Bench shot - 27-02-08
 
Normally I consider myself a tidy worker, but when I stopped partway through leading up a panel yesterday to take some photographs, I realised that I may have been fooling myself. The tools (leadknife, lead dykes, fid, running pliers and oyster knife), scraps of lead and mess will be familiar to anyone who has worked in leaded glass...

West Window, Kirkwall Cathedral (Crear McCartney, 1987)

In 2003 Jo and I travelled to Orkney. On a visit to Kirkwall we visited St Magnus Cathedral, and I photographed the magnificent West Window which was installed to commemorate the 850th anniversary of the cathedral.

McCartney trained at Glasgow School of Art, and went on to become manager of the Stained Glass Studio at Pluscarden Abbey after completing his teacher training at Aberdeen. He has produced numerous windows, including on ein Prestonpans, a few miles from my parents home.

"Thistle" 2008. Design: Gabi Reith | Construction: Morning Glass Designs

Spent this morning installing a simple memorial panel in a lightbox the new Westhill Community Centre foyer area. The panel includes painted work and measures 900 x 700mm.

Detail of two encapsulated panels, private residence, Feb 2008.

In my e-mail this evening I received photo's of two panels I dropped off with a customer on Monday. The panels form an abstracted image of a tree trunk, and the piecing is derived from a contemporary window in the Sainte-Chapelle, Paris.

All in all it's quite a busy time at the workshop right now. As well as the ongoing work on the Huntly Arms Gazebo with Mike Zappert, I am planning to install a large panel at Westhill Community Centre tomorrow.
 

I am currently changing the way galleries are displayed in the portfolio, using a new method which utilises javascript code to display images hosted on Flickr.  I have added a gallery of images taken at the workshop as a test. Over the next few weeks I will be replacing the existing galleries with the new format, whch should allow me to add new images more readily.

Mike Zappert, Huntly Arms Hotel Panel 3

Mike and I are currently re-making 6 leaded panels for the Huntly Arms Hotel, Aboyne at my workshop. The work is pretty repetetive, but we are evolving a system wherein progress is steady. It makes a big difference working as a pair, especially since the conversation is wide-ranging and extends far beyond our shared interests (which include, amongst others, biscuits and Japanese hand-tools).

Temperature inversion over the Howe of Alford

Yesterday started freezing cold, and ended mild and bright. The first bulbs are pushing through now, and the rhubarb appears to have survived transplantation. This week Mike Zappert and I start remaking several panels for a local hotel, so it was good to get some time outside the workshop.

Ben, at speed...

Every workshop needs a dog. Not every workshop has a dog as laid back as Ben, a 7 year-old black labrador retriever we adopted 5 years ago. Ben was destined to be a working dog, but when he turned out gun shy we were the fortunate folk who took him on. Although he's getting on a bit, he loves his trips to the workshop and a swim in the Dee at lunchtime. He's just as happy curled up in the van, especially when the compressor is running, the propane heater is blasting or the local pheasant shoot is on.

Motto: If I can't pee on it or roll in it, I'll eat it.

Fame at last

The latest issue of the Scottish Glass Society newsletter contains a 250 word article and images of work created at Morning Glass over the last year. The full article is available as a scanned PDF download here (988Kb).

From a couple of weeks back... 

The workshop is a very cold place to work at the best of times. I spent a couple of days mending the heater and then burnt a tank load of propane trying to warm the space up. Sometimes it's good to be there anyway, like when the snow piles down like this.