First attempt at stained glass!

James Lethbridge

Stained glass was the first new technique that we learned in second year, and it coincided with our Inspiration brief. I had done initial research on a few artists for inspiration and James Lethbridge was one of them.

For my stained glass 'cartoon' (accurate template for the glass to be cut to), I simply photocopied a page of my sketchpad on which I had drawn one of James Lethbridge's pieces, and using the lines within the drawing, separated it into sections which would then be the pieces of glass.

I worked on the glass in a variety of different techniques; the first being screen-printing (black), which directly transfers an image onto glass. I chose sections of the drawing that would be screen printed, as I wanted build the image up in layers, and I decided to leave the text on, as it would then be a working drawing, and I thought it would add to the sketchiness.

The second layer was silver-stain (yellow/brown), which I think adds a depth to the glass:

Close-ups:

Leading Up...

The finished piece:

I'm really happy with how this panel has turned out, particularly the bottom half simply because of the colour and the depth that has been created with the layering effects.

A Second Stained Glass Window!

As I liked the bottom half of my first stained glass panel so much, I decided to blow up the same drawing I had used initially and do another panel just of this section on a larger scale.

I used the same processes; screen-printing, silver-stain, sandblasting and engraving:





These photos below were taken on a wooden table rather then the white background on the photos above because it shows up the sandblasting and engraving where the previous photos don't.

The finished piece:

I much prefer this one to my first attempt, I think the first one had a bit too much clear glass on it whereas this one has much more going on and is vibrant and exciting.