John Kenneth Clark - In Progress

Thsi is the sample made showiing using the blue glass as the background.

This is a wonderful sample as it shows 5 stages involved in the making of a stained glass window using the ztraditional techniques. I have shown the individual sections below.

The original peice of glass cut to shape.

This glass is called flashed glass. This means that it is made in two layers. A thicker base layer, usualy clear glass of around 3mm, and a thin coloured layer fused during the manufacturing process, therefore permanent. Ths coloured layer, as we can see in the next image, can be etched partially or completely away.

The flash is partially and completely etched away using acid.

The line work is painted on and the glass fired.

A second layer of paint is applied and the glass fired. This layer helps define the modelling of the image.

This shows the sample section completed with what is known as silver stain creating the yellow areas.

And just another view. In this process, steel is being added inside the leading to add strucural strength.

A close up view of a panel being leaded.

After the all of the treatments and working on the glass, all that there is left to do, is to build the panels. This picture shows Andreas working on the first sections.

THis image shows the glass made opalescent.

The last firing processes are to make add yellow to the red glass as in the design and to make the glass opalescent rather than transparent.

the yellow / amber glass being loaded into the kiln

Now that all the glass has been painted, the glass has to be fired making the paint permanent. These two pictures show the glass placed in the kiln ready for firing.

Some of the gold pink glass being worked on.

The yell/amber glass being painted.

Just a close up of some of the red glass being painted.

For this project, the qualities I want from the glass painting are best achieved using airbrushing. AS with all of the techniques I use, it is dirty and dangerous hence the suit and breathing mask.

NOw that the etching is completed, I have been working on the glass painting.

The glass painting in this case is black. This brings the qualities of the design to a conclusion.

This picture shows a couple of samples which have been painted. This picture is interesting as it shows that the glass is still transparent. I will be painting a final layer of what is called silver stain on the rear side of the red glass. I have placed a strip of glass that has been stained in front of the RHS of this image.

This shows the etched gold pink in position. All of the glass has now been etched.

The last colour I etched is the so called “gold pink”

This image shows some sections on the light table in the etching room.

Although all of this glass has now been etched, the red is too strong and, now that I have etched the border glass, I will rework the red glass to reduce the intensity.

This shows the fuschia coloured glass in position and how the lettering is working.

This image shows the etched fuschia glass.

And this is just a close up to show it a bit more clearly. These sections, that I have here etched, will probably have to be etched further at a later stage. But first I will work on the two reamining colours.

I have carried out the same process for the red glass and placed both back in position.

As each glass has a different hardness and thickness of what is called the “flash” it takes different time periods to etch different colours and glasses. Therefore, I prefer to etch each colour seperately.

the piece of not etched and marked glass and a section after etching.

This picture shows the glass for the two windows together on a few light tables

The glass from the other window also prepared for etching. In the middle you can make out the design and there is also another smaller than real scale etched sample.