Reading Stained Glass

My stained glass class is carrying on, so I need materials for my next project. I bought everything for my first project from my tutor and had the opportunity to do again, but chose to go to the shop myself for a wider range and some inspiration.

What inspiration there was too. I saw all of this (and more) before even entering the store:

I love this lamp! (So much so that my twitter and Facebook followers will recognise it!).

I found the shop to be way bigger than I imagined. Downstairs was a showroom full of stained glass for sale. Look at all of these lightshades:

The last two really caught my eye!

They also sold fused glass. I had a go at this back in the summer and the products for sale were way more impressive than mine:

I spent a very long time trying to choose my glass. The ground floor is covered in lots of cabinets like this:

There are huge sheets of glass at the bottom, glass in front of a light so that you can see what it looks like in the middle and small sheets at the top. This cabinet is approximately a quarter of that on display, and then you also had the bargain box!

I spent probably an hour looking at it all, before coming out with just three colours (one of which is clear!) for the design I have in my head. I still haven’t finalised it, but know essentially what I want and it is going to be quite simple. Saturday was the only day i could go to the shop, so it had to be done! I was originally going to go for reds, but didn’t want something too dark (hard to see where to cut!) and I couldn’t find two that i decided went very well together. I changed my mind and went for blue instead. My parents collect blue and white china of a particular design, so that would work. I bought water glass as that was relatively cheap. I also bought lead, despite not needing it for a few weeks.

Now I must really finish my design!

Advertisements

We’re up north!

As I mentioned in my Road Trip Crafting post, we’ve travelled up north to see a good friend. We did a bit of sightseeing on Sunday.

We started out at the Angel of the North which is a huge statue / landmark made from iron. It’s beside the A1(M) and is on the outskirts of Gateshead. It’s pretty cool. This was the view from the carpark:

The angel’s wings are really wide as you can see if you stand in front of it:

Then we jumped back in the car and drove to Durham, which is a city I’ve never seen before and have wanted to see for a while.

Durham city centre is historically based on a hill surrounded on three sides by a river. It looks like the sort of site which would have been relatively easy to defend.

The old streets are quite attractive:

The last road leads up towards the cathedral and castle. On the right as you go up is this little shop:

The Georgian Window sells all sorts of gifts, jewellery and even a dresser front full of beads. As I was with two boys (men) I didn’t have long to investigate, but I did pick up these from their reduced section:

Both beads were 10p each and are roughly 3cm long, so they are quite big. I have ten of the clear and twelve of the yellowish ones. I am making something for me with at least one of these bead types!

The boys were keen to stop shopping and keep exploring, so we wandered up to the cathedral:

The main door has a really funky (replica) door knocker. If you knocked on the original as a fugitive many years ago you were given sanctuary for 37 days. I wouldn’t mind a smaller version of it on our front door:

The cathedral is huge and quite pretty inside. I can’t share any photos with you as cameras are not to be used inside. However the cloisters may look familiar to you:

Yep, Harry Potter played quidditch there! The cathedral is actually one of many locations used in the films (such as Gloucester cathedral which I knew quite well when growing up).

After leaving the cathedral we wandered a bit more and viewed the town from an old bridge over the river:

The boys finished the day off with a locally brewed beer and then we jumped back into the car. What a lovely day out!