Memories in Stained Glass
I decided to write an article about Memories in Stained Glass, a name I invented for this very original and romantic project.
Lynn and Phill live in England and are building their home.
The building will be built in stone following a traditional style and Phil and Lynn wanted to install seven classic stained glass windows with particularly detailed glass painting.
Traveling and photography have always been their passion, they decided to include seven glass roundels with miniatures depicting the 7 most beautiful places that Phil and Lynn had visited together in the design. Each roundel being based on a photographs they took themselves.
Below each roundel, a rose, the emblem of Yorkshire, thus tying in their adventures around the world, with their home in one of England’s most beautiful counties.
Lynn and Phil’s seven wonderful memories are:
• The Taj Mahal mausoleum in India
• the Angkor Thom temple in Cambodia
• the Alpine peaks of Solden in Austria
• the Half Dome rock in Yosemite National Park in the United States
• the Swedagon pagoda in Burma
• the cloth market in Krakow in Poland
• finally Bora Bora in French Polynesia
After a long search on the Internet Lynn and Phil asked us to produce a sample piece as a test, and then commission us to paint the glass, while the stained glass windows themselves would be finished in England by a local craftsman.
I decided that the test piece would be the Swedagon pagoda in Burma, I have never visited Burma but this very famous monument with its spiers and sculptures was ideal to test eye and hand for detail.
Lynn and Phil liked my first work and I was invited to continue.
They gave me free rein to continue as I thought best and so to optimize the numerous firing the kiln that would be needed, I decided to paint all the pieces at the same time.
I carefully packed up the seven stained glass roundels. Each one had been painstakingly painted and fired numerous times. The level of detail required by each had been a particular challenge, but one I had approached with relish.
That was in 2020, and then the pandemic hit.
This afternoon I was teaching a stained glass painting course when the first notification twanged. It was quickly followed by multiple twangs, which were hard to ignore. Three years, and several pandemic logistic set-backs, Phil and Lynn had installed the windows. The photos that came through were magnificent. The three of us were overjoyed with the results.
I think their idea of capturing memories of a life lived together is one of the most beautifully romantic ideas I have encountered. Every ray of light that enters their new home will be filtered through the stained glass memories of the seven most beautiful places Lynn and Phil’s photographed on their travels: Memories in Stained Glass
