Cracked with Chevonne Ariss
“Cracked with Chevonne Ariss” is a stained glass podcast that takes a deep dive with today’s biggest names from around the world in modern stained glass. Artists have a frank and honest conversation with Chevonne about their style, legacy, their losses and wins, their journey into becoming a small business owner and how they didn’t lose their minds getting there. Season 5 coming soon!
Cracked with Chevonne Ariss
Tokens, Talismans and Traditions of The Countryside with Jane Littlefield
Hello and welcome back to Cracked with Chevonne Ariss! My guest today is Jane Littlefield. Jane works with stained glass from her workshop in Great Longstone, Derbyshire. She studied Fine Art at Ravensbourne College and has worked in different areas of design over the years. Jane works to commission and has produced work for homes, schools and businesses. She also runs glass workshops. Her own work consists of stained glass panels that have multi – layered, painted glass images that are inspired by the Peak District, its nature, history and folklore. "I use images of creatures, landscape features and organic motifs to create these glass panels." The glass is hand painted using traditional stained glass paints and translucent enamels, often using many layers and textures, that are fired in the kiln. They are assembled using lead and solder.
Let’s get into it…
Join me as I crack it wide open!!
For the Cracked Patreon page Jane is gifting one of her blackbird eating a warm small suncatcher pieces that’s about 9cm or just about 3.5” and also a pack of 5 owl rondel greeting cards. All so so cute. I’ll be doing a drawing for that in my Instagram stories on Sunday Jan 29th 2023.
To see more of Jane’s work, her instagram is @jane.littlefield.glass
and her website is linktr.ee/Janelittlefieldglass.
Honorable mentions from this episode:
Well Dressing
historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Well-Dressing/
Castleton Garland
castleton-garland.com
Cappy Thompson
cappythompson
International Festival of Glass
ifg.org.uk
Glass artists
Lilly Eris
@lekkasuka
Liz Huppert
@lizhuppertstainedglass
Thank you to this episode's sponsors:
For episodic sponsorship opportunities please email hello@runaglassworks.com.
Time Saving Tools for the Stained Glass Artists!
Canfield Technologies
Canfield sets the standard for the Stained Glass industry.
Monarch Glass Studio
Kansas City, Missouri's Finest Glassblowing studio.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
Hello, friends, and welcome back to Cracked with Siobhan Aris. Before we jump into our interviews, I'd like to thank our sponsors. First up is Canfield Technologies. Why do glass artists ask for Canfield fluxes? Simple. They just work better. Canfield offers several fluxes that are formulated to work with tin-lead combinations as well as lead-free solders. Choose from their mild blue glass or soleic to more aggressive Sodermate 11. For excellent results, always use Canfield Fluxes. Find out more at canfieldmetals.com. I'd also like to thank Havel Technologies, makers of Quick Clean Flux and Patina Cleaner. The Quick Clean solution is a liquid, not a gel. So for foil work, it goes under the foil in the air pockets where patina can be hiding and neutralizes the flux and patina. This is the area where white mold starts to form. For lead work, Quick Clean goes in to the little pockets left in the putty and neutralizes any patina hiding there. And last, but definitely not least, thank you to Monart Glass Studio. From there, Tyler Kimball's rondelles can be ordered in sizes ranging from three inches all the way to 27 inches. Design possibilities are endless with cane, encomo, single color, flash, streaky fret, optic twist, optic wed, domed, seedy, and many others are all possible variations on the rondelles. Their specialty is making what you need. Let them know what you need for your design to work and they'll make it happen. Have you found a rondelle and a piece that you would like to replicate? They can do that too. Find out more at monarchglassstudio.com or give them a call at 816-503-6326. I also want to chat with you guys real quick about the glass hack episode. I posted about it back in May and there was so much interest and excitement around it, but I haven't received enough to make an entire episode yet. But I'm hoping by the time season four rolls around, I'll be able to make it a reality. Please don't be shy. I know you're sitting on a good glass hack. All I need you to do is to record a voice memo for me on your phone. Every smartphone has this feature. First, start with your name exactly how you want your identity shared publicly. This could be just your first name, first First and last, your social media handle or the whole kit and caboodle. Second is where you're from. Third, your glass hack. Please explain it thoroughly. This is tough sometimes without a visual, so think about what you want to say before you start. Writing it down first is always a great idea. Speak clearly and make sure you're recording in a very quiet space. Clothing closets are the best because they're not only quiet, but also so insulated with all of that fabric that there's no echo. And remember, you can record it as many times as you want before you send it. And finally, title your email glasshack-yourname. Send it to hello at Bruno Glassworks. After all that, don't forget to high-five yourself for helping us all become better and more efficient at our craft. When the water rises, all the boats rise with it. Now for today's interview. My guest is Jane Littlefield. Jane works with stained glass from her workshop in Great Longstone, Derbyshire. She studied fine art at Ravensburn College and has worked in different areas of design over the years. Jane works to commission and has produced work for homes, schools, and businesses. She also runs glass workshops. Her own work consists of stained glass panels that have multi-layered painted glass images that are inspired by the Peak District, its nature, history, and folklore. She's quoted as saying, I use images of creatures landscape features, and organic motifs to create the glass panels. Let's get into it. Join me as I crack it all wide open. Hello, can
SPEAKER_02:you hear me?
SPEAKER_00:Yes,
SPEAKER_02:hi. Hi, I'm just going in the other side. I'm in my cupboard. You're in the cupboard? Yeah, that's where my computer is. Thank you for joining this, for doing this. It's
SPEAKER_00:very exciting. Thank you for asking me. Yeah, absolutely. You're the second person I've spoken to in Derby. But yours, okay, so it says here that you are joining us from Great Longstone, Derbyshire. Is it Derbyshire or is it Derbyshire? Derbyshire. Derbyshire. Derbyshire. Derbyshire. Yeah. And is that the same thing as Derby?
SPEAKER_02:So Derbyshire is the county and Derby is the main city in the So I know you interviewed somebody else who lives in Derby, so that's about an hour away from where I live and she lives in the city, in the countryside. Okay, is that where you're from? No no I come from Ascot in Berkshire which is near London quite a long way away yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah and you have two
SPEAKER_02:daughters is that right? That's right yes I've got I can never I can't remember numbers but one of them is about 26 I think she's birthday next week and one's about 28. Do they love clothes? One lives in London and one lives in Hull, which I don't know is about an hour and a half away from here. So she's just been on holiday. She's just come back from India today, traveling around. Wow. Yeah. Looking forward to hearing about her experiences.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, definitely. And you and your husband are very much into cycling. Is that right? Is that still current to say? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Oh, I haven't done very much recently to be perfectly honest, but we do enjoy it yes if we can
SPEAKER_00:yeah that's incredible yeah your your instagram is sort of a mix between your glass work and your travels and a lot of it seems to be centered around your cycling
SPEAKER_02:yeah well where we live we live in the national park here and it's quite hilly and it's very beautiful so it's it's brilliant for cycling walking swimming all those sorts of things so i think you know living here we don't come from here but we live because we we really enjoy doing all those things that are available, you know, just locally because it's such, it is a beautiful landscape. And yeah, so cycling's great, but you've got to be fit because it's hilly and I'm just not so fit at the moment. You have to go up a massive hill to get out of the village. So it's, you've got to be on your game really.
SPEAKER_00:Right. Yeah. I just moved to Austin, Texas, but I was living in the Berkshires, which is in Western Massachusetts and it's named after your area because it's supposed to be very similar in just the way that it looks.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, well, apparently the Peak District isn't called the Peak District because of the peaks. It's because of the Peak Tribe or something. I don't know, from history, from the Bronze Age, I think, you know, settlers. But it is pretty hilly, yes,
SPEAKER_00:for the UK. It's gorgeous. Your photos are incredible that you've posted.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you. thank you
SPEAKER_00:so this is a stained glass podcast so I suppose we should talk about glass okay yeah where did you learn how to do it
SPEAKER_02:um so I I just learned the evening class actually I um when my kids were little I um I took an evening class just in stained glass making a bit of copper foiling a bit of leading and that was really what um what got me going I I just really I realised it was the thing I wanted to do quite early on, actually. So I carried on doing stained glass this evening class for maybe six months. And then I took it a bit further by going and doing some glass painting courses. And then I kind of quite quickly brought a small kiln and just got started doing it, sort of learning myself, teaching myself. Yeah, quite quickly realised it was what I wanted to do and I don't know why that was particularly but um yeah so just an evening class so I did fine art at college at art college in in London and um I worked as a I worked for a company um we made um t-shirt designs so we made these t-shirts and they had like big kind of graphic fine art prints on them and I worked it was my old tutor from college So I worked in the sort of, you know, helping silkscreen print these T-shirts. I used to drive a little car around delivering them around London. But I also used some of my designs were used on these T-shirts as well. So I did that for a while and then I moved away from London and I worked. I worked in the for some like for a psychiatric hospital doing graphic design, desktop publishing and patient information. So kind of working with different hospital professionals to design kind of graphic material, really. Yeah, that was before I had my then I had some children, a couple of children quite close together and took up the glass after that. So that was about early
SPEAKER_00:2000. And what was your relationship with stained glass before you took the class? Were you just like always a fan or was it kind of just out of the blue?
SPEAKER_02:Not really. It wasn't anything really. Yeah, I was thinking about that earlier. It wasn't something really that I was into in any way, really. I've always liked making things and the craftsmanship of things, but I wasn't particularly keen at going and looking at stained glass or anything, actually. It just didn't even really occur to me. to me um I think I think it was you know after doing printmaking I think it was the surface design stuff that I really enjoyed and something I don't know what it was that clicked but yeah I got super interested in it quite quickly but before that I don't think I really had much to do with it at all. Does your partner work in the arts as well? No no he's uh he works in IT he's completely the opposite to me he has no interest really well that's cruel to say he does have a bit bit of interest, but he's not particularly artistic or creative, no. Just appreciates the stuff you make,
SPEAKER_00:I'm sure. Kind of. So when I look at your work, the colors, they're muted and soft. The illustrations are very whimsical, very sweet. And the shapes of your pieces and how you fragment them, it's very organic and intentionally irregular. but the lack of symmetry in your pieces, it feels very comforting for me. Oh,
SPEAKER_02:really? That's interesting. I mean, it is all, I'm deliberately trying not to be, you know, with stained glasses because it's very rigid, very square, very accurate. I'm not really any of those things. And I suppose what I'm trying to do is bring that sort of softness to it. So I'm trying to be kind of quite spontaneous with the imagery that I use, trying not to make everything always square or rectangular, thinking about different, more organic shapes and trying to, you know, some of the things I've been trying to do is like combine the glass with, you know, different materials like wood and trying to, yeah, make it all more organic and more natural. So yeah, that makes sense really. It's, well, you know yourself from making it, it's such a rigid medium, isn't it? You know, you've got to, everything has got to be so precise. So I think it's just my way of interpreting that to make it more personal to me, if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_00:It does make sense. And I love it. Thank you. Speaking of sculpture, you did a collaboration with a friend named Andy Douglas a bit back where it was beached. Yes, that's
SPEAKER_02:right. Yes. Yeah. So my friend Andy has got a small piece of like a woodland, not far from here, a couple of miles away. And he's really into like traditional ways of working with wood. So I think he's got his, I don't really know all the different tools, but I know he's got his own, like a lathe that he's made himself. So I think he's got a lot of different tools. So he's using kind of handmade tools to work with his wood. So he's really interested in kind of cultivating this woodland and about using the material that he can get from it. And so I just always, again, I've seen a lot of stuff where artists have worked, you know, combined wood with glass. And again, it's always very square and symmetrical. And so I just wanted to try and come up with something, again, a bit sort of softer and a bit more organic that felt more natural. So anyway, I badgered him for quite a long time and said, you know, we should do something, we should do something. And in the end, he succumbed and he brought this beautiful piece of beech, yes, that he... So we kind of worked together. I sort of said, well, you know, we could do, maybe it'd be nice to have some round shapes in it rather than having it all, you know, following the shape of the piece of wood, really. And so we worked on it together and just came up with two pieces, which... which we sort of finished. And yeah, we're really pleased with them, actually. So there was only
SPEAKER_00:two made?
SPEAKER_02:Only two, yes. Yeah. I mean, I think we have intentions to do more in the future. But, you know, life gets in the way, doesn't it? Other things happen.
SPEAKER_00:But yes, we will get together. COVID just kind of put everything into a tailspin that you thought you were going to do next?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah well I in some ways it was really good for me I think COVID it was a sort of you know everything stopped living here it was just we went for walks it was really quiet I just got loads and loads of things made and done and I think it just gave me the confidence to just you know develop my own practice more and be more kind of honest about what I wanted to do and true to myself so I Yeah, I didn't feel like I had to kind of please anybody or do anything. And so I really enjoyed it. I just was very productive and got lots done. And I started selling things about that time on Instagram and that worked really well for me, actually. So it was a really positive period in my making. And it's led to, you know, quite a lot of other things that have been going on. Yeah, it was... Yeah, good and bad.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. But that's wonderful to hear that you had a good experience with it as well. I think probably also because your kids are a little bit older. Yeah,
SPEAKER_02:we were lucky. We didn't have any older relations that we had to kind of look after or worry about. And the children, our kids were older and they managed pretty well in the situation. So we didn't have too many anxieties about other people people and so we just kind of got on with you know tried to make the most of it really in a positive way
SPEAKER_00:so you sell your work on instagram and then you also do you do a lot of open studio tours art walks craft shows a lot of group shows how did that all begin for you um
SPEAKER_02:I've got a friend, a couple of friends who live a couple of hours away in a different national park. But I've got a very good friend called Angela Hall, who's a printmaker and a ceramicist. And she's got this beautiful farm in Yorkshire, in the middle of nowhere, really. And we started having a few kind of group open studio events up at her farm. And they've proved really popular. So we've been doing sort of maybe two or three of those a year. And then as I've started to get more established and have more of a body of work, well, actually, for the first time this year, I entered a few like open exhibitions and that sort of thing, which was really exciting for me because I've not really done that before and got, you know, a few pieces of work got accepted into different things. So I think I had three or four different exhibitions going on over the summer. I mean, not exhibitions entirely of my own work, but I had things in exhibitions So that was good. And yeah, arts festivals. I've just taken part in something called Works with Art and Architectural Trail, which is a fantastic event around here in Derbyshire. So lots of people host in their own houses, artists. So I went to somebody else's house and just have a little kind of exhibition in their hallway and in their music room. So I had this room with a heart. This woman was a musician. So this is a room with a heart. there's a piano a harpsichord all these musical instruments and um and all my glass hanging around on the walls and on the windows um so that was really great actually it's a really lovely event and um met lots of interesting people and yeah sold quite a lot of work and got lots you know a few commissions and things from it as well so that was great um yeah so it's been busy really busy time over the summer
SPEAKER_00:do you do you do a lot of commissions right isn't most of your work based in commission um it's
SPEAKER_02:a mixture really I mean really I prefer just kind of making my own stuff and just making things and selling it but as a result of that I get people asking me for you know going back and seeing stuff on Instagram and saying I really like that can you do can you do that but maybe change it slightly or you know make it special for you know the person I want to give it to um but I do do I've got quite a few commission for more architectural work so I've just installed something today which was a panel for a door and I've got another couple of things like that in the pipeline to try and get done by Christmas so a mixture I like to kind of I do like to have a bit of a variety so I like to make small things I can just sell bigger kind of design projects and a bit of teaching and that sort of thing so I like to mix it up really I get I get bored quite quickly I think so I like to to have different things
SPEAKER_00:on the go I feel like we all need to have different things just because you know you kind of have to mix it up
SPEAKER_02:well also it's about yeah making money as well isn't it you know you've got to you've got to fund your practice as well so you've got to do some things which are more commercial which you know brings in a bit of money and other things which are more self-indulgent right variety yeah
SPEAKER_00:as for your teaching you have, it looks like you have three different options. You have a half day workshop where you can make your own rondelle. And then I thought this was really interesting. In the class, they cut and paint it and then you fire it up and let it, and then you mail it back to them.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I've done it a bit. I've not actually run it as a proper course, this one. I did it for some friends over COVID actually. But yes, I just thought people really enjoyed it. enjoy the glass painting side of things and I thought it was a really good sort of little introduction to you know to I'm going to show them how to cut glass but I'm going to help them because it's not that much time in half a day obviously I'm going to have some stuff pre-cut as well and then they can have a you know have a play a bit of an explore with some art making some traditional kind of tracing and yeah and then I can I've made so many small wandels now I can make them up pretty quick now so yeah I thought it'll be interesting to see how it goes I'll just try again trying new things to offer to people you know
SPEAKER_00:it's a great format because I think it also skips some of the steps that I've found are the most frustrating for students like soldering can be really frustrating if you don't get it immediately which rarely anybody gets it immediately so yeah I was like oh that's so smart just doing the glass and then she can just finish it up and send it on back
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. Well, not everybody wants to do that, or it's an opportunity for them just to say to try it out and to see whether it's something they want to pursue and maybe come back and do, you know, a two-day course or, you know, a three-day course or develop it further. Yeah, I've just done a course a couple of weeks ago at Harleminster, which is like a cathedral. You know, I don't know if you have Minsters in America. So we did glass painting and they cut out and painted their designs. I've brought them all back here to fire. And then I'm going back on Friday for them to let them all back up together and finish them off. So they've had a bit of a two-week gap in between, but it should be good.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So you have a two-day stained glass and painting workshop, and then you also have the three-day. The three-day is the same format as the two-day course. but with an extra day for glass painting on day two. The extra day gives you the opportunity to build texture and layers with a second glass firing.
SPEAKER_02:that's right yes I think it's really hard when you're learning glass painting because I mean the way I work is you you're you're constantly firing things you're building up different layers you know some of the pieces of glass have got maybe four or five firings on them and so when you're limited just to trying to teach everything in one go and people get one opportunity to fire their glass it's quite limiting so having that extra day allows you to fire some line work and then you can paint on top of that and be quite experimental um and then you've got you know another or add some enamel or some silver stain refire it um before you actually have to assemble it so that worked really well last time yeah it's um i think really actually four days would be even better so maybe i'll do that next year
SPEAKER_01:how
SPEAKER_00:many people can take your class at the same time
SPEAKER_02:um I usually have about six or seven. I'm sort of limited because I have quite a big kiln. But if you want to try and fire everything overnight so they can come back the next day and put it together, there's obviously a finite amount of space. So six or seven seems to work quite well. So that's what I usually have. And what's your favorite part about teaching? um my favorite well more recently I've had some I've just made some really great relationships with people actually I've had a couple of people who um mostly I've met them through Instagram um and um a couple of people who who've come to several of my courses and as for me I think because I'm living out in the countryside and working by myself it's actually really lovely to meet other artists you know whether they're print makers or illustrators um it's just really nice to have that um that opportunity to you know it's a two-way thing isn't it I'm showing them my skills but you know you get a lot in return as well and I made some really good friendships with people who I you know stay connected with now um through social media so um I mean for example I uh somebody who has been twice uh she's a textile artist but you know she her work applied really well to glass And she's got a big exhibition at the moment in London. I think it's just finished. And then she's moving up to show it in North Yorkshire. But, you know, we're keeping in touch. And when we talk about our process as well, it's very similar. We're just working with different mediums. So, yeah, I really, really enjoy, you know, I enjoy working with other people, meeting new people. Have you taught your daughters?
UNKNOWN:No.
SPEAKER_02:one of them has done a little bit yes she's done several several things and over covid her and her friends she lived in a big shared house and they were all bored all the time so that's where I had the idea I sent them all pieces of a rondel and they painted them and then sent them back to me but yes she's done a few things and she's just bought a house and she's got quite a lot of bits of stained glass everywhere either made by myself or by her yeah so that's sweet
SPEAKER_00:yeah okay I want to talk about a couple of your pieces specifically you don't really have names for your pieces no I don't
SPEAKER_02:really no if I do it's usually an afterthought I suppose yeah you make
SPEAKER_00:a lot of these glass girls
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. They're
SPEAKER_00:really sweet. Some of them have animals. Some of them have little birds or little dogs.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah. The little figures, you mean. Yeah. That was one of the first things I did, actually. I made some of those. And I hung them in my greenhouse here. And my daughter said, oh, you should sell those on Instagram. And I was like, really? I don't think anybody's going to want to buy these. And anyway, I put them just on my greenhouse. and sold them all really quickly, which was what gave me the, you know, the real incentive to sort of think about what I was doing and that actually it did have some sort of value. Yeah. So I made these little figures, yeah. And the first one I sold, I think, was to New York. And that was just, you know, very exciting because I didn't have a clue what I was doing. She was like, well, how much is it going to cost it? And I'm like, I don't know,£10?
SPEAKER_00:No. So what did you do? Did she pay for the shipping afterwards or did she just pay? No, she got a
SPEAKER_02:bargain. She got a bargain, I think.
SPEAKER_00:Yep. That's happened to me before too. Yeah. I've shipped things overseas and then be like, I don't, that was a mistake, but okay. I learned a lesson.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. But it was a good, it's all a journey, isn't it? You're kind of finding things out as you go along. But yeah, so I started off making those little characters and yeah. I mean, again, I was just having fun making something that I wanted to make using some sort of quite experimental sort of mark making and just messing around really. So it was nice that people liked them and wanted to buy them. Yeah, so that got me kind of started on the whole Instagram selling thing.
SPEAKER_00:Is there a backstory to your characters?
SPEAKER_02:To be perfectly honest, I think, again, going back to sort of loosening up and being kind of just allowing yourself to be creative, what I tend to do is I doodle. I have a sketchbook with me most evenings and I'm just, whilst I'm watching TV or listening to music, I just draw things. And I often go back through all my books and I take photographs of some of the images that I've drawn. And then I kind of work those up to, you know, become sort of stained glass designs. I don't really know where they come from. I just, yeah, I don't know, really. I suppose they're all self-portrait-y sort of things, me and my dog and, you know, yeah. inspired by kind of countryside and the marks and the flora and fauna and all that sort of thing um they haven't got a specific tale behind them to be perfectly
SPEAKER_00:honest none of them are named they don't you don't have Sue and Anne they're just girls and then you also have your glass men is that what you call them yeah yeah
SPEAKER_02:so I made some um again that was another thing that I quite early on I'd made some little kind of faces like some green men faces yeah they kind of um were just very popular very quickly uh and again I think I suppose I'm thinking of them as little kind of sort of symbols little uh effigies to protect you know to protect you maybe it was a sort of thing to do with COVID but they were kind of almost like little talisman to you know mother nature the green man they're all about kind of trying to preserve the landscape and the creatures within it and the um but you know it's it's very disheartening isn't it the world at the moment and all the politics and i suppose it's just kind of trying to invent and create these little yeah these little tokens that maybe have you know some some power to do something we can't do yeah i really like also the sort of traditions of the countryside um i don't know if you've heard of well dressing which is something that happened around here it's i used to be quite involved with it i mean i don't come from derbyshire but um i got i got kind of hooked into making it so every summer um and it's a pagan kind of thing really um and it's um they get these big wooden boards and they fill them with clay and then you make a mosaic using natural materials which you press into the clay um so you can use seed seeds, moss, flower petals, all sorts of things. So you make this big kind of picture using all these natural materials. And then they're displayed in the village for a week. And originally they were there to thank the gods or God for the water, for clean water. They had a lot of bubonic plague around here in the medieval times. So it was, yeah, I think partly to do with that, but it was like a sort of Thanksgiving to, you know, again, to, you know, for the clean water and for the harvest and all this sort of thing so some of these well dressings are very elaborate each village has one and they all have them at a slightly different time of the summer over the summer and it's quite an interesting quite an interesting tradition that's very I don't think there's any other county I think it is just this particular area that has this so it's quite unique and it's quite a skill and it's one of those things that's dying out really so it's a nice thing to be able to sort of help preserve it and to keep it going
SPEAKER_00:so who gets to make the boards is it anybody that wants to make one and they provide the supplies or is it just like the artists of
SPEAKER_02:the community well there's just one big board and ours is so it's about um it's about a meter by a meter so it's quite big sometimes they have like a kind of a little bit of a roof on it or like a side panels so these big boards uh um the community works together to do it it gets first of all it has to be soaked in the river all the boards so they become really wet so when you put the clay in it the clay stays wet and then you spend a week so hours takes place in the village hall here and the school children are involved and anybody else who wants to come and help and everybody comes and just does a little bit and it all creates this beautiful kind of mosaic and they used to be religious themes but now the themes are all sorts of different things they could be again to do with like the climate change or some you know anniversary of some you know a lot of people did because it was the Queen's Jubilee well dressings that were relevant to that so it's you know the themes vary considerably
SPEAKER_00:Are you a royalist?
SPEAKER_02:No. No.
SPEAKER_00:Is that considered a personal question?
SPEAKER_02:Well, I think it's been quite, the Queen's death affected a lot of people, I think. And I think sometimes I had to be a little bit careful about what I say because, you know, people were very upset about it. To me, I wasn't particularly upset. I mean, she did an amazing job, but I'm not royalist, no, and I don't believe um yeah I think I think hopefully things will change in the future interestingly I mean I where I used to live in Ascot which is near Windsor Castle and my mum was a great royalist we always used to get dragged out to go and see the queen as she went up to Ascot races and yeah but yeah but no
SPEAKER_00:yeah not particularly I think it might be kind of just is it similar to just asking somebody like their politics like are you a democrat or republican where it's not necessarily a personal question but you know during this time it feels a little sensitive
SPEAKER_02:yeah I was surprised at how many people were really affected by it um so you have to tread carefully because I didn't want to upset people but personally yeah not particularly um into the royal family
SPEAKER_00:it's so interesting the whole thing the history how it works how it doesn't work the whole thing is just it's so interesting
SPEAKER_02:yeah it's well I think a lot of Americans are really into it aren't they yeah it's going to be interesting because we've got the obviously the king's coronation next year and it's You know, Great Britain's going through quite a lot of problems at the moment with cost of living crisis. And so you've got these two very polar things going on. And I was listening to something on the radio about it today and they were saying, you know, think he's thinking that he's going to sort of dumb it down a bit and make it not quite so exuberant because it's you know billions of pounds being spent on something where people can't afford to hit their homes at the moment you know it's it's very polarized
SPEAKER_00:it's a little tone deaf to throw a huge crazy event for it yeah
SPEAKER_02:but then some people are saying well we live in miserable times we really want this because when you know there's we're only going to see one coronation in our life lifetime and blah blah blah so I don't know what the answer is I'm sure there'll be a lot of pomp and ceremony anyway one way or the other
SPEAKER_00:do you know why they wait an entire year to for the coronation of the king I
SPEAKER_02:don't know I don't know I thought that was I suppose it takes a lot of planning but
SPEAKER_00:that is true
SPEAKER_02:yeah
SPEAKER_00:if you think about it like how long it takes to plan a wedding a year is actually just yeah but they would
SPEAKER_02:have had it all planned in advance anyway they wouldn't know you know they they they would they have a model they know what they're going to be doing so they already have the venue booked yeah exactly they know who's going to be there they have all the uh the costumes and the jewelry
SPEAKER_00:yes yeah the uniform has been chosen well okay back to glass you have also um Two pieces that also are a nod to nature, the Queen of Green and the Corn Dolly. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So sweet. I love them so much.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, thank you. Yeah, I am. The corn dolly was quite, well, again, that's another sort of, not so much in Derbyshire, but, you know, a very folksy kind of thing in Britain, you know, making these little figures out of, you know, woven corn. And also there's a tradition with like Morris dancing. I don't know if you're aware of that. um morris dancers again it's a sort of like a folk dancing done to sort of folk music and there's um so that was a bit of an inspiration for those sorts of things you know with the sort of like the mask on the face and again they're kind of like rituals um and they're based on you know sort of more countryside i wouldn't necessarily say pagan but you know kind of celebrating nature and traditions of the countryside so yeah we have a lot of So Morris dancing, so there's mostly a male thing, but there are quite a lot of female troops as well now. So I got a bit of inspiration from that, but also from the idea of this corn dolly. Yeah, so it's just sort of feeding some of these kind of British traditions into some of the things that I do. And the Queen of Green,
SPEAKER_00:is there a specific
SPEAKER_02:tradition that she's... I can't remember which one you mean by that. Was it a face one or a figure? Here she is. Oh, that one. Yeah, yeah. I've made that one a few times. It's very popular. Yeah, again, a sort of a green goddess, a sort of a protector of, you know... I suppose somebody who's just trying to kind of, a talisman, somebody who's just trying to kind of protect us a bit from everything that's going on with the climate and with the, you know, destruction of the landscape, you know, putting a little bit of hope into some of these kind of characters that, again, like talismans to, yeah, to try and make things a bit better.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. There's another tradition, another festival, actually, that I think is where you live. You have it in your story but it's like a garland hanging ceremony oh
SPEAKER_02:yeah yeah the uh castleton garland yeah i've that was the first time i've been to it this year actually i've been aware of it but i think it was back in may i went to see it and it's another one of these it kind of has links to like you know i was explaining about the well dressing it's a similar sort of thing this whole kind of garland is made out of fresh flowers then it's pulled up it's really really heavy so it's pulled up with the rope and then put over the head of a man on horseback and paraded through the through the village on the way they stop off eight pubs in the village and have a drink each one so this poor man on the i don't think he can have a drink because i think he's he's completely enclosed in this you know dome of flowers um but there's there's dancing going on there's little there's like dance dancing girls and um everybody wears it's uh an oak leaf in their lapel i think it's oak apple day um which they're celebrating so they they kind of parade through the village and then at the end this big thing is sort of hoist off off him and it's um taken up into the bell tower of the church in castleton it's a tradition i you know i'm not completely sure of all the history connected to it but it's a tradition that's been going on for many years and it's quite a quirky, interesting thing to go and see. Definitely.
SPEAKER_00:I love all these ceremonies and traditions. So he's not holding it up. It's wrapped around him, but it's like draped over the horse as well, I suppose.
SPEAKER_02:it's kind of like a bell shape and it's kind of, I don't know whether it was sort of like resting on his head or, uh, it completely encompasses whole, you know, the whole top half of his body. So I don't think his arms stick out. I think he's led on the horse. Um, Somebody said, I know somebody in the village who he films it every year and he said it was something to do with chimney sweeps used to create these kind of garlands and cover themselves up and make themselves into these kind of like human garlands. And they used to sort of dance around the streets to get money. And it was apparently they used to do it, you know, because it was seasonal, their work. So they used to do it presumably in the summer when they didn't have so much work to try and get some money to, you know, pay for whatever they needed to pay for. But it's all a bit of a mishmash, I think, of traditions. There isn't really a definite sort of reason why it happens. I think it's all sorts of different customs which have all been kind of slightly sort of melded together which create this. But it's definitely really interesting and definitely worth going to see if you're in Castleton in May, whenever it is. I can't remember the exact date. Definitely worth going to see.
SPEAKER_00:You also made a piece that's like a lion face. It's very similar in shape, but it's the sweetest lion face. Do you know what I'm talking about? I think so. Is it a tiger, actually?
SPEAKER_02:Oh,
SPEAKER_00:it's a tiger. I thought it was a lion because he sort of has like the rays going around him. So I thought that that was his... yeah i think
SPEAKER_02:it's a tiger so i belong to an organization called the um um contemporary glass society i don't know if you've heard of that um and every couple of years they have a um like an exhibition at the international festival of glass and the theme this year was to make a piece of glass that represented a country from the commonwealth um so i chose i've got a mask upstairs, which is an Indian tiger mask. So I used that as the inspiration for making the little piece. So in these cabinets, I had all these different, everything has to be, I think it was like 10 centimeters. So it was just quite a nice thing to be involved with and all the different postcards, although mine was round, not square, all represented different countries in the Commonwealth. So it was just quite a fun thing to do. It
SPEAKER_00:was so precious. Loved it.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you.
SPEAKER_00:I'm just naming all these pieces because when I went into your Instagram, I was like, I want to find a favorite piece and talk with her specifically about that one. But I kept finding them and then being like, oh, this is my favorite. And then I'd write something down about it. And then I'd scroll a little deeper and be like, nope, this is my favorite. The next one that is another favorite of mine is it's a mermaid, but it's also... A dog mermaid, a dog made, a puppy made? What would you?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, dog, yes. That was actually, somebody asked me to make that. I'd made a piece. This is what happens. So I'd made a mermaid little panel for an exhibition and somebody had seen it and she has a dachshund that likes swimming. And so she asked me to make a dog mermaid. So these are sorts of things. In fact, actually for the same lady, I'm having to do another one, I think, and also a cat version of it as well, which I haven't got around to making yet. I
SPEAKER_00:know what those are called. Those are called, those are called permates.
SPEAKER_02:Brilliant. So yeah, I do get some odd requests for things, but yes, he was quite
SPEAKER_00:cute actually, wasn't it? Yeah. Very cute. We have a whole thing in our family where we told my daughter when she was very little that I used to be a mermaid before I met her dad and I've decided to become a human to be with him. So a little bit of a take on the little mermaid, but like, you know, a much better version. I don't know. But over the years, she's seven now. She still thinks it's true. So over the years, this story has grown and evolved. And she's asked me like very specific questions about like what school was like for me when I was little. And, you know, what were my friends like? Did I know any crabs? Things like that. And so it has grown so much bigger than what it initially intended to be or do that I feel like it's gotten very complex. I have a tattoo on my back that's she can she thinks is like the sign of a mermaid if i see if she sees anybody else that has that same tattoo
SPEAKER_02:i mean it's just it's she thinks that they're also one
SPEAKER_00:yeah yes yes she thinks she's going to turn into a mermaid when she turns 18 so she has a lot of questions about that too like will she have power to move water or you know any other superpowers that come with it will i be with her when she turns into a mermaid will it be when she touches any water it's it's a whole thing but mermaids have become very very special for us and i'm not sure if she's going to hate me when she realizes that it's all not true and just be like, I can't believe you lied all those years about the mermaid thing or if she'll appreciate it.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I made quite a lot of little mermaid rondels because we had a group of friends here and, well, we still do it, but we've been swimming in the river going out and it gets quite cold where we live here. But in January, we swam every day in January So some days it was one degree, the water temperature. Oh, my God. It was quite a challenge. And at the end, I made everybody a little rumble with a mermaid to celebrate the fact that we did it for a month.
SPEAKER_00:How far did you
SPEAKER_02:swim? Oh, we didn't swim very far, but it was more just actually the act of getting in the water when it was so cold. We went sometimes literally in and straight out again.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:It was quite challenging.
SPEAKER_00:You also, let's see here. You did a door piece. This is the last one, I promise. You did a door piece that I think it's a dove. I'm not sure if it's actually a dove or not, but then there's a big one. And then there's some birds that are swirling up and over to the right corner. Right.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Yes. Yes. That was interesting. Yeah, that was something that I made for a friend of mine, actually. And I've just been around there today to install another window in her house. Yeah, I really, yeah. Again, I mean, the birds around here are wonderful. And I think the one that you're talking about, is based on the murmurations that we have here so um in in the winter we get we get millions and millions of starlings that roost up in the reed beds on top of the hill and they do this murmurating do you know what that is oh
SPEAKER_00:yes they have that in portland oregon every year where they do a tornado down
SPEAKER_02:that's right yeah yeah so the last couple of years it's been amazing so We walk up at dusk and you can see all these bird kind of formations. It's really incredible. So that was kind of slightly based on that. But yes, we have so many. I mean, our house looks over some fields and we get loads of owls. We get lots of buzzards. We get all sorts of amazing bird life here, actually. So that was, yeah, just trying to... Yeah. yeah just trying to use some of those images to create a kind of stylized panel really and I've just saved the same person today I've just installed um an owl big owl panel which I don't know if you've seen it's on my Instagram today um so yeah there's definitely a bird theme going on with all my work as well so it's not a dove it's a starling I think so if it's the one yeah well it's a kind of you know it's it's ambiguous it's based on based on that yeah it's ambiguous yeah it's my own version of a bird of some sort I've decided not to be too literal about things anymore it's just whatever it's
SPEAKER_00:um tiger lion starling yeah yeah yeah is a buzzard the same thing as a or is it very similar to a vulture um
SPEAKER_02:it's not as big as a vulture it's it's a bird of prey but it's not not as big as a vulture. No, you get them quite common here. You get them in pairs often. And we live, there's a limestone ridge and you get them kind of circling around looking for prey. So they're beautiful
SPEAKER_00:birds. I don't think I've ever seen a buzzard in real life. When I think of a buzzard, I think of like the cartoon version.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, we did have a vulture here once. I think we had one vulture, which was, it's a European bird. We had a bearded vulture and it came, one came to visit. I think it was last year or the year before. And it was incredible. Loads of bird watchers from all over the country came to get a sighting of this because it was really rare to see them in the UK. So he was this bearded vulture. was sort of flying around not too far from here. So it was quite, that was quite a, I never saw it, but it was, it caused quite a lot of excitement. Just all by himself? Was he lost? Yeah, yeah, all by himself. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. He'd just gone, gone rogue.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I saw that you did a stained glass tour in London. Is, do you know, is this an ongoing thing? Cause I'm going to be in London in July and I was very interested to see you did that.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, so I have a little book, which is by somebody called Caroline Swash. And she has produced a little tiny kind of guide. And within it, there are like five or six, maybe more actually, different kind of walks you can do around London, taking in kind of contemporary and, you know, church stained glass. So it's a really nice thing to do if you're in London. Yeah. So I can send it to you if you want. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00:That's very sweet of you. I'll find it. You don't have to mail it to me, but I, I'm very interested in doing that because I feel like I should probably do something like that when I'm in London. There's so much good stained glass there.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. When are you coming in this year? In July. Next year. Okay. Yeah. Well, I mean, the Soviet cathedral is amazing. I mean, there's some really beautiful, yeah, some beautiful, there's some very old and interesting stained glass all over London, really. I'm trying to remember the name of the pub. Anyway, I'll send you a link to it. There's a pub which has got beautiful stained glass windows and all these sporting characters. I think it's called Champion or something. Yeah, it's everywhere. It's beautiful. You'll have a great
SPEAKER_00:time. I can't wait. The last time I was in London was in 2005, I want to say. I'll have to fact check that. The day that I was supposed to get into London was my birthday. It was July 8th. And it was the same day that there were those bombings. London okay and so while I was there they wouldn't let any vehicles any you know trains nothing near any of the important buildings so there's a lot of history that I need to see and make up for from that trip
SPEAKER_02:yeah yeah definitely well there's also yeah I mean it's such a great city it's you know there's always always really good exhibitions to go and see and the Tate Gallery or, you know, things at the British Museum. There's so much to
SPEAKER_00:do. I can't wait. And it's the first time I'm taking my daughter abroad. It's the first time. Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. She'll love it. It's so cool. It's so cool. I think she's really going to enjoy it. I can't wait. She's, that's definitely something that she, I feel like, you know, she's seven and she's really, you know, you have two daughters, like she's very, powerful and she's really experimenting right now with like control and there's a lot of friction sometimes she's pushing back against me in a lot of different ways but we travel a lot and whenever we travel she and I we travel together so well and we get along so well and she's such a great little helper on trips so I'm excited for this big one for us
SPEAKER_02:yeah that'd be lovely well we did a lot of traveling with our children when they were young and it's such a great thing to do and we've got so many brilliant memories of things that we did together and they still like coming on holiday with us if we pay I think that always helps yeah
SPEAKER_00:Okay, so you teach classes, you sell your work, you're doing these art walks and festivals, etc. And then I saw that you were also making these owl greeting cards from your popular owl series. How are those doing? Yeah,
SPEAKER_02:so again, I was telling you earlier about my friend Angela Hall and about how we have these open studios. So it was just a chance to, a lot of the things I make are, individual um they're one-offs or maybe they are slightly different you know but um nothing i don't nothing's ever exactly the same i can never be one of these people who had a shop and said you know i i don't want to be repeating making the same things all the time so i think cards was just a way of yeah just kind of making the most of some of those images i've made and having the opportunity to you know sell sell something and have something a little bit different because not everybody has the money to be able to buy a piece of stained glass but they might like to buy a few cards so yeah that's been really good I did some of my green men as well I made those into cards I don't do a lot of it because I'm not very organized and I don't have an online shop and I need to get you know I need to get better at my kind of website and that sort of thing so I just have these cards when I do events and that sort of thing but yeah they're quite quite popular so I'll probably make some more for the next, I've got a few things coming up in the autumn and winter. So I'll probably maybe look at some of my new work and get some cards made. I'm also thinking about getting maybe some prints made of some things as well for the same reason. You know, somebody might not want to spend the money on a piece of glass, but they might like the image and want to buy a print of it. So that's possibly something to do. Very
SPEAKER_00:smart. Do you have a favorite project that you've done? They really are so different, all of them.
UNKNOWN:Hmm.
SPEAKER_02:Interesting. Well, like I say, I think I just always like the next one best, probably. As soon as something's been made, I'm not really very interested in it anymore. So it's, you know, because I'm thinking about what I'm going to do next. And, yeah, I get excited about, you know, the next thing that I'm going to do. So I've got a panel above a door that I'm going to be doing next for somebody. So I'm starting to think about what I'm going to do next. to think about that. And that's going to be based on birds and landscape and some people, again, who live quite locally and they want something that reflects the kind of area a little bit, but they're quite happy for me to make it to my own design. So that's really nice. I enjoy, you know, being given that freedom to make something that I want to make, but it's going to go into a particular space. Do you do your own installations?
UNKNOWN:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:um not really no no i um i i recognize i'm not very good at that sort of thing so i um i'm hesitating because i've been around today to my friend lorna's and we've been trying to get this window set up and fitted into this door panel so sometimes a little bit but yeah usually i try and leave it to somebody else it's not like again you recognize that you what you can do and what you're good at doing i'm not very good at doing that it's like repairs and all that sort of thing I'm not particularly good at doing that so I've just learned now I can say no to those sorts of things and stick to what I feel I'm better at doing.
SPEAKER_00:Did you have to learn that the hard way?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah because I always say yes usually to everybody for everything and yeah it comes with kind of more confidence isn't it to actually say that's not you know that's not me no I don't want to do that thank you. How do you sign your work. how do I sign it sometimes I forget to sign it um I usually just put JL 2022 just paint it in a or scratch it into a little section in the corner when I um make something yeah I'm terrible I really yeah I'm really rubbish at remembering to do things like this because I get so excited about doing the thing and I'm in such a rush to do it but I forget all the things I should try and remember I That's
SPEAKER_00:an easy thing to do. It's an easy little detail to forget. Yeah. Yeah. The only other thing that I wrote down for you is what you wrote under a photo that was posted a long time ago. And it just made me laugh. You wrote, this is me from yonks ago. Some panels with kids from a school in North Yorkshire, Yorkshire, Yorkshire.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:anyway I just thought that was so funny this is me from yonks ago is
SPEAKER_02:that a saying yeah yonks ago a long time ago yeah yeah when I first started doing stained glass I did a lot of projects with schools and I can't remember exactly which picture you're talking about but yeah I um I did a lot of that so I would work with kids and we would be you know making design I sometimes they would do the glass painting as well it all depended on the time and and what we were doing but i did a lot of that sort of thing and again that's one of the things that i probably have learned to say no to doing quite so often um um just so i have only because i have i would rather spend time making my own work really rather than um those sorts of projects but again i do them from time to time still
SPEAKER_00:yeah well that one was yonks ago yonks you never heard of yonks ago never heard of it but it's my new favorite way to describe when something was a very long time ago um do you have a favorite artist that's not stained glass that's
SPEAKER_02:not stained glass
SPEAKER_00:um
SPEAKER_02:Well, I really like people like Matisse and Picasso. I mean, contemporary artists. I really like... One of the things I was thinking about, I was... Do you know Vicky and Bill Lindo? I don't know if you know them. They're kind of ceramicists from... Look at their Instagram. They have some really beautiful... They make these beautiful ceramic kind of... Often they're quite figurative. Cats and different sorts of... kind of creatures. Really beautiful. I think very collectible now. And what are their names? Vicky and Bill Lindo. L-I-N-D-O. I I really like, at the moment, I'm really into medieval art. I really love going around churches and cathedrals and looking at the sort of, you know, the medieval kind of wood carvings and stained glass windows and stone carvings and gargoyles. I really love all that sort of stuff. I've got quite eclectic tastes. I like all sorts of things. I love going to galleries in London, you know, and wherever. I love going and looking at art and going to museums But I do especially like going to churches and cathedrals. I'm not religious, but I love all the craftsmanship in these spaces. like I said, I was saying I'm working at Holminster at the moment, which has got an incredible range of stained glass from all over the, you know, all over time. They have some Harry Stammer's windows. He's somebody else I really like. He's somebody, he was, I think it was, he was from North Yorkshire and he, sort of born about 1906 or something like that and worked through to like the 1960s but he's got some beautiful work all over all over Great Britain so he's one of my favourite stained glass artists
SPEAKER_00:Do you have any modern stained glass artists that you love that you want to give a nod to? Well, I've
SPEAKER_02:got a lot. Do you know what? There's just loads and loads of amazing stained glass artists who, again, have got relationships with through Instagram. It's such a supportive community, actually. And there are a lot of women working as glass painters. So, yeah, we all kind of, I think it's really great. They're very supportive. and we ask each other kind of questions we've got little sort of whatsapp groups and that sort of thing uh i mean i really love um um well one of the people i really love actually and i was going to talk about her is um cappy thompson who's an american artist actually she was um do you know cappy she's somebody when i first um started doing stained glass i did a workshop a master class with her she's from seattle
SPEAKER_00:did you come over or did you just do it online
SPEAKER_02:so she came over to Scotland to teach it um so she um she her work is really inspiring she does a lot of glass painting and yeah that was kind of quite a important time for me really learning from her um I mean I was I was looking at it today I think the course was called developing your own personal iconography her stuff is quite illustrative and um quite spiritual uh and also quite folk art based and um yeah really beautiful work actually she's done some really big installations in uh airports and things I think is it Tacoma airport um is that in Seattle um so she's she's a contemporary glass artist that I really like um But there's lots, lots of British, lots and lots, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I know, there is. There's way more, I think, it seems that there's more glass painting happening in England than there is here. Really? What do you think?
SPEAKER_02:I mean, I follow a lot of accounts and a lot of them are British, actually. Yes. I mean, I follow people from all over the world, I guess. But yeah, it seems to be very, you know, popular. I mean, when I run courses, people are really interested in it as a medium. And there's some just extraordinary people doing some interesting, really interesting things. You know, some very traditional work, but some people doing very, you know, taking it in all different directions. Yeah. So, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:What are your five to 10 year goals?
SPEAKER_02:Well, yeah. I think so one of the things very practically is I'm going to at the moment I work in my it's an old outside toilet and garage so one of my practical goals is to actually create a better sort of studio space for myself because it's it's cold it's kind of rat infested it's not the best but I'd like to I'd like to enter more kind of competitions and exhibitions every couple of years here they have this so this international festival of glass and they have a quite prestigious sort of Biennale exhibition and there was quite a lot of stained glass represented this year so maybe I'd like to try and get something in in something like that in the future so I think again it's about making time for So doing the work I want to do and being a bit experimental and giving myself that time to just kind of develop my own ideas and my own kind of creativity.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So that's really, and not be trying to please
SPEAKER_00:everybody else, I suppose. Right. Right. Okay. Well, you've just said it out loud publicly. So now you have to do it.
SPEAKER_02:I've got two years, so I'll have to start thinking about it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And you'll keep us updated on Instagram. I will do. Okay. Please do. Well, that's all I have for today. So I
SPEAKER_02:wanted, tell you one person actually
SPEAKER_00:because
SPEAKER_02:yeah so I have this person I want to just sort of mention um because you have to nominate what did you say to nominate somebody
SPEAKER_00:well it's not necessarily a nomination anymore now it's just like who do you want to like shine a light on and say yeah
SPEAKER_02:yeah well there is somebody yeah there's a young woman called lily eris i think that's how you pronounce her name and um also i think her mother is also a stained glass artist called liz hubbett liz hubbett um they're both on instagram so lily is um she's just won a cockpit clear bursary and so she's just so she's just left university I think I don't really know very much about her but her work's very illustrative she does a lot of sgraffito really into glass painting and it's very kind of unique and personal to her so her work's just really interesting for somebody she's very much sort of you know just new to um you know, up and coming, I suppose. She's just finished her course. So I just wanted to kind of give a shout out to her because her work's really lovely. Okay. And her mom, what's her mom's name? Her mom's called Liz Huppert. Okay. I think that's how you say it. She also does some really beautiful glass painting as well. So that's quite interesting that the daughters, so my daughters weren't that, you know, apart from doing it for a bit of fun, weren't really interested in pursuing it. But obviously Lily's taken the leaf out of mother's book and producing some really nice work.
SPEAKER_00:That's nice. That's really nice. Well, Jane, you are just as lovely to chat with as your work is. I'm so grateful that you spent your time, your afternoon with me today and have a wonderful and productive day in the studio today. And I'll talk to you soon. Oh, thank you very much, Siobhan. It's been a pleasure to talk to you. To see more of Jane's work, her Instagram is at jane.littlefield.glass j-a-n-e dot l-i-t-t-l-e f-i-e-l-d dot g-l-a-s-s and mine is at runa glassworks for the cracked patreon page jane is gifting one of her blackbird eating a worm small suncatcher pieces that's about nine centimeters or just about three and a half inches and also a pack of five owl rondell greeting cards so so cute i'll be doing a drawing for that in my Instagram stories on Sunday, January 29th, 2023. Speaking of Patreon, I'd like to also take a moment to thank this podcast's newest Patreon supporters. Consider this shout out a little forehead kiss and a big hug and thank you from not only me, but from everyone else listening too. The Patreon page is a big percentage of the fuel that keeps this train going. So here we go. Kelly Graves of at Glass Wench Studio. Sheila Wagner at dusk underscore glass. And that's all for today, folks. Next week's episode of Cracked is pretty cool because I'll be chatting with two artists who I admire and whose work I love. Australian Nadine Keegan and Austrian Tom Medicus. Nadine is on the road for a fellowship study and I was lucky to catch them together at the same time. Till then, my friends, I hope you all have wonderful and productive days in the studio. Bye!