Vitreosity

Stained Glass Flickr set of the Day

Russian John's Russian Summer House in Newcastle.

That is a very small house with a large amount of stained glass.

more backstory at we♥sheds

John La Farge - An Appreciation, 1911

When editing the Dec 2011 issue of the AGGnews, I was struck by this picture I got from James Yarnall. This is a photo af John La Farge in his studio. You don't see many "in studio" shots of American stained glass artists of the 19th century. I only wish this one involved a stained glass commission.

click to see larger image in new window

John La Farge in His Studio, 1895. From Frank Jewett Mather Jr., “John La Farge—An Appreciation, ” World’s Work, vol. 21 (Mar. 1911), p. 14092. Standing in a white smock, La Farge pauses while working on his mural of Athens, now in the Walker Art Building, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine. The figure on the scaffolding is his son and assistant Bancel La Farge; the female figure with her back to the camera is Juliette Hanson, his chief glass painter.

The photo is from an article in the book World's Work, Volume 21 (link goes to Google Books). It's an odd volume, filled with a wide variety of articles on a wide variety of subjects. You can download a pdf of the whole volume, but be aware that it's 880 pages long.

I've extracted out the 15 page La Farge article as a pdf (La_Farge_ApprWW-1911.pdf, opens a 1.5 mb file in a new window). It's called John La Farge - An Appreciation, and it's by Frank Jewett Mather.

There is a new biography of John La Farge by James L. Yarnall, coming out just this month. It's billed as being the first biography of La Farge in a century. The book is called John La Farge, A Biographical and Critical Study. I haven't seen the book yet, but I have heard James Yarnall speak on more than one occasion and he's the best speaker I've ever heard on the subject of the life and work of John La Farge. I doubt it will disappoint.

Stained Glass Picture Puzzle

This sketch is from a book published in 1915, drawn around 1900-1902, by a person of some renown.

On first glance this would appear to be a sketch for a stained glass window.
It is not. So what is it?
Find out below the fold...

It's a Secret Map!

It's by Lieut.-Gen. Sir Robert Baden-Powell, K.C.B., one of the founders of the Boy Scouts and the author of the original Scouting for Boys. Baden Powell was also an artist/illustrator who did the illustrations for Scouting for Boys and is reputed to have drawn every day of his life. In his book, My Adventures as a Spy, Baden Powell recounts how, as a spy during the Boer War, he would pose as a butterfly collector or an artist and draw disguised depictions of military positions, fortifications, etc. The book is a surprisingly jaunty look at being a British spy during the Boer War in the 1890's. Like Baden Powell, it is a strange mix of funny and creepy.

This is from the section called "The Value of Being Stupid"

On the other hand, the exceedingly stupid Englishmen who wandered about foreign countries sketching cathedrals, or catching butterflies, or fishing for trout, were merely laughed at as harmless lunatics. These have even invited officials to look at their sketch-books, which, had they had any suspicion or any eyes in their heads, would have revealed plans and armaments of their own fortresses interpolated among the veins of the botanist's drawings of leaves or on the butterflies' wings of the entomologist. Some examples of secret sketches of fortresses which have been used with success are shown on the following pages.

click to see a larger image

Anyway, I do like puzzle pictures, and I like the idea of real stained glass windows with hidden maps and puzzle components (without them being instruments of war, of course). Lots of ideas popping into my head.

Maurice Sendak on The Colbert Report pt 1

It's been awhile since I've posted anything about Maurice Sendak, so this is nice. Last night Sendak was on The Colbert Report, in full 'grumpy old man' mode. It is very funny. As a bonus, Sendak has the clearest assessment of Newt Gingrich I've ever heard. The wisdom of old age on full display.

Grim Colberty Tales with Maurice Sendak Pt. 1

embedded video for both parts below the fold...

Eldridge Street Window Featured in Traditional Building Magazine

Art Glass: Something Old, Something New, Something Blue, article by Art Femenella

via the @BendheimGlass twitter feed

British Pathé Stained Glass Film Footage, part 2

The later films in the British Pathe tend to focus more on innovation than on tradition, at least in terms of process.

These two short clips deal with the Dalle De Verre Process, though that phrase is never used here. Dalle De Verre is still used today, though many question its long term sustainability and it appears to be a technique in decline.
Stained Glass, 1963, Color, 2:54
Cemented Stained Glass, 1956, Color, 2:27

A short quote from the 1963 film –

Then we see the new glass which comes in a slab and is an inch thick. Various shots of the slab of glass being cut and chipped by hand to give it a jewel like appearance. We see how it is toughened by covering it with sawdust and putting plasticine round the slabs to stop the concrete encroaching on them. Various shots of the windows in church.

Churchill Glass Painting, 1968, Color, 3:18

Sculptor - painter Bainbridge Copnall is seen walking across his garden with some sheets of coloured glass under his arm; outside a greenhouse he takes a mallet and smashes the glass into small pieces.

Unfortunately, this is a case where the innovative nature of the process worked against the art, and the system of gluing failed a short time after installation. This is summarized in a paper by Norman Tennent, called Appliqué Stained Glass: The Conflict Between Conservation And Context (direct download, 2.3mb .pdf file).

British Pathé Stained Glass Film Footage, part 1

A search for "stained glass" on the British Pathé website yields about a dozen or so film clips that are connected with stained glass. The stained glass studios depicted are mostly but not all British, with footage dating from the late 30's to the mid 60's. These seem to be all short clips, more newsreel footage than actual short films, but they vary a bit. No video embeds available so I will link to them - a few of the better older ones in this post and a few of the later dated ones in another post.

CLASS GLASS!, from 1939 (according to archive, no date in film clip). black & white, 1:36

Various shots of the making of a stained glass window, destined for a Tyrolean church. A man works on a drawing of the original design; pieces of cardboard serve as the templates for sections of glass...

The surprising thing here is the use of 'cardboard templates'. Almost all British studios now cut directly on a light table and this film is the first I've seen of a British stained glass firm using patterns for glass cutting. Assuming it's British as the firm's location is not mentioned, just that the window "is destined for a Tyrolese Church". Curious.

STAINED GLASS WINDOWS, 1955, Color, 2:40
The web page has a long description ending with...

...men appearing in this film may be Mr E. Liddall Armitage, Mr Harman, Fred White, Ernie Southwood and Bob Holloway. Stained Glass Window is destined for St. Hillary's Church, Wallasey, Cheshire according to paperwork.

This film definitely shows cutting glass "at the table", with no pattern pieces. (starting at 0:30)

Children's Television MEN OF ACTION - The Stained Glass Craftsman - reel 1, 1951, B&W, 7:32
Children's Television MEN OF ACTION - The Stained Glass Craftsman - reel 2, 1951, B&W, 4:27
Looks like these 2 parts were shot as an early children's TV program, since everything is done in a very small 'set', and not in an actual stained glass studio.
STAINED GLASS, 1940-1949, B&W, 9:48, used here as part 3 of the "The Stained Glass Craftsman" children's program.

This is just the beginning of the full description starting at part 1 -

A Kinescope of one of a series of 22 half-hour programmes broadcast by the B.B.C. Television Service in 1951. [British Broadcasting Corporation - BBC] The Stained Glass Craftsman. A man shows three boys pictures of stained glass windows. Church windows. He explains the significance of the stories featured in the windows...

Defending Our Freedom to Share (or Why SOPA is a Bad Idea)

It really is important to fight this fight.
A bit of backstory on the College Bakery Copyright Story, also by Clay Shirky.

Photographic Images on Glass Workshop - 2012

Back by Popular Demand!

I'm teaching another Photo Transfer Workshop -
CRAFT ALLIANCE, St. Louis, MO, March 31 - April 1, 2012.
Registration has begun, go to the Craft Alliance Workshop Page to register.