Picture Gallery 3
Gallery 1
Gallery 2
THE NEW BAPTISTERY WINDOWS
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| The Angel speaks to Mary | Mary tells Joseph she is going to have a baby. | Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem on a horse. | The baby Jesus is born. | The Shepherds are told of the birth. | The wise men travel to visit Jesus. |
Click on the windows for a larger view.
The windows were designed by Rosalind Simpson, daughter of Babs Alexander. She writes about her designs.
Style:
The church was built circa 1900 and is ' Arts and Crafts' in style, the west window up towards the roof is more 'Art Nouveau', both these styles are late 19th century so I decided to refer to this period in my design. I researched Burne-Jones and other late 19th Century stained glass artists at the Victoria and Albert museum, I also had memories of his work at Cambridge (Jesus College). The inclusion of wild flowers at the corners of the windows is typical.
Design:
Six small windows are more difficult than one large one; because the areas of each piece of different coloured glass and the drawn details are relatively tiny and fiddly. Having decided on a circular motif, I wanted the lines of each design to compliment this circularly.
Designing in stained glass is rather like print making, in that the colour is flat and simple, with strong outlines and finely drawn detail applied to faces, hands etc with a brush.
When choosing colours for the glass, dark colours have to fit in with light ones as well as having to fit in with a general colour scheme.
The windows were made by Vicki List of Norman and Underwood. Vicki writes:
The windows took three months of full time work to accomplish. The glass that was selected for these panels is antique hand blown glass, some from our stock which dates back to the early 20th Century and has come from Poland, Germany, France and England too.
All pieces have been hand painted in a number of layers, each layer requiring an individual firing. The methods used are those that have been used for centuries. This is a craft that has not changed with time and technological advances.
Each piece of glass you see has been individually cut to fit the design, and is held together by H shaped lead, and cement holds it all in place. Stained glass windows made this way will last for centuries to come.