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
Sgraffito Allegories with Lil Eris of Lekka Suka
Today for the final episode of Season 4 of Cracked I’m speaking with the queen of sgraffito, the Italian word directly translated to “scratched.” Her time consuming technique of flooding a thin layer of lead based powder paint over colorful patchwork like glass pieces, and then meticulously scratching it off revealing negative space designs that come together to create elaborate and rich stories. Drawing from her experiences of her childhood and family, in her stained glass pieces Lil weaves a tail of greblins, witches, fairies and sea creatures to name just a few.
Let's get into it!
Join me as I crack it all wide open!
For the final Patreon page drawing of the season, I'm doing a drawing of 2 names! One winner will receive the Map Mundi print + a set of greeting cards and another winner will receive a sgraffito stained glass white lily made by Lil and a set of greeting cards. The Map print is 11”x13.5” and the flower is 3.5” I'll be doing a drawing for those on September 17th.
Honorable mentions from this episode:
Artists:
Harry Clark
harryclarke.net
Grayson Perry
graysonsartclub.com
Pinkie Maclure
pinkiemaclure.net
Kit Williams
kitwilliams.co.uk
John Bauer
wikiart.org/en/john-bauer
~ handcast glass since 1974 ~
Canfield Technologies
Canfield sets the standard for the Stained Glass industry.
Youghiogheny Glass Company
Stained glass sheets and glass products for the art and stained glass industry.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
Hello and welcome back to Cracked with Siobhan Aris. Today's episode is the very last episode of season four, so there will be a break for a bit after this. But don't worry, I won't leave you hanging for a long time. Before we jump in, I'd like to thank our wonderful sponsors for making the show possible. First up is Bullseye Glass. Bullseye is hand-cast by artists for artists since 1974. Their glass comes in hundreds of colors, Each hue exists to help realize the vision of makers around the world. Whether for kiln forming, stained glass, or mosaic, find out about their glass products as well as education, residency opportunities, and the latest news and events at bullseye.com. I'd also like to thank Canfield Technologies. When you start with a quality, impurity-free material, you end up with a smoother-flowing alloy providing consistent, reliable results. Learn more at canfieldmetals.com. I'd also like to express my gratitude for Yakagany Glass Yaka Gainey has been producing the world's finest art glass since 1976. With their 2017 entry into the 96 fusible market and recent acquisition of Euro Boros glass, Yaka Gainey is quickly becoming your one-stop art glass manufacturer. Find out more and see the new Euro by Yaka and find your nearest distributor at yakagaineyglass.com. That's Y-O-U-G-H-I-O-G-H-E-N-Y glass.com. Today, I'm speaking with the queen of scruff The Italian word directly translated to scratched. Her time-consuming technique of flooding a thin layer of lead-based powder paint over colorful patchwork-like glass pieces and then meticulously scratching it off, revealing negative space designs that come together to create elaborate and rich stories. Drawing from her experience of her childhood and family, in her stained glass pieces, Lil weaves a tale of gremlins, witches, fairies, and sea creatures to just name a few. A little bit of a warning, or I'm not sure if warning is the right word for it, but just as an acknowledgement, I guess, from me that I start this episode crying. It's not usually how we start these chats, but anyone who has experienced grief knows it's not a linear journey, and sometimes a wave of it will hit you when it's not the most convenient time. That's what happened here, and I tried to find a way to edit it out, but it sort of leads us into Lil's fantastic story, so I left it. Plus, it's just me being honest. So let's get into it. Join me as I crack it all wide open. Hello!
SPEAKER_01:Hello!
SPEAKER_00:The tree of life tapestry that was behind your... My dog died last summer. And I had the same one and we wrapped her in it before we buried her. Really? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:The exact same color?
SPEAKER_00:The exact same color, the exact same tapestry. Oh, wow. Yeah. So sorry. I don't know. awkward thing to
SPEAKER_01:start a chat with.
SPEAKER_00:No,
SPEAKER_02:that's okay. No, like, it's a nice tapestry. I got it for the... I got it... Yeah. I don't know. If my dad died, I'd be exactly the same.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah. No, I've been okay. Like, I'm so sorry. This is, like, so...
SPEAKER_01:No, don't worry about
SPEAKER_00:it. It's cool. I don't mind. I haven't really, like... I think sometimes when pets are older, when you know they're going to die, you can do some pre-grieving. So I feel like I actually moved through it pretty... Not stoically, but I felt very... I felt very okay and just like very like grounded in what was happening. And I didn't feel like I was like blindsided by it, but just, I don't know, just like seeing that tapestry just like really made me feel how much I missed her.
SPEAKER_02:yeah yeah yeah we've got three we've got three little dogs are ours we um because my my parents and my husband's parents bought a house together so farmhouse um it's like an old pig farm and we have three little dogs that all live there and it's like luxury for them so we'd love to have our our dog ben he's like a little chalky looks like a little fox um we'd love to i'd love to have him here but um they've but our roommate has a cat so we're just trying to find somewhere where we can bring him that hasn't got any cats but nowhere in England there's a real problem with rent with renting now so you can't get young people can't afford to buy houses but we also now because of everything we can't also can't afford to rent and there's not enough places to rent and so and then none of them want you to have a dog so we're just trying desperately trying to find somewhere that we can bring him because do really really miss him a lot yeah I bet that's hard yeah Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, so your parents, your parents and your partner's parents bought a house together? Yeah,
SPEAKER_02:yeah. Yeah, so my husband, well, me and Rob have been together about eight years. Basically, my mum, sort of, my mum, so we, I grew up on a, like a traveller's site. I don't know what you'd call it in America, but it's like, there's a lot of like travellers and gypsies, you know, new age travellers and stuff on like this site in the middle of nowhere. And And... Basically, we've never been able to get out or afford a house. And so then when my grandparents died, my mum inherited not even like a nice house or anything. It was like a, I mean, you know, I loved it. And it was a lot, there was a lot of like things that if I think about it now, like inspired by my work there. But yeah, it was just this sort of kind of very, very old sort of rundown but it happened to be in London. So because it was in London and obviously it was worth a lot of money. And so, because it was just about on the tube. And so my mum got half of that and we, with her brother, and bought, sort of went round to Rob's parents' house and was like, hey, we could buy something together, ha, ha, ha. And then they, one day, I think they got a bit, Rob's parents got a bit drunk and they were like, phoned up my mum and was like, we've been talking about it and I think we want to do it and that's how my mum we got out of the we got out of the site and moved into this old farm that's like this got this long bungalow and it happened to have sort of it used to be like an old farmhouse but then they'd kept making they kept extending it and extending it and extending extending it over about I don't know like 60 years and then there happened to be like a door in the middle. And so literally Rob's parents live on one side of the door and my parents live on the other side of the door.
SPEAKER_00:Whoa. That is the craziest in-law situation I've ever encountered.
SPEAKER_02:I know it's pretty funny it's uh yeah they're they're they're uh they it's good that they got to get on anyway because they didn't really know each other very well but they got to know each other because me and Rob bought um we bought a boat together when I was 19 we got a bit of inheritance and bought a boat together um like a narrow boat and uh spent about two years doing it up um to make it all nice and then we lived on it for about five years yeah yeah no it was nice but then yeah that was a lot of my inspiration as well for my art was how old are you now uh i'm 26
SPEAKER_00:you're 26 so you've been with your partner for eight years
SPEAKER_02:yeah he's he's a little bit older than me so well not really he's only 20 he was 22 so he was he's he's well he's 29 now nearly 30 he'll be 30 on the uh this month
SPEAKER_00:oh an old man yeah
SPEAKER_02:yeah yeah no he said we're having a big party for him which would be nice on the farm on our parents farm
SPEAKER_00:That's so exciting. So you guys live at the farm with both sets of parents and you live upstairs? We
SPEAKER_02:did. No, we did until very, very recently. It was only been like a couple of weeks and we moved to, I'm in Hereford, but my parents live in, and his parents live in Worcester. And we, well, we lived in London. We were living in London for about seven months. And then we moved back and then we were, but we keep on and off living at the house, like everywhere. one does so like Rob's sister and has lived there and my sister and her boyfriend are living there and so we on and off live there and then try and move on and then come back again you know yeah with your parents so yeah but luckily there's so many it's big enough you know
SPEAKER_00:right and this site that you mentioned that you grew up on is that is it kind of like a commune kind of thing yeah yeah yeah it's um
SPEAKER_02:sort of it's um uh they never liked calling it that it it sort of changed a lot over the years um but it's sort of it was um it's like um Because it's been going for a long time now. Still going now. But I moved there when I was about, I think it was a year and a half. And my sister had only just been born, really. And my parents would move from place to place in the caravan. So they had like a bus and a couple caravans. And they would move from place to place. but then when they had us they sort of ended up getting like going to the the one in Worcester Worcestershire in the countryside and they and ended up staying there for 20 21 years I think it was in the end and they bought well yeah until I was 21 anyway I think yeah yeah so uh so we lived there until I was 21 other than like sort of briefly being other places uh but no we I lived in a I lived in the we lived in the caravans till I was nine and my dad bought they bought uh like an old uh double decker bus that had been like it was sort of It was like a really old, messed up one. It didn't have an engine or anything. And my dad sort of did it up. And then we lived in that for about 12 years.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Wow.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, don't think like this gorgeous, like, you know, people read it, people do double deckers now and it's like amazing. It's like this beautiful place. Imagine just sort of like, like the walls were like, just like stained plywood and the, and the, some of the ceiling and some of the walls and ceiling were just like, um, you know, exposed metal. And so, and then we have this, my dad made wood, but he makes wood burning stoves. Um, for people living on boats and houses as well and stuff like that just like he's like sort of he wouldn't call himself an artist but it's it is he has his own style and they're they're like bespoke um and he and we like um he made one not a nice one for the Dublin bus and it looked like like this giant bomb and it was uh it was like this really big thing and uh and with this like round bit and then a big pipe and then had this pipe sticking out of it with a lid. And it used to glow like red hot. It's amazing. We didn't like totally burn ourselves to pieces like when we were kids. But yeah, it was a good one though. It made it very hot because people always used to say like, Oh, it must get really, it must get really cold living in a double bus. And I was like, yeah, but then in the same way, it's like it gets too hot because it's a metal box and you've got a fire in it. It just means that it's like this scalding hot, like metal box you're just in an oven. So it was kind of like the opposite was the problem.
SPEAKER_00:That is so crazy. All of that sounds like it's out of a storybook.
SPEAKER_02:yeah well yeah I don't know it's just like just my weird reality when I was a kid I used to sort of pretend I hated it but I loved it really and there was and um because there was loads of other kids on the farm as well you know so like um on the site there was loads of other kids and we used to just be able to like muck about and play and they used to just let us drop like do whatever we wanted basically just like build tree houses in the woods because it was there was a there was a few quite a few woods around it was sort of like in the middle of nowhere um but yeah like on top of a hill um but like you wouldn't nobody would sort of know about it they try and like hide it away but yeah it's like i think that was like it was like an old farm but it was a lot bigger like quite a big i think it was like 25 acres maybe I think it was like fields and fields away from any other civilization. And what about school? When I was at school, there was a bus that used to take us. It used to take ages. It was like an hour. We used to sit on this bus and it was always late because it was so far out. The bus system was just terrible. It used to always be late or sometimes it'd be early. And so they'd have to pick us up in a coach, like all the people that lived in the countryside. And we'd have to walk down this track. So there was this long track that used to take us would take you from the road through all the fields to the site and we used to You'd have to... Nobody would want to... No one outside the farm would ever want to drive down it because it was just... It was just crazy. It would just be like... It'd be like you were at a theme park or something. It was just so crazy. It was going down these... Going down. And it would just wreck your suspension on your car. So nobody who didn't live there would go down there. So we'd just have to walk down there. But then nobody did up the track. So it was always just full of craters of like... of water. It was like ponds, you know, because it was just, it was all mud, like mostly it was all mud. So it would just been, the people would bomb it down there in their four-wheel cars. And then you just like, you know, turn up all these big holes. And so me, us as kids, we had to sort of try and like climb around these things, just like with our school shoes and to get up to get home. absolute nightmare or to get to look to get the bus and then the bus would take us off to like the nearest school which was which was um what is it pershore high school yeah
SPEAKER_00:And how long was the walk from your little, your little hub, your little community? How, how, how far was the walk between that and the bus stop?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, it was like, I think it was like, it was only like, like a kilometer. I don't know. Like, I don't know, like 10, 15 minutes. I'm not sure. Yeah. But as a kid, you know, so, but yeah, it was, but you know, we'd have a lot of fun and we'd do a singing or shouting or throwing things like along the way so it was nice it was like I yeah it was uh yeah you think about it now you think back and you're like oh we used to do all these fun things like walking on the way back and like trying to get around the the big like ponds that would be turned up and um And but then at the time, it was like, oh, for God's sake, to get around this. It was a nightmare.
SPEAKER_00:And how old were you when you were walking that? How old were you when you were walking that? Because I feel like a kilometer sounds like really far for a little kid to walk.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it was just I don't know. Well, I would have been school age, I guess, like. like four or five but we used to we used to walk together you know there was a you know there was a well but then most of the time we'd get or most of the time we would always get a ride down the track but then we'd always have to walk back so uh but um and then that's when we'd have to like wade through stuff but um but yeah yeah it was it was nice because there was all the other kids living there um yeah so it was like a and it was nice because we all grew up together and it was yeah yeah And how many kids were there? Um, they would always, some people would obviously come and go. Um, but I don't know, probably like, um, cause it would be some, some of us were there the whole time. probably like, I don't know, 15, 20, like up to 18, you know. Yeah. And they were still, it's nice because like when you live there for that long, like we were always, they were always like the little group, the group of little kids and it was always like me and Kasia and like Molly and Daisy and Amy and Elsie as well. And that was sort of like the little group and you see us all walking around together and then when we got older, then you'd see the new group of kids, like, and it was a lot of the, like, a lot of the kids who were a bit older than us, they'd have kids and then their kids would all be growing up together and walking along the farm. You'd see them going past the windows and stuff. So, and then now there's a new one again. But yeah, yeah. So it's, yeah, it was
SPEAKER_00:nice. And is there a different family now living in that bus?
SPEAKER_02:No, wait, they were thinking about leaving it there, but then the mum decided to take it. And so it's just in the garden at the farm that my parents, the one my parents bought with Rob's parents that they live now. It's just in the garden. It's just, and it's a state as well. See, my dad sort of didn't tell us to the last minute that he'd be moving it. And so we, So we never went there because it was quite a trek from where we were. We never went there to go take all our stuff out. So they got it. And it obviously didn't have an engine or anything. So he had to get the wheel of it and somehow put the steering wheel on the outside of it. And then, I don't know, somehow get it down this track because there was a main track at the site where I grew up. And then there was like a little bit of track that would take you up to the bit where we lived on. And then I don't know how I must have put the steering wheel on the outside and like, I must have somehow got it down that bit and then got it onto something. And then it drove, some guy in you drove it to our new place and everything on the inside all smashed up. Like all my drawers had all fallen out. um and and but luckily the only window that smashed was in my sister's room so who cares like because we downstairs there was the living room the like the dining room it was like a it was just it was just like a little table and then there was the kitchen then you go upstairs and we had a like a bathroom but we didn't have a wasn't like a toilet or anything it was just shower and a sink and then it was my room was at the what would be the back if you're imagining on top of on a double-deck bus and my room was at the back and Kasia's room was right at the front my sister Kasia And you just have one sister? Yeah, just one. Yeah. Yeah. But we were only like a year apart. So, um, but I was, my dad's tall and my mom's short. And so I got the, so I'm more, I'm not really tall. I'm just five, seven, but she's, uh, my sister's really short. So it was always like, um, we were only a year apart, but it seemed like we were more because I was so much taller than her. So what is she younger or is she older? younger by just but only by a year yeah you know yeah but the older we get the more it's like just completely insignificant you know
SPEAKER_01:so which
SPEAKER_02:was quite really I think I think when I've had kids I might do the same or because like it's it's quite nice having like a little like a little friend to hang out with you know like when you're growing up
SPEAKER_00:yeah built-in bud
SPEAKER_02:yeah well that's what my mom said that's why my mom said she had two because it was tight to have only one I think yeah yeah I have a lot of attention so
SPEAKER_00:yeah I don't know yeah so I you told me what your dad does but so your mom she was the stained glass artist right so did she was there space in that bus for the for the stained glass studio or was that outside no
SPEAKER_02:they like so um me and my sister just stayed in double decker my dad was in his own bus that he still lives in now um like in the garden at the the place where my mum bought with uh rob's mum and um and then we then my mum lived in her caravan which is the caravan that we grew up in um and um the caravan that used to be our living room and dining room and um and and kitchen but then she lives in there and she still lives in there now in the garden in the summer and then we then she had a sorry she had a mobile home thing like a really old like falling apart sort of mobile home in like just like on the other side of it doesn't matter you don't know what I mean yeah she has a little mobile she had a little mobile home where she had her her workshop in Yeah, and it was like on the other side of the bit
SPEAKER_00:that we lived in. Yeah. And has she been doing stained glass for as long as you can remember? Yeah,
SPEAKER_02:yeah, yeah. My mum actually was a... She did ceramics first. She used to make clay. She used to make all these crazy characters and creatures out of clay, like these big whales. It was always mad stuff. It was always just really... It'd be like a whale, but then it would have loads of little snails on it and just loads of stuff going on. It's like with my art, actually, that you have to look at it for a long time to see all the little things going on. And yeah, I always really liked like lots of detail and where, you know, you can look at things more, you can look at it more than once. Like you look at it and every time you look at it, you see something else. And then it's like, it's like a new, new thing about it, you know?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Your work is really ornate. It's sort of like colorful patchwork style of glass with organic shapes. And then within each shape, there is a detailed something. It could be a fish or a flower or Yes. all of these like quote, like, like I'll call them like glass patches have different creatures interacting with each other where clearly there's a whole other narrative and story to tell.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I, I like, I was massively inspired by the Mappamundi. We did, we did the Mappamundi, sorry, the Mappamundi in Hereford because there's lots of them, but it's, I think it's the biggest one that, in... It's definitely the biggest one in the UK, I think. Because I went to university in Hereford, which is where I am now. And... and we did a project with the Hereford Cathedral and that's where they keep the Mapamundi in the cathedral. And it was like, we were gonna do an exhibition with them. We did an exhibition with them and it had to be something inspired by, whatever it was, something at the cathedral. And when I first saw the Mapamundis, I know the one that you made. oh yeah no we're basically it was it's um so i think it's made of calfskin and they made it in the like 1300s and it's uh it was basically everything they thought they knew like the whole world so it's like full of all this these crazy characters and all these myths um like little little illustrations of like children eating their parents and like this is where they all they children eat their parents and this is where like it was just all this mad stuff that they thought um that they thought was the world. And they obviously didn't quite know the shape of everything, of all the land. So all the land is sort of vaguely, like some of it is vaguely right, but not at all, because they just had no idea what any of it looked like from above. And yeah, it's a really, really inspiring thing to go see. And yeah, I was really inspired so I because it was just you literally could be there for weeks just looking at all the different things on it because it's really big and um yeah and uh that's when I that's when I did my uh decided to make one just of Hereford so it was just my Mathamundi of Hereford they they actually bought it so you can see it in the in the exhibition with the real map Mathamundi um and and It is a... Yeah, I did a map of Mappa Hereford. So it was Hereford in the centre where Jerusalem would have been on the actual Mappa Mundi. And then there was... And then there's just like recognizable buildings and then just like all the different places in Herefordshire and lots of folklore, lots of little illustrations of all the folklore that comes from Herefordshire.
SPEAKER_00:It's so beautiful. And you have prints of it that you sell. Do you still have any available? Um,
SPEAKER_02:yes, I do actually. Yeah. Yeah. I, uh, I made a load and then this is the thing. It was the first thing I made. So first and last thing I'd made. So, um, I, yeah, I have, I have, do have some prints left. Yeah. And, um, and I could get some made anyway, but, uh,
SPEAKER_00:yeah, no. Okay. Maybe we can work on something together for the Patreon page, the cracked Patreon page that has to do with maybe some of those prints.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I can get... Yeah, yeah, yeah, that'd be great. I think they're in my mum's workshop in Worcester. Yeah, yeah, I can get those. And I also have... Because I was selling them, but then I, you know, I sold some and then, like, my Etsy wasn't working and so I sort of gave up on that. So, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But your Etsy is up and running. It's not working now or it wasn't? Well, I'm not
SPEAKER_02:sure if it works now because I, so I put a load of things on it, but then it wasn't working. Something about the payment wasn't working. So people had kept messaging me over Instagram to buy stuff. So I sold a load of stuff through it technically, but everyone had to come and buy it through me rather than through Etsy, which is really annoying. So I think I'm going to get robbed to buy, like you know pretend to buy a card off it so they see if it works but I've been making a load of like smaller things to sell so yeah making a load of smaller things to sell like a load of little birds and things and yeah and to put up on it so I've got a load I'm going to have a load of things put up soon and little fish as well so I will have like yeah little things because usually I make I'm just so used to making them big massive things you know that yeah we're trying to trying to make some like more affordable stuff
SPEAKER_00:right because some of your panels are really large I just want to start out by reading your bio if that's okay my bio where and what um I think it's on Etsy.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, no. Yes, that's a really old bio I made. I think Rob wrote for me ages ago. But yeah, carry on. Sorry.
SPEAKER_00:No, that's okay. You know what? Maybe today's the day you decide whether or not this bio lives on.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:It says, I see the world as a confusing and chaotic place. Stories and characters can help me to make some sense of its complexity. So a lot of your pieces have these gremlins in them, and they're kind of like they look like a cross between a troll and a fairy i would say yeah
SPEAKER_02:yeah it started off um so i used to always draw these little characters i've done i've done it like for as long as i can remember um and i didn't think of it as anything um i just thought it was just like something i did for fun i literally didn't even think about it and um and then i i I made a, I made that, I made a big, really big panel. It was the second one I'd ever made. I made it just after the Map of, Map of Hereford one. And it was kind of like, it was my depiction of the entire world. And so it's, it's incredibly complicated and takes ages to explain, but like every island is like a different, every island on it is like a different place. like struggle and uh just the way everything that I thought of the world back when I was would have been about 22 just have because I just felt like I had you know I'd lived and I'd live sort of kind of isolated place and um my world had been so small and um and so then suddenly becoming an adult and and leaving like the site and stuff you it's like you go into like the real world you know in inverted commas and um and I just felt like I needed to express that somehow and and that's how uh that's why I made that panel and that's how the that's how the gremlin started because um I needed a way of portraying yeah like the global elite you know but um they have changed a lot since then like that was that was the first time I ever did it and that bio is actually from um that one piece and that was just that feels like such a long time ago and the they've changed a lot now they're more softer now I'd like to make them more sort of like grim because I liked the grim but like I've it took me a long time to like turn them more like aesthetically pleasing I guess mm-hmm So the piece that you're talking about
SPEAKER_00:is called... It's called LSD. It's called Leckie Solemn Dystopia. It's a series of overlapping circles and one that's the largest. Each circle, you have clear glass and the colorful glass patches seemingly floating. So if you're picturing what I mean, imagine your glass pieces ready to be soldered, but still separately laid out on your light pad or table. You posted about it back in 2021, January 25th. This post says, I finally finished it. This is my personal chaotic depiction of the world made using stained glass, wood, lead paint, sandblasting, and pyrography in my own style. If you're interested, I've tried to explain it here. The main piece represents the world we all live in and each of the islands on the left represent the different powers that oppress us or the different struggles. For instance, Big Pharma, BLM movement, big data, powerful leaders, oppression of the poorest, etc. The three islands on the right hand side of the main piece are where the trolls who evolved from fairies called gremlins live. They represent the global elite, dancing around their mountain of gold, having luxurious feasts and living in houses built on stilts for when the giant waves of climate change inevitably comes to drown all the woodland creatures living on the main lands. The gremlins come over on their ships to cause havoc and to feed potions to the fairy folk, to turn them into the hear no, see no, speak no monkeys so that they don't course too much fuss. The creatures in the sea represent the six enemies of the mind, not including the equality mermaid in the middle, lust, jealousy, delusion, anger, greed, the dragon in the frame, and pride. Some have lost souls in their grips. The COVID crows are sandblasted all over the top sheet of glass to represent the pandemic we all live in now. The separate piece on the bottom right with the three rainbow islands is a depiction of my childhood where I grew up and where I felt safe and secure before I made it to the mainland. The frame displays the journey we took to get to this point, including different religions, the industrial and agricultural revolution, hunting, foraging, and war, etc. Finally, that's me in the center, looking confused about what the fuck is going on and trying to make sense of it all. It's inspired by my favorite artists. Grayson Perry, Pinky McClure, Kit Williams, and John Bauer. The wood framework has light boxes behind it. And pyrography, that is a really hard word for me to say. Pyrography is... Pyrography? So you don't say the pyro, like pyro, pyrography? Pyrography? I say pyrography.
SPEAKER_02:I'm getting me confused now. Yeah, it's pyrography, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00:There is an R there, like pyro. Yeah, it
SPEAKER_02:must be. Yeah, I guess. Yeah, I guess I just I must say it wrong.
SPEAKER_00:I could totally be saying it wrong. You could 100% be saying it right. Annunciation, pronouncing words the right way has never been my strong suit. So yeah, so that's the overall depiction of the piece that you're talking about. Well,
SPEAKER_02:it's called Leckie's Solemn Dystopia. So Leckie was, it was, anyway, there's, it was like sort of a character that I made up that was me, but without using my name sort of thing, like a character that was me in this story. world that i've made up that i'd created you know so that's sort of me in the middle of it in the middle island on it is me but that's lecky it's like a without using my name it's like a i can't think of a word what's the word alias
SPEAKER_00:alias there we go yeah
SPEAKER_02:okay
SPEAKER_00:Obviously, then that's what leads to your Instagram name, which is, is it? It's
SPEAKER_02:Lekasuka. It's like, I have two. Lekasuka is like Leka, which is Leki. That was the alias for the character I made up. And then Suka is bitch in Polish. so it was my my mum's my mum and all her family were Polish so I just thought it'd be nice to like have you know something about that in it you know Yeah,
SPEAKER_00:that's cool. Lekesuka is very, it's like a fun, it has like a good mix of like consonants and syllables. Like I have a list of words that are just my favorite words and Lekesuka isn't a thing. But if it was a thing, an actual word that would be a dictionary, then I would absolutely like add it to my list of favorite words. I
SPEAKER_02:know, it's a good, I sort of made it up at the beginning. Um, because it was starting an Instagram was actually sort of part of my, uh, something I had to do for university. Um, and so it's sort of, I, I sort of just made something up on the spot and I, but I'm really, I really like it now, you know, if it's like really grown on me and I'm, uh, I wouldn't change it now. You're
SPEAKER_00:you go by Lil and then is your last name pronounced to Eris?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, Eris, yeah. So basically my real name, my name, the name I had before was Lily Rishworth-Huppert. So my surname was, because basically my parents never got married. But then my mum didn't want to not have my dad's name, but then she didn't want to not have her name. And so she decided to double barrel our names. And it's just been, because it'd be all right if it was like, Thank you. jones smith but it's richworth huppert so nobody knows how to spell or say either of those words so it's been and it's much more of a pain um than you would ever think so um so i when me and and then when me and rob got married we decided to to come up with a new one a whole new one so uh yeah but it was he rob was terrible he didn't want to it was terrible choosing a name like But it was very good at saying no to any suggestion I had. And finally, we found one, which was Eris. So Eris is either a dwarf planet, it's the name of a dwarf planet, or it's also the name of the goddess of strife and discord, which we thought was quite funny.
SPEAKER_00:That's awesome. Yeah. I mean, you know my last name is Eris, right? But it's spelled different.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah, of course. Yes. I am. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe I've been pronouncing it wrong. No, I... Yeah. Is it the... Is it spelt the same as the same thing? It's the same name, just spelt differently.
SPEAKER_00:It's pronounced the same. It's not... like, cause when I think of heiress, I do also think of like the Greek goddess heiress, but mine is like the family name. My husband is Scottish. And I think there's like a place in Scotland called heiress. And that's where his family is from. And that's their last name is heiress. And it's so funny. Cause I've been married for like, it's almost eight years. And still to this day, every time I say my last name, I feel like I should like wink afterwards. Cause it's not really my name. Like, I feel like my maiden name is still, my real name, which is Moore, Siobhan Moore. But anyway, just like a little aside that I don't believe my last name.
SPEAKER_02:I, I didn't, um, with the reason me and Rob didn't choose his name is because we didn't really, we just weren't really like, um, you know, I've spoken to so many women about it before, like for a couple of years before, and nearly all of the people I asked said that they said they, oh, I don't like, didn't like changing my name. My grandma hated having my granddad's name. And, um, and so I, I, uh, we decided that it was too harsh to give him my one. And then it was, and then I didn't want to like, I wasn't really interested in a sort of, you know, taking the man's name thing. So I feel like we're not very traditional. And so we decided, yeah, decided to just make up a new one. I wanted it to be really short because mine's so long. I just wanted it to be really short. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I'm so curious to see what's going to happen, like in the future of sermon names and maiden names and all of that, because I, your story is a story that I've actually heard a couple of times, like similar path with that. So I'm curious to see if it just becomes like really super old fashioned for the female to always take on the man's name. I
SPEAKER_02:don't want people to think that I'm like, that I, cause some people get a bit upset that I would think that, but I, you know, I think that, it's some people you know love it and like love the tradition of it and I totally get that um but for us it would just we're just not like that we're just sort of more like make up a new one you know for fun you know um yeah why not so uh yeah yeah so that's why we did it anyway
SPEAKER_00:I like your way thanks I don't think my family my husband would have been open to that he's like has a close with his family. He feels really proud to be an heiress. So I don't think he would have ever given that up. But I find that that, and maybe this is more of a modern problem because we have the internet and we have, everybody has like a personal brand now, whether or not you think you do, or you have a small business, everybody has like an online brand and at least an online, online presence online. Yes. That's the word presence. Everybody has an online presence and my online presence as Siobhan Moore kind of felt like was wiped out. when I became Siobhan Aris.
SPEAKER_02:difficult all the time like it doesn't fit on my bank card um it's like I'm never sure what I'm supposed to put when it says the name on the card you know and then like it doesn't and for a lot of people um they can't send me they can't send me money they're not sure whether it's because it won't sell won't send if they don't use a hyphen And if they don't be faced instead, the money won't send. And like, just, I could never use the copying machine. And it was always, my emails was always funny. And literally, it comes up as just an absolute pain your whole life, having a really long, like, name that no one can, no one can pronounce. The amount of certificates I'd have to send back, like three times going, you spelt my name wrong on the certificate. Like, do you know what I mean? Your whole life is just constantly having to, these pain in the arse things to come up because your name's so stupid I never wanted to pick one I never wanted to pick one because then I'd be like picking one over the other you know like um and yeah so it's a nice nice just to be able to just you know pick a new one start again you know and it's short but four letters lovely
SPEAKER_00:it is lovely I again I really like how you did this I want to see maybe be more people forging a new path and trying this way out. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I know, but the thing is you'll always have different surnames and you'll always, your family will always have different surnames.
SPEAKER_00:True. Very true. But who cares at the same time? Yeah. I feel like with sites like ancestry.com, we're all going to be tied together anyway. Eventually somebody is going to fill in all of those gaps for you that you're related to, you know? So yeah, it doesn't matter anymore. I don't think now that we have like DNA and we're tracking everyone's DNA, I truly don't think that like names are going to be quite as like important anymore. No,
SPEAKER_02:no, I suppose. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Anyway, it's a fun thing to think about. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Let's get back to glass just because I can just, I can just go on and on and just parlay that conversation about weddings into a conversation at funerals. And then we can talk about funerals for a while and then we can like go into something else. So I got to like, I got to focus. I got to keep us on track. Usually we start with technique, but we've already started talking about a couple of your pieces. So there's a couple more that I want to ask you about, and then we'll get into how you make your pieces a little bit. The next piece I want to ask you about is... Nine Nights. It's another elaborate story being told. There's a couple embracing under a tree and the female is pregnant. You included the unborn baby in one of the glass sections in like her tummy section. And then there's an underground series of tunnels and chambers with little creatures in each chamber. And then behind the tree... Behind the tree where the couple is, there's another there's a gremlin spying on them and then another four in the distance. One of them is dancing to look very relaxed and one is waving. And that's honestly probably about a third of what's happening in this photo. I went back and I did find a post about it. From June 22nd, 2021, it says Maya and Eve have followed the legend that says if once a month for nine months, a couple in love embrace under the tree of life. They will be blessed with a baby of their own. Here they are embracing for the final month but unfortunately an evil witch has told the village folk of their wishes and so they've sent their largest nastiest gremlins to come take them away to be tied into knots and rolled down a mountain into the sea. My piece is depicting a scene not too dissimilar to real life where same-sex and interracial couples have faced hate and discrimination for the crimes of their love. They juxtaposition I love that you're using your work to really you know, make a statement about very current social issues. I
SPEAKER_02:have a lot of friends who have struggled with those kinds of things and family members as well. And, um, And it's, you know, it was, it was a real, um, I really, really loved that piece. I loved making it. It was just, it was like my baby. It was just like the best thing I'd ever made. I was so, so pleased with it. Um, and I literally put my, I put everything into it. It was all I thought about. And for months, it's all I thought about all I did. As soon as I got up until like 10 o'clock at night, all I was doing. And, um, And I just, I loved, I just learned so much with that piece. And it was so nice, like when we, because it was my final piece. So I took it to the, I took it to my final year exhibition and I had this woman come around and she was really interested in it. And she was from a same-sex interracial couple and she worked for, um she worked for craft magazine so she worked for yeah and um and so she chose it to be in um i was in the top seven ones to watch of uh new artists and um and I was in this I was in the magazine and I was in the article um which was so great because there's this wonderful woman from Ireland who um because the Irish love stained glass because they have Harry Clark and everything and um And she contacted me through Instagram and bought it off me. And she paid her to have it taken all the way from my door to her door in Cork. And yeah, and it was so nice to have somebody that appreciated it as much as I loved it, having it in her house. And yeah, so that was really nice. That was really, it was, yeah, meant to be. It was sad to let it go, though. I was so sad. I didn't want to get rid of it because it was genuinely like, you know, when you make something and you spent so much time on it and you just like you see it. Because the thing is, when you make a really big piece like that, when you do painting on glass, you can't you can see each piece individually. You can pick up each little piece and look through it, but you can't pick up the whole thing and look through it. So you literally can't see it until the last second when you've made the light box. and you've switched it on that's the first time you see it um in months like since you and you've like you all you can do is see it in your mind and so when you turn you turn on the light box you've just made and see it for the first time it's like really amazing really really amazing experience and then and then you know you're like wow I can't believe I've made that um but then and then I always do this thing where I'm like I look at it too much or something and then I'm like oh it's terrible And I have to not look at it for weeks. And then I can like finally look at it again. Same every single time. They absolutely do me in. But I love making those big pieces.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Let's talk about one more big piece. And then I want to ask you about the story that's behind all of them. So the largest, I think, Gremlin that you've made is La Eva Lee. La Eva Lee, yeah. It says, this piece was inspired by my trip to Prague where I went to the Mucha exhibition and is the fourth in a series of large panels I've made following my modern day folklore story of Maya and Eve that will one day illustrate a book I'm creating. It's an esoteric allegory of the modern day. Each piece has been cut, ground, painted, fired copper foiled and soldered at least once and up to three times.
SPEAKER_02:So you're writing a book. Well, I was, I want, so what I want to do is I want to have create, I want to keep doing these big pieces. And because they sort of, they, they're slowly sort of telling this story that I'm going to just keep adding to. And it won't be something, it won't be something I do now. It'll be something I do in like 10 years time or something. And basically what I want to do is, do you know who Kit Williams is? There's this artist called Williams, and he does paintings on wood, but he also does ceramics and all kinds of amazing things. His work's beautiful. And he... uh he he has a book where he has each one of his pieces are as a um is like part of the story and so it sort of illustrates a book throughout these through these big paintings with um on this on wood and with like and and all this I'd love to have each illustration of a book be a different panel if you see what I mean yeah because I keep this sort of every every big piece I do is another chapter in this story that I is is it's going to be very very slow though very like this slow thing that I do over a long long long time um and yeah well it's interesting L'Evely is called L'Evely because I um so the uh is it
SPEAKER_00:Mucha or Mucha I always thought it was Mucha, but
SPEAKER_02:we also
SPEAKER_00:probably pronounce things differently here than,
SPEAKER_02:you
SPEAKER_00:know.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And the Mucha exhibition each, because it's French, they each begin with La, like most of the time. And so I thought, well, I'll start with La and then Eva is Eve. And then Lee is the place that I moved to in London, which was Leigh. And so it's sort of, which was like a part of my life at the time. So Leigh, that's how it was named. And because after uni, I won a bursary to move to Cockpit Arts in London.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, I wrote that down. Yeah, I wanted to ask you about that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I won a bursary to basically get your own studio at And you get mentoring and all sorts. And then they do exhibitions and stuff of your work. And... yeah and I and I so me and Rob ended up moving to London we're going to move to Germany but that's a whole other story and but then we didn't and then we luckily I won this thing and we moved to London and yeah just went to London had a great time and uh and but it's very expensive London so we ended up and so we came back and we're not so that's how we're living in Hereford again because this Hereford's just wonderful it's just so full of so many artists because they've got the they they have like they have such a good HCA it's such a good college uni that's where I sort of learnt and that's where I was taught and there's a wonderful university here I think it's the only blacksmithing course in Europe and so there's lots of blacksmiths which is always fun and there's jewellery makers and there's fine artists and lots and lots of ceramicists and wood turners and all sorts. And it's, yeah, Hereford's a funny place because there's just so much wonderful art here and so many exhibitions and things, so much that you can do if you're an artist in Hereford. And how
SPEAKER_00:far is Hereford outside of London? Oh, it's like...
SPEAKER_02:probably three and a half hours, right? It's far away. It's on the border of Wales.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, okay. Okay. So more about this Cockpit Clear Bursary winner that you are, this award. insurance package from Clear Insurance.
SPEAKER_02:That's great. Yeah, it was so good. It's a really nice thing. It's been such a whirlwind since I finished uni. And it was, yeah, it was an exciting, exciting thing to go and like be with all these amazing artists and like really amazing, really, really wonderful artists. And I learned so much and got to go to collect. And yeah, it was, it was, yeah, I loved it. I loved it. I loved my time there. um but uh but yeah it's it's you know it's very expensive and and um and I just I really really miss the countryside so because growing up where I grew up you're like it's just it's I just love I just love it here so I just had to come back
SPEAKER_00:yeah So the other thing that I wrote down was the new Ashgate's Rising Star of 2022. Rising Stars is a curated national platform to foster and champion new talent, early career makers, students and graduates from BA and MA crafts, design and applied arts programs across the UK. Rising Stars offers new makers a first step into the marketplace through a curated selling exhibition. It is also an exciting collector opportunity for those wishing to support and collect work by future stars. The program will consist of the Rising Stars exhibition that enables new makers to access the marketplace and collectors, professional development, and a catalog to act as a promotional tool for the selected makers. The 2022 project will also be supporting new makers in the post-COVID-19 craft world. I love this. And you were one of the artists that were chosen. Is that the same thing as the craft magazine thing that you were talking about? Yeah. Is this the same? No, this is
SPEAKER_01:separate.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, this is separate. This is in Farnham. And it's a basically it's all new artists. I think you have to have only be I think you have to be like very new. And you can you can apply to be there. Luckily, I got in. And I had so I had to I had to quickly make another piece because I sold the other one. And so I made that um my coral grief which was the underwater piece I made and um and I luckily I managed to sell that one again I sold that one as well and uh through um oh no I didn't actually I sold it I sold it through a different way I almost sold it through them um but then they couldn't get it over they couldn't get it over overseas but um anyway yeah so yeah I uh I I think it was Rob that found it online or something and I and I with I just didn't think that I'd get in and I was uh so chuffed because when I got in because I just there was some really really amazing artists there and um and It was so nice to be part of another wonderful exhibition because I'd only been in, I'd only ever been in ones at uni before. So yeah, it was a really, really, really fun experience. I do. I definitely love, I'd love to do it again. I think I can, I think I can apply again and go again, I think. But yeah, I always, always tell people to go to that because it's really, it's a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_00:That's amazing. Okay. So I did get a question from Instagram at Jay Kuski just replied with one. The question is one word. How? So we're going to dive into that a little bit and touch on your technique on your Instagram bio. It says queen of scraffito. And the definition of scraffito is it's Italian for scratched in the visual So... A lot of us have kind of played around with this. There's those like little kits for kids that you can buy, right? Or it's almost
SPEAKER_02:like a... I used to play with those all the time when I was a kid. I used to always get bought them for Christmas. Those where you can scratch away and it's like a rainbow underneath.
SPEAKER_00:My daughter loves those. She goes crazy every time we see them. So what is it that you are actually... What is the top layer, the black layer that you're putting over your glass? What's it made of?
SPEAKER_02:Okay, so what I used to work in is, well, I still do sometimes, it was a lead-based powder paint. So it's black lead powder and you add water to it and sort of turn it into the paint and then you flood the glass with this black paint and then you use a badger brush to make it all even and then you have to let it dry. And then when it's dried, it's obviously a very thin layer, but it could just, it comes away really, really easily. And so you've got to be really, really careful and wear gloves because obviously it's lead and then scratch away all of the detail you need. I love it because I love intense detail and you can get a really high level of like intense detail, but it does take such a long time. So my work always seems, like I feel bad I'm always not sure how much to charge because it's but it just has taken such a long time to do that it just has to be expensive and so I really want to learn I love doing Scripito and it's it's sort of it's my favourite way but I in the future I really need to learn how to use how to do all the other skills because there's so many other things you can do and I've only just touched the surface really I've just gotten really good at just the one thing and so I really need to to have a look at all these different techniques because I don't even really use there's all these different things like silver stains which are beautiful and I've you know I've had a little go at and then all the different colors and stippling and all sorts and I I really need to learn some more to up my up my my up the, what's the word I'm thinking of? I don't know. Like just up your game. Yeah. Up my game. That's the word.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Is so after you, well, first of all, I just want to say you have time. I love that you're like mastering this little corner and then you're going to like move on and very likely completely master the next thing that you try to do too. But with this one specifically with the scruffy toe, It feels like I'm saying it wrong, but I know I'm not, Scrofito. Do you then re-fire the glass and then does it sort of like bake on that lead? Yes, I do have
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you have to fire it to 680 degrees. And then it's always a lot of fun the next day where I can get all the pieces out and then put them all together and like have a look. And it's always me and my mum's favourite thing because my mum has a big kiln that she puts all her work, hers and mine in. And then we're always really excited to put it on. And then the next day we get up and we keep checking to see what temperature it's at and see when we can get it out. and then we get it all out and we wash it all and we like put it we sat outside and we put it we look put it up to the sun and we're like oh look at this one and look at this one and we're like passing them about like just yeah just like all the little pieces and yeah I absolutely love it this is the thing like I you know I went I did foundation I used to do puppetry which is another thing of what used to be the where my gremlins were from because I used to make puppets of um you know creepy little characters and um and uh when I was right in foundation they teach you how to do all or everything so every different technique so you learn um how to work with um what's it called terracotta and like resin and then you do the ceramics and wood and small metals jewelry uh they just let you have a go at whatever you want to do and um and there's always and textiles as well I've I've always known how to do textiles and I've always been good at it but I find the process it was trying to find a process that I where I liked every I liked all the different things you had to do and with textiles I'm good at it but I hate doing it I don't get any joy out of the making of it I the end product's wonderful because I've made this wonderful thing and I'm like I love it but every step along the way is just like, oh, now I've got to do this, and oh, now I've got to thread that, you know. And so I'm cutting corners everywhere, every step of the way. But then, and I was always like this, even with ceramics, like I couldn't bear that it might come out of the kiln broken or something. Like, I hated that. And there was always something about it, some part of the process I didn't like. And then when I started doing St. Glass, I realized that I just really enjoy every single part of it. Um, you know, you're, you know, I'm like, Oh, I get to do the cutting bit now. And then I cut it and I'm like having fun cutting it. And then I'm like, Oh, now I can grind it. So the right shape is so satisfying, isn't it? When you're grinding it to the perfect shape. And then, um, and then you're like, Oh, now I can, now I can do the black it up and now I can paint it. And, um, Yeah, it's, yeah, it's, I just love every single, every single part of the process. And that's how it became the my final, like, right, this is
SPEAKER_00:what I want to do. don't want to resist this I actually just do love it
SPEAKER_02:yeah no well no that's that's the thing is that my mum's always done it my whole life but I was never interested in 2d and also I was never interested in non-painted stained glass I have more of appreciation for it now but like um I was never interested in it I always liked you know I used to like build I used to make little doll's houses or little like toys all the time and um and I like that but because I like the 3d but then I I was never interested in because sorry my mum only just my mum's only been doing the painting on glass for five years because she couldn't actually she couldn't have a she didn't have a kiln that the when we lived on site there was no
SPEAKER_01:way
SPEAKER_02:of having it and so she always just worked with um she always just worked with and without any painting or anything and I'd never had any interest in it so I'd only really done it like a couple times little things when I was a kid and so I sort of but then when I started learning when I went to uni so it was really the first time I did it was when I was a I would have been in my 20s, you know, like probably about 20 when I actually did painting on glass for the first time. The first painting on glass I ever did was for the Mapa Mundi, the Mapa Hereford I made when I was 22. So, yeah, it was very, it's a very, it still feels like a very new thing to me. So, but I didn't, I sort of had the skills of cutting and grinding things from when I was a kid, but, but I literally had must've only done it about two or three times. Um, cause I was, it was always what my mum did. So I was always like, like, Oh, I don't want to do that. You know what my mum does, you know? Yeah. So I'm much more interested in the puppetry cause I love the storytelling, but then when you, you know, there's so much storytelling you can do with, uh, when you, you know, get into painting on glass. And so it really, did it was I was able I was able to have the characters that I loved in my puppetry and then the storytelling that I loved um all in one and so uh so that's how I sort of yeah fell in love with it really
SPEAKER_00:and look at you look at you go you've already done so much with it in such a short period of time I'm I hope that you are so proud of yourself
SPEAKER_02:I yeah I'm quite hard on myself really I sort of feel I just always say oh well it's just a fluke and it's silly but I just sort of I don't know it's just the this is the way I am I guess I uh but I yeah I find it really difficult to um to organize myself I'm very because I have it I was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia and stuff when I was a kid so I uh I I find it really hard to even Even doing things like this I find really difficult because I'm constantly getting... getting distracted by something else and then, or, or just, um, or just finding things. I see I'm doing it now. I just find, I find things like, I find it quite difficult to, um, to gather my thoughts and remember what it is I need to do and organize myself. I feel like I should be doing more than I am and just sort of like telling myself off all the time. Basically. I, uh, I, I need to, I'm trying to make some smaller pieces now and, but then when I think oh I'll do a small piece and then I make it bigger and bigger and then I'm like oh but then this now this is hundreds of pounds you know so yeah yeah I uh I need to I need to get better at organizing myself and and like and not having to go at myself for not doing what I think is enough you know
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think that anybody listening can relate to that. I mean, we're all really hard on ourselves, not just as artists, but I think just as like people, you know, negative self-talk is pretty rampant. You know, I would say we're all, we could all like afford to turn the volume down a little bit on that. Yeah,
SPEAKER_02:it's hard to start your own business when you don't feel like you know what you're doing, you know?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Well, you know what you're
SPEAKER_00:doing. I think you're doing a great job. Oh, thank you. I want to go ahead and ask you your final three questions. Mm-hmm. The first question is, who is your favorite stained glass artist?
SPEAKER_02:I feel like it was Pinky McClure because I really loved her work a lot. And it inspired me a lot for all of my early pieces. But I've been really getting into Harry Clark's work. He's a stained glass artist from Ireland. And I think it was, oh, I had a book in here. It's... I think it's, it's, I've only just sort of started getting, looking into it. I bought a book of his, um, and the characters and the, the storytelling and it's just, it's insane. It's like, um, you know, it's amazing. It's, it's, he's, uh, um, he was, uh, I think he, he was a really, um, a really, really amazing artist and he made so, but he did loads, he was one of those people that just did loads and loads and loads of it. Um, And I'd love to... I'd need to look into... I'd read that book I bought and look into it more because he is pretty insane, pretty amazing artist. Yeah. But then Pinky McClure is also wonderful as well. But then I got really... I loved Pinky's work and then I sort of started... I started disliking anything with... with... man-made things in so I even with my own work I start my old stuff like I felt I feel like now I never like to have anything with like a straight line or anything with you know I try to even try to make clothes very any of any clothes they're wearing have to be very sort of like old-fashioned and and you know just sort of draped on like very little like man-made effort at all you know do you know what I mean yeah I know what you mean anything with like um because a big inspiration for me um was Grayson Perry when I was younger and uh and he does I love his work because it just has so much stuff going on and everything represents something different and um and And, uh, and there's like lots and lots of color and, uh, but yeah, I sort of went off anything with, with, you know, if it has like trainers in it or if it has, um, man-made things in, I sort of like go off it for some reason recently.
SPEAKER_00:And who was your favorite artist outside of glass? Would that be Grayson?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it probably has to be because it's just been, I've been such a big fan of his for such a long time since I was a kid that I guess it just has to be. I don't think anyone else could compare. I just, I love that art is just everything to him. You know, when I felt like I, you know, I remember someone telling me, someone, I remember showing someone the boat once and they were like, wow, you really just live it, don't you? And I was never thought of my life like that. I never thought that I really do just try, to have art everywhere like um wherever I am I try like whenever even in this room here is just like covered in things that like I've little trinkets and collections and um and like little things that I've found on the floor or little little things you know when I lived in the boat everything all the walls and everything were covered in um you know postcards and pictures that I'd found and and um just very colorful lots and lots of just stuff, you know, Tiffany lamps and things I'd found and, and things I'd been given as a kid. And also I was just, I like to always see it. I like to have all my stuff everywhere and all like be able to like enjoy it, you know, not put it away. Like I'm always telling my mum to stop like putting things away to keep them nice forever, because then you'll only see them like four or five times in your whole life. And I, you know, maybe they'll get a bit torn and sort of destroyed one day, but you'll have been able to like appreciate it for such long, so much longer, you know, like objects. I just love handmade objects. Just like, I realized that I realized that sort of all my hobbies are all to do with making stuff, you know, antiques or old architecture. It's all, you know, handmade stone and handmade hand carved this, you know?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah. I think it's really wonderful that you've embraced it and you're like, this is special and this is magical and I want to see all my little things instead of trying to go against it. That's really refreshing.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it means that there's it means it gets quite dusty, but it's to enjoy all my little funny little things. So I don't mind get robbed anyway.
SPEAKER_00:The final question is, what are your five to 10 year goals? So my
SPEAKER_02:goals. my so what I really want to do is I need to start selling my small things I want to be I want to be I want to start producing lots more things. This is just now. I suppose this isn't five years then. But now I want to start selling more things and making more little things and doing markets and getting to know more people and maybe curate some things, some exhibitions or something. In five years' time, I'd love to have an exhibition of all my work. I'd love to have a load of my big pieces. and have them, you know, a story and the people could walk around and see and read about, like, what each bit means, you know?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And which it portrays. And... I feel, and I'd love to, I really want to do my book, but I think the book is going to be a long thing. But then I thought, I think I really want to make a book. I really want to do a book that's just about the gremlins and like how they're born. And I've been making some smaller pieces that are how the, how, so there's like, it's sort of turning into now there's like good gremlins and then there's the evil gremlins. And I, there's some sort of, these are, some of them are like, fairy gremlin things they're all related anyway and I've made some smaller pieces that have been like how some of them are birthed out of flowers and some of them are birthed out of you know in peapods and I'd love to do a I'd love to do a book on how they you know how they're born and like the origins of them if you don't mind like a sort of fantasy um origin kind of of the gremlins you see what i
SPEAKER_00:mean i do see what you mean i hope this i hope you make this book because i would like to buy it i really want you to make this book please make it
SPEAKER_02:yeah well there's a woman who does a fairy book that i i have um but i think it's at home and i it's a really really good book um i can't remember what it's called now but it's um it's how fairies are it's like the whole life cycle of a fairy and it's such a fantastic book I wish I remembered what the name of it was it might be called just the life cycle of a fairy I can't remember it was a really really really nice book um and uh Yeah, you should definitely, definitely get it. I'd love for it to be like that, but with the gremlins, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I bought a bunch of fairy books when I was pregnant because I was looking for names, like unique names. And I have a couple of like really special little fairy books still. I don't think I have that one though, but I have one that's like, it's like the dictionary of fairies or something. And it's like every kind of fairy there is from like the fairies. to like the fairies of this flower to the winter fairies to you know all the little ones it's so
SPEAKER_02:cute yeah I have to I have to send it to you because you'll really like it then it's really really really nice book especially if you've got kids really nice
SPEAKER_00:Okay. And will you invite me to your exhibition that's going to happen in five to 10 years with all those big pieces? Yes, of course. Yeah, I
SPEAKER_02:will have to. I'll have to see. Yeah. Yes, I really hope I do. I do do it. I'd love to make... See, every time I make a big piece, it absolutely kills me. And then I'm just sort of... It's like my ADHD brain just has to be... I'm always either on or off. I'd be on, on, on, on, on. And I'll be, you know, I won't even, I'll barely change my clothes. I'll just be in the workshop constantly just doing this thing. Just like, can't think about anything else. Genuinely can't think and barely can sleep because it's all I'm thinking about. And then, And then I'll finish it and then I'm just off. And then I can get stuck in these things where I'm like, I can't do anything for like months. Sometimes I've had it before where I've just been like, it's like, I just can't, I can't like get on with it. I just, I don't know. It's like this mental block I get. So yeah, So they really do do me in. But I just love it. I love it because while I'm making something like that, like everything in life is great. Like there's no, I'm not upset about anything. I don't think about anything else. I'm just really content. And so I think it would take about 10 years to make another 10 pieces, you know, just one big one a year,
SPEAKER_00:you know. All right. Well, we're all going to be watching and waiting patiently Yeah. Lily, thank you so much for spending this time with me today and sharing a little glimpse into your world. Have a wonderful and productive day in the studio. And I'll talk to you really soon. Thank you. Cheers. Bye. To see more of Lil's work, her Instagram is at Lekasuka. That's L-E-K-K-A-S-U-K-A. And mine is at Runa Glassworks. For the final patreon page drawing of the season i'm doing a drawing of two names one winner will receive the map of monday print plus a set of greeting cards and another winner will receive a scruffito stained glass white lily made by lil and a set of greeting cards i'll be doing a drawing for those on september 3rd 2023 and that's all for this season friends hopefully i'll be seeing a lot of your faces at the sgaa conference in buffalo new york where ted ellison and i will be doing a joint presentation i know it's going to be an amazing weekend of learning and making connections. I've already got my list of artists for season five, so hang tight and we'll be back before you know it. Till then, bye!