Her Excellency Vienna's Rose Stained Glass Arpil 2019

Hi All

I have not been active for over a year due to health and mundane reasons.  I have missed it very much!!

I decided last week at K and 's A and S to do  a piece of glass art for both of their Excellencies Wilhelm and Vienna when they stepped down at Coronation on April 6th.

I decided to do a Tudor Rose period stained glass piece for Her Excellency

I had a pattern that I have been modifying so I worked on it a little bit more and came up with this design:

 Each "number" is a different glass piece that needs to be cut.  It there should be a direction to the grain of the glass then there is an arrow to keep the grain the same on all of the same color.

 I decided to use a very rich colored glass for the red,yellow and greens.  It was what is called cathedral glass.  Clear color with very few blemishes.  I used an opaque white for one of the roses and a very "blemished" clear for the background.  Their clear glass would have had blemishes it. 

I cut all the pieces and then roughly put them onto the main design.  I used a standard hand held modern glass cutter and glass grozer.  About 2 years ago, I did see an artisan that made medieval grozers but he appears to not be in business anymore.  I am hoping that I can barter with one of the blacksmith artisans in my Barony - a piece of glass work for a medieval style grozer.

 In period they would have heated the glass with a hot iron to break it and then medieval grozers to get a finer edge to the cut glass pieces.

Seeing that the pieces fit together for the most part I started to paint them.

First I put a black tracing paint on them.  This emphasized major lines...like veins in the leaves.

I used Reusche tracing black leaded paint and gum arabic as a binder.  I have always used the gum arabic in my work but will do some experimenting on if you really need it.  You mix the dry particles together so that the there are no lumps and no white of the gum arabic showing

Then you add water and start to make a paste

 When the paste is a consistancy of what I like to say "cake batter"  it is mixed enough

Next I take a thin brush and start painting rough lines on the glass..my favorite brush..about 10 years old.  I do have some bird feathers and cat whiskers...so I intend to try to make my own brush...yes I followed my cat around the house waiting for her to drop whiskers...it took 5 months but I have 5 long whiskers!!!

Sorry I did not take pictures of the rough ones but these are cleaned up pieces ready to fire in my kiln so that the paint will adhere. I use a bamboo stick and dental tool to clean up the black and give it sharper lines.  They would have used anything sharp that they had to clarify their lines

After the pieces have been fired and cooled down. You are ready for the shading.  Various shades of browns are used to give the "stained" glass look.  The same process follows where you mix the brown paint with gum arabic and then add water to get a paste consistancy.

However there is difference at this point.  You actually cover the whole piece of glass with the brown paint and let dry. You get a smooth line free finish by using  wide badger hair brush

 Then you start removing the brown paint to achieve your shading.  I have several brushes of varying stiffness that I use to achieve the removal of the paint.  I did not get any pictures of the removed paint on this piece as I was in a rush and forgot.  However you can look at some of  my other blogs to see this process.

When you have finished the shading, the pieces get fired in the kiln again to adhere the paint.  Then you are ready to start putting the piece together

Using the master pattern you start to lay the pieces in using leaded came.  I used a medium sized came as I had some bends that were a bit tight. Using horse nails the pieces are held together as you build the piece.

 At this stage you are ready to solder the piece.  This requires a light touch or the came will melt too much.  Below is the piece soldered and I used a black pantina to stain the leaded came. 

Then you need to cement the piece to stop the pieces from moving and provide stability..As you can see in the picture below it gets a bit messy with the cement and then the whiting drying agent.

You let it set for a bit.  Then I use a brush and wooden stick to clean out the cement from the glass and form the defining came cement lines

This is the final piece.  I apologize if I forgot some pictures but I made both pieces in 4 days as the Rose had to set several days before I could give it out.  I am starting up another piece called "the 5 heroines of the Bible"  next week and will give much more detail.