Trip to derby and stain glass workshop

 I went to Derby and stopped to look inside the cathedral- it had some beautiful stain glass windows. the images below were designed by Ceri Richards installed in 1963- they are based on the theme of All Saints and all Souls, depicting the struggle between darkness and light on these days - the picture on the left the all souls window is the darker of the two - whereas the widow on the left the all saints one represents the ultimate triumph of the light. 

                            


Took more pictures- these are of Bess of Hardwick's monument - she is buried in the vault below the cathedral. I liked that the positioning of her effigy is very similar to that of the ones found on brass rubbings- the same hands set in prayer, head set on a pillow, and an animal beneath the feet. 

                           


Inspired by the stain glass fragment in the Erewash museum I booked a stain glass workshop- I wanted to learn how it was made the work that went into making something so beautiful. 

We began by cutting with clear glass into basic shapes with a glass cutting- it had a little wheel that scored the glass, marking where you want it to be cut and then with the running pliers you line the mouth of the pliers up with the score line - applying pressure the glass should break down the score line

                            


                            

Then we moved onto coloured glass- scoring and breaking the glass to match the shapes on the paper pattern- kept it nice and simple as it was really difficult to cut anything accurately. 

                            

After cut the glass edges needed to be smoothed using the grinder- the grinder must have a wet sponge placed against it so that water is always touching the grinding bit -this stops glass dust from going in the air.

                            

Then I wrapped the edges of each piece of glass in copper tape - this is to give the solder something to bond to 

                            

Then using a solder iron I melted lead off a lead spool along the lines of copper tape to hold the glass pieces together.

                             

and then the finished product- it was very fun learning how to make stain glass - definitely fueled a new found appreciation - I dont think I will make any stain glass for this project , but I saved these splashes of melted. They looked like weird creates / microorganisms especially with the little spindly bits branching off 

                                            

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