a new panel in the same spirit. In 1996 I was led by the central orange square but this time, 27 years later, I had lots of green pieces that suggested a landscape format, and lots of diagonal stripes that I was careful to arrange in an imaginary oval that pulls the composition together. I found a piece with a building painted on it and then one with a belisha beacon, these added interest to the panel so I dared to add a cow in the middle. These pieces all contain the right subject matter for a local landscape and show me a way of using small scale imagery that mixes well with my habitual pattern making.

Comparing my old work and approach with my new one, I know that I used to put more concentrated effort into drawing and that the glass I made was quite scrappy and loose. Now my drawing is rough and untidy, while I put a lot more detail and care into the glass painting.

Drive By Design

Driving along Cecil Road

This is the first part of my commission for a new Lidl store in Kingswood, South Gloucestershire. The side of the building is on a residential street, so the standard elevation has been enlivened with a series of "windows" and a design printed on opaque vinyl that links the three sets of panels with ribbons of colour and pattern.  

As you can see from the two sets of designs above, things change during the building process. Where there were four windows per set, there are eventually five. Where the landscape design took account of these windows, in the end it didn't and there was a fence with a banner on it partly obscuring the end windows that announced the opening of the shop in November (below).

However, I am happy with my design. The geometry goes well with the grids of the building and the fence, the stars in various forms link with the lines of trees and upright posts and the colour scheme looks just right under the grey or the blue sky. In the details taken from the partially obscured windows (who knows, the banner may have been removed by now) you can see different types of stars and details from local buildings both printed and reflected in the vinyl.