I have to say I think this went rather well. Which is not to say there aren’t things I would change (there are) or things I learned along the way (there SO are) but all in all, I am very pleased with my new window.
In true Grace style, I thought, “Hey, why not just do a huge, intricate, difficult painting on a piece of untempered, extremely breakable antique glass? Since that’s what you’ve got lying around.” (My house is built on the site of a former enormous greenhouse. I inherited a lot of glass with the site, most of it broken and in the soil, but some of it in large panes and useful.)
As previously detailed, I found a bit of software that helps me draw ridiculous, overly detailed mandalas. Tick. And then I figured out how to blow them up massive and print them over 12 pages.
And then I set about using up all of my transparent Cerne Relief. and had to put the whole thing on hold while I ordered more.
It’s very pretty and crystally-looking, the clear Cerne Relief. But if you think working black-on-black is hard to see, try working clear on clear. The light shines through it onto the paper below and casts all sorts of phantom lines you can accidentally paint up to and then find you’re either 3mm shy of the line or 3mm over it.
Still, slowly and carefully, over several painstaking days, I got through it and only found maybe a dozen glaring errors when I was done.
If I was one of those exacting perfectionists, I would have set about mixing all the colours again and fixing each and every bare spot, but you know what?
It’s fine. I have better things to spend my time on, and I am perfectly happy with it as it is. Flaws are beautiful.
So in it went to the lovely frame Ben made for it. I must confess, I gave it one go hammering the pins into the beading and then made Ben do it while I hid. I was just so terrified of using a hammer anywhere near un-toughened glass.
And of course it went fine. Ben is fearless.
It’s very lovely from both sides. Above is the bathroom side with some light from the hall. It’s not very exciting when there’s no light behind it, so it’s a good thing I did some gold fripperies on the bathroom side.
From the hall side, it’s pretty magnificent. I do wish I’d extended the design right past the edges of the glass. Live and learn.
But the most dramatic pictures are from when it was flat on the paper. So here they are, looking elegant and colour-rich and not actually very much like it looks now it’s installed. Never mind, it’s lovely and I am delighted with it.
