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

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.