From Gothic to Gotham #2

I heard an interview with someone who said that a minority of people hear voices in their heads narrating their lives – I thought everyone did. I always hear voices and that’s probably why I am drawn to Quakers, where the goal is to silence the chatter.

While I write, I hear speaking – many voices, many emotions – narration, conversation. Sometimes I awake in the night and hear them resolving a plot twist, and have to scramble for pencil and paper to write it before it’s gone. And when I draw, and pace the movement of story through panels, I hear the talk and the pauses. Then while I paint and ink… more voices. Sadly they don’t all agree on one version! The story changes and I am left with a multiverse to edit back to something linear.

Page from Call Me Bill – a 1873 Quaker Meeting, New Jersey

Do I ask for too much from my readers?

Will readers stay with the story if I ask them to jump back and forth through time? My current story features an elder nurse looking back through a scrapbook she made in WWI (over 60 years prior). She talks about the photographs in the book and remembers the people. On this page, the elder woman’s hand rests on a photo in her scrapbook, while she remembers the soldier when he was a boy, and also remembers when he was her injured patient in France… that’s three timelines on one page. I’m still unconvinced whether this page works… what do you think?

a photo of a soldier, and his childhood, and WWI hospital

I have always loved visual art and literature so comics satisfy my craving for both!

Stained glass has told stories in sequential narration for 1000 years – that’s one reason I chose it as my profession. With a side order of cartooning!

You know I wrote Call Me Bill (Conundrum Press 2022), and it was nominated for Canada’s top prize, The Doug Wright Award. And maybe you know I am working on my second graphic novel. It’s a LOOONG process. Some threads get dropped even after you thought they were woven in.

Here is one. The blinded war photographer being led off the battlefield by stretcher-bearers… Still so many stories to tell. I hope someone picks up the dropped threads…

graphic novel pencil then ink
blinded photographer led off the WWI battlefield by stretcher-bearers

2024 stretched my muscles and wings in new ways! Besides designing gorgeous new stained glass and caring for our stained glass heritage, I forged ahead on my second graphic novel, and designed and coordinated the creation of two large granite monuments!

Heritage Stained Glass Care

Custom Stained Glass

From Graphic Novel to Granite Monuments

I brought all my creative and organizational skills to the creation of two monuments carved from granite boulders. I was the Lead on the Monuments Project, which was one of several S.S. Atlantic 150 Legacy Projects. I worked with the SSA 150 Steering Committee, community members, and skilled trades. The event these monuments commemorate is the villagers’ heroic response to the catastrophic wreck of the White Star Line passenger steamship S.S. Atlantic at 3:00 AM on April 1, 1873 on the rocks of Lower Prospect, Nova Scotia. The villagers launched a dangerous rescue, saving over 400 victims, and recovered and buried over 500 bodies in two mass graves. Read more in my graphic novel Call Me Bill (Conundrum Press 2022).

Lower Prospect, Nova Scotia

Upper Prospect, Nova Scotia

My Work-in-Progress Graphic Novel!!

I wish you all the very best in this new year! Please contact me if you would like to collaborate in 2025!!

CHURCH OF OUR LADY OF LEBANON, HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA

I finally began the preparatory cartoons for the set of 9 large windows in January 2022. It had already been more than a year awaiting and anticipating the final designs from the Maronite Iconographer, Rita Assaf of Montreal, who was designing them through consultation with the bishop and the donor. The deadline to unveil the windows to the congregation was set at Easter 2023.

The windows tell the Life of Mary in the Lebanese Maronite tradition, the first 4 are her life on earth, the last 4 are her afterlife.

The first piece of glass was cut in April 2022, leaving barely 10 months to create 9 windows!

the depictions had to strictly adhere to the Iconographer’s instructions

fabulous mouthblown glass from Lamberts, Germany

I calculated the glass needed and ordered it and lead and solder – supply chains were still poor since Covid. One of the best things that this job allowed, was to be able to have an apprentice, Erin, full-time in studio for the duration!

Cartoons, portraits and patterns

By April, I had completed all nine cartoons, shaded in pencil as they would need to be painted, and received approval from the Iconographer to create them in stained glass. There would be 54 panels, each 5’x2′, 6 per window, installed into custom metal frames with proper ventilation. I’m sure I couldn’t have done it without Hazel’s help. Check for paw prints.

There was a lot of drawing to be done before cutting glass could begin. The windows were 12′ tall and 5′ wide, with 3′ between each. The Iconographer’s designs had rays coming from the middle window, and radiating across all 9 windows. These had to line up across the 70′ length! There were also many faces, hands, angels, cherubs, seraphim, and portraits to render in pencil on the cartoons.

This statue, window #5 Our Lady of Lebanon, is in Harissa and was given to Lebanon by France. It is a pilgrimage destination

With all the half-scale cartoons complete and approved, I enlarged them, divided them into 6 panels each, and superimposed the architectural frame dimensions onto each panel, then drafted patterns for each panel. They HAD to line up and fill the 12′ window precisely, including the dimension of the metal T-bar that supported each panel, made by Tony and Chris Salah of MacDonnell Welding and Metal Works.

Test Fit

WE made 4 panels and did a test fit. They looked pretty good.

This window #6 is based on a 6th century Syriac Icon

Let’s make these windows!!

It was a really hot summer and I had the kilns firing day and night. After each panel was painted, Erin leaded them up, soldered and puttied, and stored them in the crates she made specifically for this job.

INSTALLATION!!

We completed by the deadline! Installation went smoothly with the help of Tony and Chris Salah.

Job Done!

It’s Autumn already!!

I am taking this morning to update my Blog to tell you what about the exciting things I have been working on this year! It may seem that I have slipped under a rock, but far from it. It has been an intense, non-stop stained glass year AND a book I wrote and illustrated has just been published!

I have been working on fabricating 9 large stained glass windows for Church of Our Lady of Lebanon in Halifax. The designs were made by Lebanese Canadian Iconographer, Rita Assaf. Each window is 5’x12′, divided into 6 stacking panels. I have also been bidding on other jobs, and accepting a few so I am not completely off the radar while creating the large windows. I have an apprentice for this year, which is an amazing opportunity to teach these little-understood techniques and skills!

I Wrote a BOOK!

AND I wrote and illustrated a Young Adult graphic novel during Covid, and it has just been published by Conundrum Press’ new imprint Emanata! CALL ME BILL is the true story of the disastrous wreck of the White Star Line SS Atlantic (yes, the same as the Titanic) on April 1, 1873. The memory of this important story was overshadowed by 2 world wars, the Titanic wreck, and not to overlook the fact that the White Star Line deliberately tried to bury the truth! CALL ME BILL also tells the story of the heroic rescue, traumatic recovery of 500 dead bodies by a few Nova Scotian villagers.

So, why is the book called Call Me Bill? Here’s why! From the April 5, 1873 Halifax Morning Chronicle…

Read CALL ME BILL to learn more about this incredible person!! Available at bookstores or order online at Conundrum Press.

None of us expected Covid-19 to dominate 2021 but it sure did. As I write this we have been dealt the Delta Variant and now Omicron is running willy-nilly. Most Canadians are double vaccinated so maybe the virus is panicking because it’s having trouble finding hosts! We all hope this is Covid’s last hurrah so we can pick up the languishing pieces of our lives. I hope you’re all well. I’m ok. Missing my kids. But making beautiful stained glass thanks to you! Thank you!

It’s been a busy year. Here are some of the projects completed in 2021. Going forward, I am excited to be creating 9 big stained glass windows, designed by a Montreal-based iconographer. Also, I will publish my first GRAPHIC NOVEL!! More on these projects later. For now, enjoy this gallery of photos, and let me know if I can be of service.

They say we are not in the same boat, but we are in the same storm. Covid-19 has defined the year in unimaginable ways. We are not gathering. We are in bubbles. We are nesting. We are staying home and going into nature. We are making careful self-care, community-care choices. You have kept me busy and as a self-employed person, I am grateful, beyond grateful. I am honoured to have met soulful people who have valued my vision and skills enough to ask me to add Beauty to the world. Thank you!

Stars to Steer By.

What a year!

This year was marked by an abundance of exciting Stained Glass Conservation, Restoration, and repair work. Do you wonder what the difference is between Restoration and Conservation? They have a lot of overlap, but imagine if a beautifully painted, heritage piece of glass is damaged, smashed. Restoration might involve repainting it, duplicating it as close to the original as possible, whereas Conservation would involve methods to keep and utilize the original bits and pieces. There is an ever-growing body of knowledge about this topic, for example, from York Glazier’s Trust, and of course in relation to the fire at Notre Dame.

If you’d like to read more about the Church Stained Glass work we did this year, click over to the Conservation page.

Church Stained Glass 2019

Full restoration of Heritage Stained Glass lancets
Design and create new stained glass to celebrate Church’s 30 years
Removal and repair of church stained glass while tracery is restored
Lynette Richards of Rose Window Stained Glass coordinated the removal, repair, and re-installation of 400 windows for the Sisters of St Martha.

Condition Reports

Many times, folks are unaware of the potential to save their aging stained glass, and not aware that there is a process they can enter into to have a professional evaluate the condition, and prepare a Condition Report, and Maintenance Schedule. With timely interventions, major damage and expense can be avoided, deferred, budgeted for. Did you know that stained glass exists that is over 1000 years old?! The glass can go on forever, but the lead has a lifespan of 80-120 years, depending on the stresses the windows endure. Contact us for an evaluation.

Establishing provenance of the stianed glass, creating a pattern drafting and photographic documentation are essential.

Upcoming Classes

Please get on the Waiting List for Classes! They fill up fast.

2019 Happy New Year!

The skills of Stained Glass Window making developed, ironically, in the Dark Ages in Britain, followed by France, then onward. Have you wondered why? As architecture became sophisticated enough that there could be large openings in the walls without the roofs collapsing, the weather needed to be kept out. There were no big sheets of glass so small pieces of handmade glass were fitted together with lead strips called cames. It didn’t take long for early glaziers to figure out they could make pictures with the pieces just like mosaics. Early pictorial reference materials were mosaics and illuminated manuscripts, themselves heavily influenced by Byzantine Iconography. The second reason this particular craft evolved where it did is the LIGHT! Northern countries like our own spend half the year with the sun travelling low across the horizon. The sun’s oblique angles project the colours of stained glass across the interior architecture. The very movement of the LIGHT became symbolic for the SPIRIT  animating the body.

WINNER!!

I delivered this Humpback Whale Stained Glass to the delighted winner of the draw held at the Craft NS Winter Show! Thank you to everyone who visited!

CLASSES!

Sign up now for the first series of Classes scheduled to start on February 4, 2019. Click here for details. As always you can make whatever you want. I will help you know if your stained glass pattern is appropriate to your skill level, or if a few adjustments will fix it.

What’s happening at Rose Window Stained Glass?

Church Work

There are a few Church commissions underway as the year kicks off. Philip Doucette and I removed and crated Bethany United Church’s stained glass so they can get the wooden tracery repaired. We will repair the stained glass as needed and reinstall in the Spring. I trekked up to New Brunswick to repair a buckling window in St. Thomas United Church, Black River. What a beautiful province! Philip and I are also removing stained glass from the Atlantic School of Theology as they prepare to renovate the old building. One of the windows may well be going into permanent storage as its depiction of early missionaries is inappropriate as seen with current understanding. The best part of that window is the pink and ruddy plant foliage!

Custom Work

I delivered some interesting stained glass last season, and there are some creative one-of-a-kind custom commissions ongoing!! I have the BEST clients!!

Happy Winter everyone! Enjoy the sunbeams and twinkle and notice already how the days are getting longer! Contact me anytime!

 

HOT SUMMER 2018!

Exciting New Work!

I recently delivered 3 exciting stained glass windows! Here is a synopsis.

Lunenburg NS

Skullduggery Gallery

Last December I purchased a set of 3 very old windows circa 1850s, that had been found built in between the walls of the original Sears store in New Glasgow, NS. They were clearly made in the UK and featured painted stained glass Victorian bird stained glass medallions and pastoral scenes in enamels and vitreous paint. They are stunning and though I typically do not buy old stained glass, these were so exceptional that I could not bear the thought that they might be ruined elsewhere. At the time I did not know how I would use them but trusted that the opportunity to allow this precious glass to continue would present itself.

In April I was approached by a customer whose home was the same vintage and who needed a transom. He hoped for a steampunk style or some reiteration of Victorian Arts and Crafts era stained glass. Exactly what I was dreaming of!! Here is what we did.

Memory Glass!

My second project was a Memory Glass window using a grandmother’s plate, which had the flower motifs of the British Isles, and surrounding it with the names of all the women of 4 generations. In the border I used small pieces of vintage heritage stained glass from the New Glasgow windows.

Clockworks

My third project was a custom designed transom window including a medallion of clockworks surrounded by gold quarries. The customer collects Westclox alarm clocks! I used 2 rondels from the heritage stained glass windows from New Glasgow, and other fine pressed glass, vintage glass, and the coveted cranberry stained glass in the border.

Copper foil stained glass

In the gaps between painting and leading the previous 3 labour intensive stained glass panels I also made some copper foil stained glass for customers.

All my custom stained glass is designed to accommodate customers’ vision, aesthetics, timeline and budget, without compromising my own high standards!

NEWS!

In May my studio Rose Window Stained Glass was featured in the Craft NS Instagram Takeover! Here are some photos from around the studio. Upstairs I have an office with a library of books and a drafting board where most of my design work and stained glass pattern drafting takes place. The working studio with stained glass tools, stained glass supplies and workbenches is on the ground floor.

Upcoming SUMMER SHOWS!

As always my work can be purchased through me or from Made in the Maritimes, or the Designer Craft Shop!

I will be participating in the Peggys Cove Studio Tour on Saturday July 7 and Sunday July 8. Drop by the studio if you’d like.

July 20, 21 and 22 is the Craft NS Summer Show in Victoria Park! Hope to see you there!

CLASSES and WORKSHOPS

No classes or workshops are currently scheduled but that may change! Possibly will book some in late August or early September. If you are interested let me know. Regularly scheduled classes will resume in early October!!

Have a wonderful SUMMER!