SCA Maunche for Music Painted and Fused Glasswork

One of my friends was getting his SCA Maunche in music.  I asked if I could do it as I thought it would be really neat to do a piece of glass featuring music.

I started out by needing photo's of his instruments.  I went over to his house and his wife got out his instruments and I took photos of them.

Then I needed a "piece of music".  I went to Treasures of a Lost Art by The Metropolitan Museum of Art. By the way, an incredible book!!! The challenge was to find something that looked nice and was doable as glass painted art.  On page 57 I found Two Martyr Saints in an Initial P.  See below:

 Although the letter P was beautiful, there was no way that it would lend itself to a period glass painting. So I redrew the P in the final sketch with a flower design.

The SCA maunche design I took from the SCA website.

And I mutual friend wrote the words for the scroll. The result is the sketch below.

NOTE:  The blocks with the "X" mean that I was just going to put in colored glass....

Now begins the work.  I figured that I would tackle the hardest part which was the music.  I redid this piece several times with the black tracing ink before I was happy with it.  Fortunately you can wash the paint off the glass and start over.  Finally I was satisfied and fired the glass in my kiln

Next I worked on his various instruments. Doing the black tracing paint, firing the pieces and then doing the Bistre brown for shading.

I was going to try to paint the Maunche symbol but it would not have looked good in black and brown.  Then I decided to do a fusing for the symbol.  Technically not period but I think that glass might have accidently fused on occasion! 

 I did not want a lot of blank space around the piece so I put a leafy design on several of the pieces.  The design is very similar to a German 13th century window replica that I had worked on several years ago.

Lastly I fused the words to a piece of glass and then put a fusable clear piece of glass over it.  And fused them together.  Not period, but practical!

Then I began to put the pieces together with leaded came...

Until it was completed. Then I soldered, cemented and used black pantina on it.

 Framed it and it was done! 

Anglican Glass Piece - SCA Maunche award

Hi:  I have been doing alot of Medieval style painting this year [2015] but have not been posting.  I am going to start by describing a piece that I did for a dear friend who got her Maunche award in Jan of 2015.  I will call this my Anglian glass piece.  The person who I was doing this for has a personna in the SCA of a 5th/6th century Anglian,  Of course there are no examples of glass work from this time so I did not have any "examples". What I decided to do is take some jewelry designs of the time and make them glass designs.  Since this was going to be a two part scroll...one part glass...one part regular illumination/calligraphy on paper it was very unique.

From Nigel Mills Saxon and Viking Artefacts book I took the design from a "S" shaped brooch.

Then I found a picture of Style I Animal, I am sorry but I did not write the source down. Then I combined both designs into one. See the "drawing" below.

Then came the color choices.  Based on some research that I have previously done I figured that I would go with yellow, blue, green for the three pcs on the outside and amber for the middle one.

I started with the inner circle by using Black tracing paint and doing the outline and firing it onto the glass

Although I know that it would not be "period"  I wanted more interest in the middle pc so I painted it with a light layer of Bistre brown paint and then brushed away the paint until the two "heads" had a form. I fired it onto the glass.

I felt the the outer circle could be a very stark primitive design so I painted the black tracing paint on them and fired the pcs in my kiln.  I had to do the larger areas twice as the paint did not take well the first time on these areas.  This paint is meant to be a tracing paint. It is not meant to be used to fill in large black areas.

Then I put them together with the amber circle in the middle and the other three pieces around the edge.  I soldered them together and cemented them.

Next I put black pantina on it to create contrast.



The piece was ready to be put together with the illumination/calligraphy.   I cut two pcs of plain glass that the paper could go between and set them into the frame with the stained glass piece.

Painting a realistic face using Medieval Techniques

Painting a Realistic Face Using Medieval Techniques


March  25, 2013 - drawing the cartoon and doing the black tracing

I have a request to do a realistic face.   I want to do this using medieval techniques. This will be an exciting challenge for me as I have never done a real face before.  I have drawn a sketch [cartoon] from a photo. See below. 

I am going to use a white glass for her face and neck - Spectrum SP200-91W - this is a water glass that is slightly opalescent.  It has a hint of red in it when you hold it up to the light and it has a slight wave to the surface [like water has] but it is very smooth so I should be able to do the finer detailing on the shading.  Her veil will be with a less transparent white glass.  Her dress will be with a smooth cathedral blueish glass with imperfections in it. I will use a cathedral medium amber for her hair.And lastly I will use a clear with imperfections for her crown.

I mixed the black tracing paint - Reuche Best tracing black - 57R005/gum arabic and water to a smooth consistancy

I applied the black tracing paint to the lines on  the face and the crown areas that I wanted to be highlighted.

I also decided to put some black lines in the hair to provide "shadowing".

I will fire these tonight.

Yesterday I  did the black tracing and the brown shading on the veil.

"Nimbed figure" Anglo Saxon Colored Glass Window Replica

"Nimbed figure" Anglo Saxon Colored Glass Window Replica - NOTE : This is not a painted window but it seems like it would be fun to do!

Updates:

January 13, 2013 - explanation of the project, pattern, picking colors
January 14, 2013 - more on the history of the window , starting the cutting and caming
January 18, 2013 - update on the cutting and caming
January 31, 2012 - finished the cutting and the caming, patina and cementing!
February 6, 2013 - all framed and finished!


This project will be to recreate an Anglo Saxon window that has been found."Fragments of unpainted coloured glass making up this figure were excavated at the Anglo Saxon sites of Monkwearmouth and Jarrow and retain their colour and translucency despite centuries of burial. This is no double due to their high soda content typical of the highly durable glasses maufactured in the Roman Tradition": Medieval Craftsmen glass painting Sarah Brown pages 8-9

"no complete windows survive from the fith and sixth centuries, although literary evidence for them is plentiful. ...In seventh century England the craft of glazing which had died out when the Romans left and so was lost to the Anglo Saxons, was reintroduced through contact with the churches of Gaul. Eddius Stephanus'life of Bishop Wilfrid describes his church in York in about 670, glazed against the wind, rain, and the passage of birds, but allowing the light to shine within, a neat description of the practical and aesthetic roles of the new material. Bede's Historia Abbatum [History of the Abbots of Monkwearmouth and Jarrow] reveals that in 675 Abbot Benedict Biscop sent to Gaul for craftsmen both to make and to glaze the windows of his monastery church at Monkwearmouth in Northumbria." Page 8

I will be doing what is called the "nimbed figure" from Wearmouth-Jarrow quarries.  "based on the shapes of some of the Jarrow quarries, rather than any recovered lead lines, Rosemary Cramp and her colleagues were, in her words, "emboldened to think" of yet another possibility, The well known conjectured scheme of unpainted quarries assemled to produce a nimbed figure in an arched frame, was the result" Vidmus issue 42

PICKING THE GLASS COLORS

"Glass recovered from the sites [Anglo Saxon] has shown that it consists overwhelmingly of "soda lime silica glass" The alkali, soda [a sodium compound] was mixed with sand to provide the flux to facilitate melting....Although most of the glass is techlnically uncolored [actualy often pale blue or greenish owing to iron compound in the sand used in the manufacturing process] archaeologist also found blue glass of several hues together with examples of green, yellow green, greenish amber, brownish amber, reds and two colour glasses including some with trails or streaks of red, and others with a red marble like effect." Stained glass in Anglo Saxon Vidmus issue 42

"The glass found at Wearmouth and Jarrow has been shown to be cylinder or Muff  glass" Vidmus issue 42.  This is glass blown into a cylinder than cut and flattened. Based on this I have picked out a very pale green and a light blue for the main colors.  I have also picked out a purple, amber, red and yellow based on the picture above.

DOING THE PATTERN

When I was drawing up the pattern I was surprised at how many small pieces that there are.  However I have now read that there is a possibility that some of this glass was "salvaged from Roman Tesserae" Vidmus issue 42. This would make alot of sense!

 

 I have made it 13" by 7" in size.  I am still looking for information on how churches where built during the Anglo Saxon era.  However common sense tells me that the windows would have been on the smaller size.



STARTING THE TRACING

Since the colors that I have picked are so light it is very easy to see the patterns through the glass. They would have drawn the pattern on a chalked washed board.

STARTING THE CAME

"By contrast with the scale of glass found on the site very few lead calmes were recovored, probably due to recycling. Some glass hjstorians have suggested that H section lead networks were an eight century refinement" Vidmus issue 42. I am going  to be using 3/16" H came

As stated in Theophilus On Divers arts - I will be starting in the middle with the head.

January 18, 2013

UPDATE ON THE CUTTING AND THE CAMING

I have been cutting and caming this piece over the last few days.   I am becoming more and more convinced that these pieces of glass were "recycled" by the Anglo Saxons from  a ruined Roman site near Wearmouth or Jarrow.  These pieces are very small and alot of  effort would have been  needed to cut each piece

On Monday I will post more about the history of Anglo Saxon window glass and on the Monastaries at Jarrow and Wearmouth.

January 31, 2012

Finishing the cutting and caming

I finally finished the cutting and  the caming.  This was ALOT of work!  I had a hard time figuring out some of the colours at the bottom as the only picture that I have was not clear on those colors other than they were not blue or green!

I soldered the front and back with 60 tin/40 lead solder and a liquid flux. Because I have worked on it so long the came has a lot of oxidation on it. I used a flux brush with stiff bristles to clean the came before soldering.

Applying the Patina

Then I cleaned the flux off using very hot water and comet granular cleaner. Once it had dried I took a soft toothbrush and black patina and covered all of the came. You need to so this before you cement as the chemicals in the cement can react to the cement and create a mess.

Cementing

Next Using a two part cement I cemented the front and back applying a whiting compound to absorb some of the moisture so that the cement will set.

Using a brush, I brushed the whiting compound over the entire piece

Using a piece of wood with a sharp point, I have started to clean the edges of the inside corners of the came - taking out the extra cement

I have done the first cleaning and need to wait a day or so to do the second cleaning of any extra cement

Thoughts on framing

Because of the time and place of the original window - Anglo Saxon - 7th century - I am figuring that It would have been installed in a grey stone in the church wall..  So off to the local home supply box store to see what they have that I can make a frame out of!!!


Making the frame

Okay, I had to go to many home improvement stores looking for grey tile....not a currently popular color.  I guess that there is not a huge call for "anglo Saxon Style grey tiles for framing ".  However I did find some finally.  I built a wooden frame for the piece and then I tiled it with the grey tiles.  I wanted the arch but these tiles were impossible to cut so I did an overlay design to get the arch.  Below is the finished window and the picture that I took my inspiration from!