Stained glass is unique in the world of art in that it is the only medium to fully exploit the relationship between glass and light. Light is an intangible phenomenon and since the dawn of time has been associated with philosophies and religions. It symbolizes life, goodness, revelation and beauty.

The desire of the early architects to bring this light to life and to educate a mostly illiterate congregation brought about the golden age of Gothic architecture and stained glass.

 
 

The Medieval Christian Church used coloured glass deliberately, aware that colour and light are both spiritual and sensual.

We still look in amazement at the beauty of a rainbow and marvel at the pureness of its colours. The rainbow, according to the book of Genesis, was Gods covenant with man after the Flood.

At the end of the Dark Ages there was a boom in church building and these churches and cathedrals were filled with colour and light.  Difficult to imagine what the people thought of this as they gazed at these pictures and stories brought to them in this way. They would have never seen any thing so beautiful or spiritual.

It is hard to trace the exact origins of stained glass. It does have some similarities in materials and techniques used by the goldsmith for cloisonné enamelling. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloisonne 

Its not beyond imagination to think that the first stained glass artists saw the goldsmith running his band of gold around glass or filling it with enamel and decided to try it with glass. Using a cheaper alternative, lead, and with the advent of the invention of lead milling and casting, it was then possible to hold the glass together in large portable panels.

These artists then discovered that iron filings ground together with flux and powdered glass could be painted onto the surface of the glass pieces. When fired in a kiln to melting point and cooled they were able to produce glass pieces with detail on such as faces, hands and drapery.

The earliest surviving examples of painted stained glass are the head of Christ from the abbey church at Wissembourg in Alsace from around 1060AD

 

and the famous five prophet windows in Augsburg Cathedral Middle of 12th Century.     

                    

These windows show us that there are already styles and techniques being used that one would expect from a practised artist.

This is a detail from a 16th century window in St Marys Church, Fairford and depicts a two headed Satan illuminated by the glow of hell. Love these windows!

There was a revival of stained glass in the nineteenth century. With the advent of the Gothic Revival the artists and architects of the time designed using forms and patterns that had been used in the middle ages. They combined serious study with romantic visions of romance and chivalry.  Two major artist of this time were William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones.

Edward Burne Jones was the most influential stained glass designer of the late 19th Century.

The link below will take you to a brief history and some pictures of his work.

 http://www.visitcumbria.com/edward-burne-jones.htm

The techniques and materials I use differ very little from those used by the earliest stained glass artists and craftsmen. There is a larger colour range of glass available, the tools have been improved with time and designs and styles change year after year but the basics are still those of an ancient tradition.  That being the case I feel honoured to be following in their footsteps. We stained glass artists of today are taking stained glass to a new dimension.  Adding fused and textured detail and also by encapsualting the panels into sealed units to save energy. As with any craft it is evolving year on year and we embrace change with great enthusiasm, as it will bring yet another way of working or another style to our work. And like all artists it is this that keeeps us awake at night designing!

Well here we are! Day one!

Day one for you that is and you are most welcome.

I have been on the Made by Hands of Britain journey for some time now and what a journey it has been! It is a cliché, but it really does feel as if my whole life has been leading to this point. From being a young girl, I have always had a fascination for handcrafted things and have, throughout my life, tried with mixed success, to put my own hand to making anything from wooden toys, spoons and pottery to print making, mosaics, clothes and food of all descriptions. I think any maker, however skilful, will tell you that there is nothing more satisfying than toiling and tussling with a particular medium or material to create an item that is useful, beautiful or both. There is a definite relationship that builds up over a period of time between a maker and his chosen material and just like any relationship, there is a period of struggle where one, will attempt to enforce their will and nature upon the other, until a compromise and understanding is achieved, at which point something beautiful and almost irresistible emerges, for the maker and the eventual owner.

I am in awe of the skill, care and passion that the makers within this site and beyond, dedicate to their craft or art and have gained nothing but utter respect for them.

Controversial as it may be to some but for me there are no such people as artists or craftsmen, there are only makers. All that is made, without exception, has been conceived, designed and fashioned from the makers, chosen material to serve an aesthetic and functional use, whether that be spiritual or practical, whether if feeds the mind, the soul or indeed the stomach!

You will never be able to purchase (or make) something with more honesty, authenticity, integrity and meaning than that which has been made by hand with those very same sentiments woven into the very fabric of the work. You will never be saying or learning more about yourself as an individual, than when choosing to buy (or make), surround yourself and fill your home with items that have been made by hand. You will never be more connected to your fellow human beings (or yourself) than when purchasing (or making) something that has been conceived, designed and created by another human being (or yourself). You will never be able to grow to love your possessions more than when they have been made by hand.

In these troubled times you will not make a better purchase than to

"buy something once and buy it well, make something once and make it well!"

I hope, while you wonder around the site, that you too will see and marvel at the Handmade Producers and Service Providers and consider, having at least one of these things grace your home, or indeed be encouraged to put your hand to making something yourself and that as a result your life will somehow be richer for it.

ENJOY!

*please forgive me for not including any pictures just now, I need to dig through the Gilly archives to find evidence of all my past handmaking endeavours large and small, great and not so great, so watch this space!

There are many things we can say about the failings and ills of our society, but the most worrying are
the apathy and abstinence from positive and proactive input from certain sectors. Many have
become spectators of life rather than participants; television for example, in the form of reality
shows creates confusion between fame and achievement and because of its accessible nature and
selective (edited) exposure of facts, gives the false impression that such things are easily gained
without the investment of learning, effort or struggle. As a result viewers, particularly but not
exclusively the young, find themselves disconnected and struggling to find a purpose in a world that
does not match their expectations.

What to do?

While there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution there are, in my opinion, things that can be done to
provide these people once more with a sense of doing, being and purpose; to feel that their
existence is justified just.

What better way to show evidence of our existence and identity (apart from creating children), than
to leave behind a tangible object created by hand?

Today the media is full to bursting, of programmes and articles dedicated to the tangible handmade
achievements of the past, such as the Antiques Road Show, Victorian/Edwardian Farm and most
recently, Handmade in Britain (to name but a few), where experts extol the virtues of craftsmen and
craftsmanship. They talk about the detail, the design, the skill, the workmanship and the fact that
many of these items are still in working use, literally hundreds of years later.

These antique objects and artefacts were as a result of ‘skilled manual labour’ the bi product of
which was being usefully occupied. There was a time when the term ‘manual labour’ meant and
(maybe in some eyes) still does mean today, demeaning, soulless work. However, we have forgotten
(or choose to ignore) that manual labour, although sometimes hard, was also associated with an
honest day’s work and more often than not there was something tangible to show for the efforts
expended at the end of the day. In that time, it is possible, even likely, that when such a person put
their head on the pillow at night, tired and aching, they did not realise the significance and
importance of their exertions and maybe would not have been aware that they were satisfying an
innate need to be manually as well as mentally occupied.

Today, not only is very little built to last but also few people expect things to last, in their constant search for ‘the next thing’, this ‘have it all and having it now’ approach has been of no help and indeed has caused the financial mess the planet now finds itself in.

Nevertheless, there are some who are fully aware of the significance of such noble exertions, which I
repeat; we celebrate on a regular basis. Manual occupation is still one of the best ways to satisfy this primeval need and that there is nothing wrong in going to bed tired and aching, knowing that the
day has been used to its full with something to show at the end of it. Some have become obsessed
with jumping the gun, to get to the destination without going on the journey, let alone enjoying it!
The concept of physical struggle is now perceived as bad, to the extent that we are desperately
trying to eliminate it (in the western world at least), to our cost. The advancement of human
knowledge and discovery has done much to improve the plight of humanity but it has also done
much to take away the privilege of physical occupation and endeavour. Many children, from
underprivileged and privileged backgrounds alike, with their parents’ blessing are very ready, to
replace hands-on experiences, with virtual ones; the gaming industry was worth $105 billion in
August 2010.

But physical exertion, endeavour, struggle even, is still to this day, necessary in every human life.
When that is not present, an emotional as well as physical vacuum is created, which as we all know,
must be filled. Are our lives any “easier” today? I doubt it. We’ve simply replaced physical struggle
with mental anxiety.

Art, Craft and Manual Production satisfy that need on every level.

When making, a process is gone-through, which uses pretty much all of our faculties:
Desire and/or need; concept; design; sourcing of materials; establishing the strengths and
weaknesses of both material and maker and then through trial, error and ingenuity working with or
around those attributes and limitations, to finally be confronted with something that is real, knowing
that so much of oneself has gone into the very fibre of the work.

But there are obstacles in the form of modern-day fears and insecurities that currently pervade
every aspect of modern life which is so readily passed on to our children. They are no longer allowed
or encouraged to go out, to discover the world around them, in order that they might take risks, to
discover how things work, how they themselves work and how the two work together. They no
longer have the opportunity or are encouraged (as previous generations were) to find discarded raw
materials such as pieces of wood or old bicycle parts, to transform into go-carts or wooden boats,
that really do work. Making is as much a way of discovering how they work as how the world around
them works. We need to restore this human right to them and making – structured or otherwise, can
do that.

Using our hands to create things of beauty, use or both; using the raw materials we find around us,
where a battle of wills ensues between maker and material, grappling and tussling with that
material, until a truce – a compromise and understanding is achieved and something beautiful
emerges. It is this struggle that helps define us as human beings and we need this affirmation, pretty
much on a daily basis, to keep us sane and healthy.

If we know this then why can making not become once more an integral part of our society and the
way we (parents and teachers) teach our children? What happened to Woodwork, Metalwork,
Needlework, Home Economics in the classroom? The old adage, “The only way to learn how to do
something is to do it” has never been more true. It is in the classroom and at home where we need
to start again, showing little children that those appendages called hands have a direct link to the
wellbeing of their mind and psyche as well as their sense of place and belonging. Today, a three year
old child has far more idea of what to do with a computer game controller than he does with
Plasticine, Playdoh, Lego or Crayons. I fear that the prophetic vision depicted in the (ironically)
computer-generated animation Wall-E, is much closer than we think!

If such a vision is to be believed, then we may be further down that path than is comfortable to
admit. I would argue that the recent inner city riots have been carried out by people who have come
to believe that there is no point in having a go at anything because it “won’t work” or at least they
have not been shown that it could. Some of us know it can work and that trying is part of the fun,
adventure and fulfilment. These unfortunate people are afraid to take the risk of discovering how to
do something that may or may not have a positive outcome, but from which they can learn and
improve. Instead they do something, which achieves instant gratification with the least effort and
ironically they feel more secure in doing because they are sure of the outcome. You throw a brick
through a window; you know what’s going to happen! But that is all that is ever going to happen- no
wonder frustration and violence are never far away. With making, there is always new territory to be
discovered, in the skill and in oneself.

If we could only pass onto others that sense of achievement and what it feels like to stare upon the
tangible and positive result of one’s own useful endeavours, then it will go at least some way to
improving the lot of individuals who currently have no hope.

If you are one of those many people who have asked how they can learn to make a green wood stool or a hand forged knife then now is the time!   We are delighted to announce two new courses in the Ruskin Mill Craft Programme and we would appreciate your help in spreading the word so that we can run more courses throughout the year.  The 3 day courses will take place in the new forge and the stunning green wood workshop located in the beautiful Horsley Valley. 

You will work in a small group with expert craftsmen, learn new skills and walk away with something to treasure.

Please find key details below.

To book go to http://www.rmet.co.uk/store/   (Events section)

To talk to someone ring 01453 837 537 or email events@rmc.rmet.org.uk   

To listen to a recent BBC Radio Glos interview with the programme tutors go to

Green Woodworking:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mudrqdm9sd4

The Forge:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9Xe2fCjmsI

‘What I am aiming to do is to create exciting and unusual furniture from the wood I use. The designs often have a visual simplicity, which belies the complexity of the making but which speaks clearly about the nature of the material. A recurring characteristic is the application of a dramatic new twist to the use of a traditional and well-proven technique.’

Furniture maker aims to give the traditional a sense of the unusual

The one tree project was simple in condept and glorious in outcome. In November 1998 a huge Oak was felled in Tatton Park, Cheshire, and its trunk, branches, twigs, leaves and sawdust distrubuted amongst 75 artists and craft makers to turn into furniture or artworks. 

The resulting pieces - furniture, jewellery, toys, paper, baskets, ceramics and sculpture - formed an exhibition, which toured five major venues in Bristol, London, Edinburgh and elsewhere. Profits from the sale of work went towards the creation of new woodlands.

One of the furniture makers involved was Michael Slaney, who made a small side table, a gap table (as he calls it), whose two separate surface boards were joined by wedged dovetail keys. The Oak boards were also fumed, to give a darker contrast to the paler legs and dovetail keys; The finished table selling to a collector within the first week of the exhibition at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh.

“I was deligted to be selected for the One Tree Project” says Michael. “For me, it provided the rare opportunity to design and make something with no constraints, other than the material. I think that the concept was a stroke of genius and it is no exaggeration to say that it raised both public awareness and the general standard of this kind of exhibition in the UK. I am sure that Gary Olson and Peter Toaig, who dreamt up the idea, had no way of knowing just how big it was going to become. I still feel proud to have been a part of it.”

Michael created the gap table at workshops near Armathwaite but these days he is based near Broughton in Furness, where his fine individual furniture is made with hardwoods like Oak, Sycamore, Elm, Maple, American Black Walnut and English Cherry. The Gap Table has since been developed into a much larger body of work.

Much of Michael’s work is done to commission but he also designs speculative pieces for galleries, exhibitions and shows, like the Lowther or the Holker Garden Festival, to demonstrate his range of skills and craftsmanship. Such pieces might be dining tables, coffee tables, side tables, chests of drawers, dressers, mirrors, cabinets, chairs, music stands, blanket boxes and writing tables.

He is known too for his handshaped wooden vessels. In some of them the liming of a grained or texured surface gives an unusual and striking result. If a wood has an grain like Oak, the lime will catch in the grain, however if the grain is very close, as in Sycamore, Michael creates a texture on the surface instead in which the lime will catch.

“I think there’s been something of a renaissance in craft over the last few years and that’s partly due to certain programmes on the television. They give people a much greater awareness of aspects of design and show that you can go out there and comission pieces for your own home”, says Michael who is on the Craft Council’s national register of makers.

One of his commissions in the last year was for a new display cabinet (Cherry, Maple and glass) at Higham Hall, the Lake District’s residential college for adult education near Bassenthwaite, where many of the courses are devoted to craft. The principal, Alex Alexandre, who is himself a furniture maker, says it was an easy decision to ask Michael to design and make the new piece.

“His work shows just the qualities that I would like to promote in our approach to the crafts. Innovation in design, quality in making and choice of materials, awareness of tradition and contemporary developments. Although the brief was specific as far as size and materials were concerned, the commission allowed considerable design freedom and as as result, a unique piece has been made.”

As with all commissions the process started with an exchange of ideas. Michael says, “the next step is usually an outline drawing, which can then be modified after further discussion. Finally, from a working drawing he orders materials, in plenty of time to condition them in his workshop before he starts on the piece.

He has been in Cumbria since 1976 when he took on a post as assitant warden of the Conniston Youth Hostel Association, an area he was already he was already familiar with after a walking holiday in his youth.

Over the next few years he worked in a number of the youth hostels in Cumbria and then in 1980-81 he became warden of Carrock Fell near Mungrisdale.

Because he was free during the afternoons at Carrock Fell, a wet day gave him the chance to get stuck into some woodworking while a dry one saw him running across the fells or cycling around the Lakes. He must have covered thousands of miles, either on legs of wheels, in those years - he also ran for Keswick AC - but all the time his interest in furniture making was growing.

This interest finally led to him taking a course at Buckinghamshire College of Higher Education, a three year diploma in furniture craft and management (the fine craft course), from which he graduated with a distinction and with special commendations for design and making. “It gave me a really solid grouding in furniture technique.” he says.

Michael returned to Cumbria and for a short time worked for himself a designer and maker. Then in 1994 he moved to Carlisle College, where over the next eight years he spent much time lecturing in hand crafted furniture. He still completed the occasional commission in his own worksop and he also did a part-time MA in 3D design (furniture) at Leeds Metropolitain University.

Out of some of the work he did on that course, grew one of his ‘signature’ pieces of furniture, typified by a table whose legs appear through its suface in all four corners. The intention is that this detail relates to the handcut, wedged dovetail keys which join the two or three boards of the table top.

Michael is also keen to create pieces out of really unusual pieces of wood, as he did when made a chest out of Elm that contained bark inclusions. This particular tree had been damaged, perhaps by lightning and as it continued to grow, its bark had become trapped inside.

He then formed cardboard mock-ups of the handles and the hinges, which he wanted and asked Cumbrian blacksmith, Chris Brammall to make them. “What I am aiming to do is create exciting and unusual furniture from the wood I obtain. The designs often have a visual simplicity, which belies the complexity of the making but which speaks clearly about the nature of the material. A recurring characteristic is the application of a dramatic new twist on the use of a traditional and well proven technique.” he says.