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Please post your comments here on the front page news article 'Vanishing Stained Glass'.
by Jason![[Administrator]](https://www.aisg.on.ca/images/icons/admin.gif){kind=icon}
, posted Feb 20, 2008 @ 12:47 AM
The original posts can be read by clicking the "News" link in the menu bar toward to the top-right of the page.
I will put the ability to either click a link to show the article or display the text of the actual article in the forum message in my to do list.
Thanks for the input!
by Jason, posted Feb 20, 2008 @ 2:01 PM
Okay, I have updated the forum software to turn the article title into a link that you can click to read the article.
Thanks again for the feedback, and I hope this makes things a bit easier to use!
This article brought something to mind. Stained glass seems to revolve around preservation of panels from past, less emphasis on "New" work.
This observation made from looking at the magazine put out by "the older glass organization in U S" as well as looking at presenters at most conferences held.
I hear allot about the old guard feeling the folks in trade are in need of training, new folks doing their own thing and wondering what all the fuss is about doing it the "old", what is expressed as the proper way. This post is not about addressing what is or not proper training.
My question is where is the new innovating work? This is being done, just not recognized. The majority of folks just seem to be doing the same thing over and over, then over again. I realize that one must eat and have shelter, that is a given. It was put to me a few years back, keep something on the table for yourself. Sounds simple to a lot of you but it reopened my eyes. I now do what I call "what if sessions". Time I spend just doing something different, in my case grinding and polishing glass. What if I grind it this way or another. I feel I am not wasting my time, I learn more about what I can and can not do with a glass blank. Folks are not beating a path to my door for this work but I am filling a large void in myself that was there when just doing the mundane jobs. Will this work bring me fortune and fame, No, I will not let it, that is not the reason. This is time for me. Yes I share some of my creations with a very select few. My way of inspiring them to different possibilities. They also share their own "what if" work, which keeps me going.
So as you do that panel from a set design, or a slightly different theme of 100 other panels, make time also for your own stuff. Made just for you. Who knows, someone may see it and want you to truly create a panel that is you.
Regardless of what happens, these sessions cost you time and materials, these times alone with your trade will reap more than dollars for you.
Dennis Swan
Doing things the "old" "proper" way has (should have) nothing to do with the art quality of the work. It should only refer to the best techniques in fabrication and instillation. The reality is that there is currently more work out there for preserving older windows than doing new "large scale" work. So there is a strong need to educate these practitioners.
The cutting edge studios in large scale new work are in Germany. I spoke to a Derick's Studio rep a couple of years ago about the new techniques and how they hold up over time and how they will be restored. He told be that they give a 15 year warranty. After that they fully expect these "new" glass art works to be destroyed when the building gets remolded or torn down. That's so called progress.
For the sake of discussion, so we are on the same page, what is "large scale" work? Are the vast majority of those in the trade involved in large-scale installations?
My original post was commenting on my personal need to explore what and why I do what I do in glass. The artist and studios I deal with are for the most part, doing small personal pieces as well as serving the residential trade. I feel this is an area largely left untapped by the trade and has been left to be filled by the massed produced panels in the big box stores or by repeating the same type patterns over and over. When talking with folks outside the trade, these panels, or the ones being produced by their aunts, uncles or friends are what they think are stained or art glass. I just feel this is a sad statement; we all know what is or could be available to fill this need.
Maintaining our past is very important but I feel it has become the main focus of the trade at the expense of the future for a large sector of the trade.
Dennis Swan
