I designed a set of windows for St Joseph, St Peter and St Paul Church in Orpington. The best one is the Madonna and Child one that is modelled on the famous Alba Madonna by Raphael. Symbols for Christ ‘s birth are in the border. The faces, hands and Child’s body are hand painted onto the glass by Emma using kiln-fire paint.
St Joseph holds the Christ Child and a staff that sprouts lillies. Above is an image of the original St Joseph Church that was partially knocked down to allow the new church to be built. In the lower panel are a man’s hands using a plane, one of St Josephs attributes. In the border are symbols indicating the prayer – The Seven Joys of St Joseph.
St Peter and St Paul Window, St Joseph, St Peter and St Paul Church, Orpington, England St Paul is in the lower panel, St Peter in the central panel and the top panel has an image of St Peter and St Paul Church, the congregation of which is now merged into the new church. In the saints’ panels and in the border there are symbols for and images of traditional attributes for both saints.
The faces and hands are hand painted onto the glass by me using kiln-fire paint. Unpainted hand blown glass describes the robes and the background. This method of painting only the hands and faces saves the expense of paint firing the entire surface area and was used by Leonard Walker in the first half of the Twentieth Century. English Antique Glass in Birmingham hand-made the non-painted glass (www.englishantiqueglass.co.uk). Lead & Light in London cut the glass and secured it into the lead and installed the completed window into the church. 3M high 2011.
Lead and Light in Camden (www.leadandlight.co.uk) contracted me in to design and glass paint these. It was a dream working for…just the priest…no committees like in the Church of England! The priest just said “I want this…change this a bit…that’s fine, go ahead”. It felt really strange not to have twenty people telling me completely different things that they wanted and not waiting months between each committee meeting for a decission at every stage!