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21st November 2023 - Stained Glass
At the meeting of
Biggar Probus Club on 21st
November, in Biggar Municipal Hall, members and guests were treated to a very
informative and entertaining talk by Fiona Foley, a stained glass artist working
in Leadhills. It was in her early years at art
college that she was inspired to specialise in stained glass and she showed
slides of the many panels she had made and commissions she had undertaken,
ranging from schools and churches to care homes and museums.
She took us through the creation of a panel for the
Huntarian Museum at Glasgow University from taking inspiration from the
collection, early design sketches incorporating elements of anatomy and nature,
producing a full size drawing, determining where the lead lines would go and
then preparing and cutting the glass.
After fitting the jigsaw together with lead strips
between the sections of glass the lead had to be sealed with putty to make it
watertight followed by cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning.
Finally, the lead had to be blackened with
old-fashioned black lead so that the colours of the glass would stand out. She described how different colours and
types of glass were created and how different effects were achieved with a
mixture of painting, acid etching and sandblasting.
Her preference was for hand blown glass rather than
machine made, but that was more expensive.
Some of the colours involved the use of toxic
substances and pink glass was the most expensive as it used gold in the process. Her enthusiasm for what she described as ‘the best job in the
world’ was evident throughout her talk and she had brought with her a number of
small items for sale, many members taking advantage of that. The Vote of thanks was given by Jim Watt to which members
responded appreciatively. The next meeting will be on Tuesday 5th December when the club will welcome the captains and Vice-Captains from Biggar High school for their annual visit. This is an open meeting at which all will be welcome.
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