Analysis of the Christmas Cards

Three of the best

The cards are my favourite of the Christmas rituals: making them, then actually getting some post for a change, displaying them and, best of all, analysing the Christmas card collection. This year there has been no clear winner in the best card category and - in a shocking development - no stained glass cards.

The statistics are as follows : 17.5% home made, 17.5% home printed, 65% bought.  Format: 38.5% square, 37% portrait, 14% landscape, 6% postcard.

Some cards from the most popular subject categories are shown here. We had 11 cards with reproductions of well known artworks (2 examples at the top): 7 of a single tree (the best ones above): 5 of birds (the best ones below).

As a series, I particularly like the street scene category shown below. Perhaps the card at bottom left is the real winner as it straddles the well known artwork (Ravilious), tree and street scene categories.

ST Mary's Church, Cheltenham

I've learnt not to ask about the stained glass when visiting churches as the information I want (who made it? when?) is rarely there. I am usually told that it's only Victorian and then given stories about the iconography. However in the oldest building in Cheltenham, St Mary's Church, there are two guide books which in combination tell you almost everything you need to know. One takes you around the church with pictures, plans and bible references, while the other (not to be taken away) gives you historical information.

The Rose Window, William Wailes glass 1879         Detail from the Central West Window, Heaton, Butler & Bayne 1885

The beauty of The Rose Window (above left) is in the fourteenth century tracery, slightly angled and very low in the wall  - east facing in the north transept. All of the windows on this level are filled with stained glass from the late nineteenth century.  Here are photographs of some of my favourite details: the H,B&B radiating star (above right), The Parable of the Talents (below left), foliage done in a completely different way by Clayton & Bell in the window of St. Peter (below right) where I also love the painted ship and the pale landscape colours.

South Aisle, Bell & Son 1877                                                      The Chancel, Clayton & Bell 1879

I'm not able to guess which firm made the North Transept window (information missing from the book) whose apostles showed up well in the afternoon sunlight (below). The L,B&W Last Supper Window also looks particularly good in the fine ancient tracery and is full of the sort of details that people love to point out. This from the guide book: 'Can you see the disciple with the brown halo in the far right panel? This is probably Judas Iscariot..." 

Top : Matthew, Mark, Luke & John from The North Transept Window.  Below : The Last Supper Window, Lavers, Barraud & Westlake 1880

The Outside of Stained Glass

The Vyne (NT, near Basingstoke) and some of its heraldic glass

Fantastic fenestration at The Vyne, those glazing bars that form octagons, triangles, lozenges and diamonds also contain some great heraldic glass. You can tell how good it is - and well restored - from the outside (above).  My favourite panel on the right, the arms of Henry VIII, has lions painted and scratched back in such a way that it is easy to imagine the painter's hand at work. 

C16th glass : the base of the Crucifix and Henry VIII panel

Inside the chapel there is a rare opportunity to get close to the exceptional 16th century glass by climbing the scaffolding that is there while the glass panels are conserved. The crucifix panel (above left) is already in place and the one featuring Henry VIII is on display on a light box in the house, also great for a close up view. Adjacent panels feature Queen Margaret of Scotland (his sister) and Catherine of Aragon.

It easy to see where these three figures, together with gorgeous canopies and name Saints, will go by looking at the leading pattern in the clear glazing installed in the chapel windows before the coloured ones arrive back. Curious idea, but It looks good from the outside (above right) while protecting the precious glass inside. 

How good to get so close up to Henry VIII, portrait at about 30 years old. Glass possibly by Flemish glaziers, commissioned by Lord Sandys of The Vyne in the 1520s.

Glass Enamel Samples

Enamels in the studio

Since I started using glass enamels in 1984 (date verified by original Blythe pot above) I have sampled the products of most enamel suppliers. I have just tried out some ancient looking envelopes of Reusche enamels, very fine but expensive, given to me by a colleague. I save my old enamels for small projects as many of them are now unobtainable because of the elements, including lead, that they contain.  In my favourite range I have completely used up some colours - my best ever test strips are on the windowsill below right, next to the new Reusche samples. 

Colour samples in my studio window. Best ever enamel test strips & recent (smaller) Reusche strips.

The test pieces, which I sometimes vary by using dots or another layer of colour going the other way, look great in the studio windows but because they are usually on 6mm (thick) glass, it is hard to use them in stained glass commissions. They have recently been sorted or chucked during the great studio clear out. For our new shed door (below left) I used fifteen sample panels of the mostly brown enamels from a job shown in the photo at top right - complete with notes on colour mixes scratched through the paint. For one of my first ever stained glass commissions (below right) I made fake sample strips, this time texture added with acid etched stripes, an even more deadly substance that I no longer use.

Our shed door, 2014. Detail from front door commission, 1988

View From The Window

If in doubt, I draw the view from the window. Last weekend (of the attacks) I was staying in a friend's flat in Paris, being very critical of the view from the windows on to the blank wall of a block of flats less than three metres away (drawing 1). However, as shown in drawing 2, we ruined the view from the bedroom window at home in Marlborough by building our tall studio in front of it. Looking at the little patch of sky that remains at top left, I remembered another sketchbook page (drawing 3) drawn from my bedroom at West Dean House last January, where I had to peer between the thick flint walls and the courtyard castellations to find my view.

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drawing 1, Paris.  drawing 2, Marlborough. drawing 3, West Dean House, Sussex

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drawing 4, Loch Lomond.  drawing 5, Lewis. drawing 6, Berneray

There are window drawings in all of my sketchbooks, here I've chosen three Scottish ones from 2011 when I did a commission on the Isle of Lewis. On the way there was a hotel window near Loch Lomond, some tree tops and lots of sky visible (drawing 4). Then the ugly bungalow we stayed in on Lewis had only one high window facing south towards a magnificent view of The Minch (drawing 5) - invisible when you were sitting down at the kitchen table. Drawing 6 is a view from the kitchen window of the most beautiful place I have ever stayed, that is undisputedly the hostel on the Isle of Berneray.