Stained Glass Journal Archive

Gothic Stained Glass

Where I first started in stained glass, Gothic windows were respected above all other windows. This gave me an excellent start in appreciating painted glass. Tiffany windows seem to be much more popular in America though. I can understand why, since if was an American trend after all. The Met in New York has some great European Gothic windows which I have looked at many times. They are unfortunately in front of fluorescent lights though. I really don't think this is the best way to view them. After having gone to Europe myself and having stood in front of the windows at Chartre, for instance, the natural lighting just makes more sense. Regardless, here are some pictures of the windows at the Met in New York in case you get a chance to go to New York. The proportions of the figures and the odd lines that represent folds and objects take a while to figure out. I remember the first "Gothic" looking window that I tried to make. The client said that one of the people looked like he was karate chopping a table. I changed the sketch.

Luke the Apostle

Luke, the gospel writer, is considered to be a patron saint of artists. He was born to pagan parents, possibly was a slave, and later became a physician. Legend has it that he was also a painter who may have done portraits of Jesus and Mary, but none have ever been correctly attributed to him. He traveled with Saint Paul evangelizing Greece and Rome and wrote the Gospel according to Luke, much of which was based on the teachings and writings of Paul, and his own experiences. He also wrote a history of the early Church in the Acts of the Apostles.

His name means bringer of light or warm. It is Latin and based upon the Greek name Loukas. His patronage includes artists, bachelors, bookbinders, brewers, butchers, doctors, glass makers, glass workers, gold workers, goldsmiths, lace makers, lace workers, notaries, painters, physicians, sculptors, and stained glass workers. He is depicted as being a winged ox, with a book, with a brush, painting an icon of Mary, with a palette, and as a winged calf.

St. Elmo's Fire

One of my favorite religious-science light phenomenon is St. Elmo's Fire.

St. Elmo's fire is a plasma that forms arounds the tips of raised, pointed conductors during thunderstorms and snowstorms. It has occured around ships masts, church steeples, horns of cows and out stretched fingers and is known as a point discharge to physicists. People who have witnessed an actual St. Elmo's fire occurance have given various descriptions. It could be blue to bluish-white, silent to emitting a hissing sound, and ghostly to solid. Some people belive that the Hindenburg was ignited by St. Elmo's fire in 1937, however this theory has yet to be proven. If it occurs at sea, it is a sign that St. Elmo is protecting the ship.

Laser-Cut Plastic Stencils

After doing a bunch of research on contemporary custom brass stencils, I have discovered that the practice of making them is largely lost. Plastic has taken over for many companies that used to make them in brass. For example, Dayton Stencil which started off using brass years ago almost never does now. Although brass is gone, Dayton Stencil and Lasermation will both accept emailed eps files and mail back plastic stencils.

After realizing plastic has taken over, I have discovered that there are craft books with packets of plastic stencils in them which can easily be used for stained glass painting projects. Charlene Tarbox has a series published by Dover containing a pouch with stencil sheets in it. There are groups of stencils of animals, flowers, Victorian boarders, Celtic motifs, snowflakes, North American Indian, Egyptian, fruits and others. The size of the stencils seems to be good for small stained glass projects. I found a large listing of books of stencils and on stencils. Also there are large collections of faux painting stencils that you can order for larger window designs. Even some top designers have their own stencil patterns.

Brass Pattern Stencils

Currently, I am working on a restoration project for a church that was built right after the Civil War in upstate New York. Like so many stained glass windows of that era, a brass stencil painting technique was used. A large amount of the painted pieces in the windows are faded or broken and need to be replaced. In order to do this, I am using some original glass painted pieces to remake a brass stencil like the original that was likely lost.

I am using new glass painted in this old style to fill in the problem areas. The same type of paint used for trace line-additive painting and tonal subtractive painting will be used. The technique involves painting the full piece of glass with a dark brown or black paint first so that you can't see through it. Then, after the paint is dry, the brass stencil is placed on top of the piece of glass. A thick camel hair or similar type brush is used to remove the exposed paint below the stencil. The piece is then fired. When it is cooled, tones and silverstains finish the project.

When this historical process was started, the idea was to make a field of glass within a window the same size and color so that a stencil could be used to quickly fill in a large area. The stencil designs look a lot like pattern painted around the upper section of a wall in faux painting. Really though, architectural faux painting is a cousin of stained glass painting. Many of the brushes and techniques can be carried over from one to the other. Faux stencils could be used for glass painting and are available online.

I also happened across a great online dictionary of stained glass terms.

Stained Glass Workshop

Five years ago, I was working as a designer and painter for Pittsburgh Stained Glass. I was creating designs for churches that I knew very little about. Sure, I knew plenty about the types of symbols that each congregation wanted in a window. They communicated this from afar very well. And after working with many different types of churches, I starting to see different larger patterns that groups of churches use. The priests, ministers, and building committees were very helpful in how the windows should technically look. Beyond al this though, I wondered more about the people who would sit beside these windows every day. As a designer for a major stained glass studio, I realized that I had no contact with these people and I understood very little about them.

So in 1999 I decided to get to know a church from the inside as an artist. I advertised a stained glass workshop in which I would teach members of the church to build windows and talk about the history of glass and imagery. After following up with one synagogue and a few churches, Grace Episcopal Church in Mount Washington ran with the idea. I began by teaching a class inwhich the adult students designed and built a window of their own to take home. This class enabled me to get to know the members of the church and the pastor very well.

When the class was over, I was invited to create a new window for the church. For this window, I drew from the congregation itself within the context of their symbolism. Over the next three years, we completed three other windows as well. Each time, I taught the members of the church how to paint and build the windows themselves. A group of 12 developed as a design and construction team over time. Unfortunately, during the making of the third window, one of the members of the team contracted brain cancer and passed away. For the very last window, we designed it as a combination of different aspects of her life and faith. It was truly moving. It was installed on the first anniversary of her death.

light made solid

Thursday, September 30, 2004

Gothic Stained Glass

Wednesday, September 29, 2004

Luke the Apostle

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

St. Elmo's Fire

Monday, September 27, 2004

Laser-Cut Plastic Stencils

Sunday, September 19, 2004

Brass Pattern Stencils

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

Stained Glass Workshop