Left: from my 1996 sketchbook, drawing before making the kitchen window. Right: photo of window 500mm square.
I made a window for the kitchen door in our old house which I sold to a friend who was visiting. It was a simple thing, an arrangement of squares of glass scraps, mostly enamelled, and mostly featuring the stripes I use for my samples. This window was much better than the snap I have of it (above right), but luckily I also have my sketchbooks from a time when I drew everything, before I made it (above left) and even after I made it (below). The before drawing in coloured pencil shows that I changed about five pieces before leading it up, with the thinnest possible lead used for the verticals. The arrangement spiralled around the central circle on a square of orange flashed glass (that I remember breaking when I was sandblasting off the thick orange layer) becoming paler towards the edges of the window.
Pencil drawing (not rubbing) of the window.
Left: glass squares on the lightbox. Right: centre of the new panel.
I’ve never found a pattern for putting sample pieces together that I like as much as that simple mosaic of squares, and as I had a lot of small ones (40mm sq.) in my sample box I thought I’d make a new panel in the same spirit. In 1996 I was led by the central orange square but this time, 27 years later, I had lots of green pieces that suggested a landscape format, and lots of diagonal stripes that I was careful to arrange in an imaginary oval that pulls the composition together. I found a piece with a building painted on it and then one with a belisha beacon, these added interest to the panel so I dared to add a cow in the middle. These pieces all contain the right subject matter for a local landscape and show me a way of using small scale imagery that mixes well with my habitual pattern making.
Comparing my old work and approach with my new one, I know that I used to put more concentrated effort into drawing and that the glass I made was quite scrappy and loose. Now my drawing is rough and untidy, while I put a lot more detail and care into the glass painting.
