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6 Feb 2013

Stained Glass....one post of many (I suspect)

oh Lordy! For those of you who have been a friend for a couple of years (or just a keen reader!) and remember my jaunt to the Glasgow School of Art to learn the ancient skill of stained glass work I have an announcement:

I HAVE STARTED WORK ON THE STAINED GLASS WINDOWS

I know - it's taken me about three years to get to this stage, but I could not put it off any longer....and so this morning found me standing in the cupboard with my safety glasses on top of my actual glasses, my glass wheel oiled up, my drawing in place..... enormous sweat rings of panic under my armpits and the camera, of course.

Tadah!
BTW - I didn't break that bit of glass.  Truly.

The first few pieces were not happy events.  The house is old.  The glass panels will not be exactly right-angled at the bits one would expect to be right angled.  Therefore, I have a bit of a run on some of my horizontals.

There was a threat of weepage when I realised just now noticeable this might be.  And that it would be in the house FOR EVER.

But then common sense kicked in and I knew that I'd be able to fudge it. Somehow.

So I set to:


The first bit in place.
This took about an hour.
I'm not kidding.


Then the other bits slotted into place a little more quickly.

Of course, I don't think that I should RUSH these things, so now I've stopped for a while.  I've got a music lesson in an hour.  

I've been putting off starting this stained glass project for years.  And it's actually quite fun.

In fact, 2013 is turning out to be funner than I had expected.

Mind you, it's only February.

What have you been putting off that you've decided to DO RIGHT NOW?




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19 comments:

  1. Ruth6 February 2013 at 12:44

    I love it Ali!!! I do believe it takes ages - it's such a detailed thing where one really needs to work carefully! Oh, what kind of muic classes you are taking? So exciting!

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    1. Alison Cross6 February 2013 at 12:47

      Ruth - thank you! I've tried to make the design fairly simple, but one never knows how things will turn out - could still be hideous!

      Music lessons - am learning how to play the keyboard and I go for an hour and Frank gives me 3 tunes that we go over together. Then I take my son out for a half-hour lesson later on today (I just sit and read a book for that session though).

      Learning the keyboard and practising it, is a lot of fun - so glad that I started! Been learning for a couple of years. Can recommend it!

      Ali x

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  2. Vivianne6 February 2013 at 13:19

    It's going to look great :)

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    1. Alison Cross6 February 2013 at 15:27

      Thanks Viv - I hope so. Another one to do after this one. It will look similar, but not identical - am using some bits of the original glass from the window that used to be in the front door. We found all these dirty bits of glass in a suitcase in the shed. I cleaned them up and hope to use some of them in these two panes and then turn the rest into little panels....or something. Probably completely useless :-D

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  3. Young at Heart6 February 2013 at 14:14

    oh my...is there no end to your talents?? It looks like it will look fab......am undertaking a big book project finally, 1 rejection down only 99 to go.......!!x

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    1. Alison Cross6 February 2013 at 15:29

      Mrs YaH - some may say is there no BEGINNING to my talents. And unfortunately, I live with those people :-D

      The book project will go WELL - tell yourself that the 100th letter out is THE important one and then if you hear anything nice in the other 99, it's a wee bonus :-D

      Ali x

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  4. the polish chick6 February 2013 at 14:28

    lovely! years and year (and years and years) ago, my mom and i made stained glass earrings to sell and goddamn it all to hell, the cutting of the glass was horrific. granted, they were tiny compared to your window, but i was perpetually walking around sliced into ribbons.

    what have i started? why, i went back to school! hence the sporadic commenting and even more sporadic blogging.

    mwah! mwah!

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    1. Alison Cross6 February 2013 at 15:30

      I miss your blogging, so hurry up and get on with the studying so that I can read you more regularly!!

      I'm not sure about making earrings - the glass would be REALLY fiddly to work with. But the final result would look beautiful. When I did my stint at the art school, there were only 3 elastoplasts required. All for me :-D

      Now - get thee back to the books!
      Alix

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    2. the polish chick8 February 2013 at 13:54

      i'm blogging, i'm blogging! little squirts here and there, but fairly regularly! go check it out!

      and the earrings were made of individual pieces of glass wrapped in the metal tape and soldered or whatnot, so it's not like they were works of art. still, when they caught the light just so, you could really see the dried blood in the corners and it made them pop!

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    3. Alison Cross8 February 2013 at 14:06

      Got any pix of the earrings - they sound brilliant! And commented on the coffee table shenanigans over at yours. I want a photo of that table when he eventually completes it :-D

      Ali x

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  5. The Cranky6 February 2013 at 15:29

    A beautiful start and I can't wait to see where you go with it. Hmmm, what have I started? I've re-started sewing.

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    1. Alison Cross8 February 2013 at 14:07

      Excellent - I need to see the pix of the sewing so that I can wave pom poms and cheer you onwards, albeit with bloodied paws!

      Ali x

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  6. Ania6 February 2013 at 19:40

    Fab! It 's looking great . Yet another thing I've always fancied having a go at :)

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    1. Alison Cross8 February 2013 at 14:08

      You'd luff it. And I suspect that you'd be brilliant at it as you seem to be brilliant at everything you turn your hand to. Why we are friends I'll never know :-)

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  7. Amanda Winfield7 February 2013 at 07:14

    Good for you! The start of what will be a love affair with glass!
    Just to please me, pop another piece of scrap lead against the good lead before banging in your horseshoe nail, that way you don't risk marking the lead in the window!
    Good luck and I hope to see the finished in place:)
    Amanda
    Abinger Stained Glass

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    1. Alison Cross8 February 2013 at 14:09

      Amanda - thank you so much for coming past my blog and advising me on my lead!!!! I immediately did as you advised and am much happier in myself about the change. I stopped off at your blog to say hello - you are very talented and you may end up with the odd panicked query from m'self as I go along :-D

      Ali x

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  8. Inner Whispers8 February 2013 at 19:39

    Yikes, even fitting regular doors in old houses is a massive undertaking. So, a stained-glass one just leaves me flabbergasted! It's looking lovely :)

    What have I been putting off? My dissertation protocol. Not sure I've yet decided to go for it, though. Got holidays coming up, maybe after that...

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    1. Alison Cross12 February 2013 at 08:40

      eek! The dissertation *dan-dan-daaaaaahn'' <- thriller type jingle :-D

      I don't know how long it's going to take me to finish this panel as a couple of the sections are really tricky!

      Good luck with dissertation protocol decision :-D

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    2. Inner Whispers12 February 2013 at 11:21

      Thanks, Ali :) Kinda gone on the backburner for the mo, but *a decision will be made* stentorian voice ;D

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