April 27, 2011

Playing With Rainbows

An article via @StainedGlass1 on twitter, a web post from BBC newss - Shropshire stained glass artist Jane Gray's life story.

A stained glass artist almost entirely unknown in the USA. Worth a look, definitely. They do mention a book about Gray called Playing With Rainbows. It does not appear to be available in the US.

A Flickr search for "Jane Gray" Stained Glass yields some interesting results, such as this 900th Anniversary Window: Christchurch Priory, Dorse

Photographed also by flickrite amandbhslater -

click image to get larger view in new wiindow


Posted by Tom at 08:26 AM

April 14, 2011

Judith Schaechter at the Renwick

There is a blog post from the Smithsonian with a brief interview of Judith Schaechter - On View at the Renwick: Judith Schaechter’s Stained Glass Works Shatter Convention.

The Renwick website also has a video of a panel discussion, called Everything Old is New Again with Judith as one of 4 people speaking. I've only skimmed it so far. but from what I can tell, there is not much to hear. Judith speaks from about 0:37 to 0:39 (the total is 1:15), and she doesn't really enter into the discussion until some time past the 0:54 minute mark. The questions toward the end are better that in the talk. The speakers, with the exception of Judith, come off a bit on the dull and pretentious side, for my taste. Again, this is on a fairly quick skim through, so decide for yourself.

Posted by Tom at 06:43 PM

April 13, 2011

Bottle Structures - Jackie Stack and Indonesia

I recently found a blog post about bottle houses from a 'green' blog called Pixie Gas. The post is called 'Don’t keep Your Enthusiasm About Reusing Bottled Up! 20 Bottle Structures', with several structures that I'd never heard of. Names are mentioned, but there are no links. Maddening.

There are 2 structures mentioned that I had heard of, and I have links!

One has to do with the work of Jackie Stack Lagakos, who has her own business building 'Bottle Structures'. Jackie contacted me a few months ago because she came across the original bottle wall post from 2007.

Some examples of Jackie's work -
Hotai Bottle Bench aka hip hop Buddha - 1998
hotai-bottle-bench.jpg

and a detail
hotai-bottle-bench_det.jpg

a more recent example
Last Stop For Miles And Trane - 2004
last-stop-milesandtrane.jpg

Jacki also teaches the occasional workshop and I asked her to let me know when she has any details on upcoming workshops.

The other example of a newer bottle structure is this Indonesian bottle house, designed and owned by architect Ridwan Kamil and done in a more '20th century modernist' style, with a very neat and tidy design.

Posted by Tom at 07:47 PM

April 01, 2011

Eclectix Interview 10: Judith Schaechter

Eclectix Interview 10: Judith Schaechter, from Eclectix Etc.

Posted by Tom at 02:16 PM