Mary Firth’s Scottish background encourages her to use up every scrap of glass possible, more often than not, she continues to be busy making little angels for all occasions. She and her friend often share their glass patterns.

Quite often when Mary is not dusting the shelves at the gallery, you’ll find her applying copper foil to small pieces of glass.

Tentative design

A customer requested…a 10×15 ,”open work” panel including these colours: olive, amber, soft orange and cream. Vertical ovals were used to suggest plants, not trees. Mary Firth doesn’t always plan ahead! She just plays with shapes, layout, and colours until she’s happy with the result. Copper wire and glass globs were used to strengthen and hold everything together. Mary didn’t like the line of globs in photo #1. She was much happier with the design in photo #2. She was very pleased with the final result…and so was her client. See more of Mary Firth’s work on our website or better still, visit the gallery, it’s open from 10-5pm every day except Tuesday.

Finished project

During the last few years I have completed several Stained Glass windows for homes around the region.

Nothing is as exciting as the day of installation!

When designing a window for the client I have many consultation meetings to “look inside the clients head” to determine their “vision” of this special, very personal, addition to their home.

The measurements are taken, the computer drawing is made, and once the customer confirms satisfaction, the file is sent to a printing company to plot the actual size, and then the template is fitted to the actual window. Once size is confirmed the glass is chosen and the window is built on the template to ensure correct sizing.

Then the day comes when the Stained Glass window is set in place.

After all the hard work I get to see the look on the clients face, which shows me that I have gotten it right!

This picture shows one of those special moments!

In addition to windows, I love to experiment with glass combinations and processes in my kiln; creating jewelry, bowls, wall art, garden art, and to combine the glass with bicycle parts to see what I can dream up!

Come on in to the Fenelon Station Gallery to see some of my works of art!

Anne-Marie will be in the gallery next on the 26th July.

Many of my panels have no background glass.  This unusual technique allows me freer design; it is much more work but results in something quite unique. Overlapping glass gives a greater range of colour; it also is necessary to hold the piece together. I make use of copper wire as well for the same reason.

So to begin a new panel, I choose a border colour, cut the needed pieces, and lay them out on my work board where I have secured wood strips to keep the border square and in place.

Next step is to cut out ovals of varying sizes and colours and lay them in the open space, roughly where they will be in the finished piece. Some pieces will overlap each other and the border. All these pieces need to be ground to smooth the rough edges,then taped. Those pieces that overlap the border have to be embedded in the border; so it race the shape of the oval, then cut that shape from the border. The border pieces must be ground smooth and taped, and a solder bead applied to the straight edges. At this point I tack solder all the border pieces. The ovals (already taped) each need a solder bead. They are then cleaned and black patina applied. Each piece is thoroughly cleaned again and laid out on the board in the approximate place in the panel, overlapping some and soldering those pieces which are partially in the border. All the loose ovals have to be discretely soldered together and I have to be really careful not to let the flux get between the pieces of glass. ( it can look pretty grungy – the voice of experience!)

Copper wire ‘reeds’ and glass globs which are already taped, soldered, darkened and cleaned, are added to give strength to the panel. A zinc came is soldered around the piece and small loops applied for hanging. I then flip the panel over and solder all the joins from the back and finish neatly the seams of the border. All the fresh soldering must be cleaned and darkened, being really careful again not to let any flux or patina get between the pieces of glass.

Almost finished! I wash the panel, dry it (and use thin pieces of really absorbent cardboard to remove any water between the ovals). The zinc border is then painted with black Tremclad latex. The dragonfly which was made separately and has gone through the same processes as the ovals is carefully soldered in place and the solder spots cleaned and darkened. The piece is finished except for a bit of polishing.
This technique is far more work and very time consuming, but I love the final result. And so do many others – I have sold many ‘ponds’ over the years. And every one is unique as I create as I work.

Mary is working in the gallery on our opening day, May 18th!  Pop in and say hello.

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle…the best way to procrastinate!

With each project, I pull upwards of 50 pieces of glass looking for the right combination of colours and textures needed to design the perfect glass panel.  Editing the choices can sometimes be time consuming as each choice affects the mood and flow of the final design.  I’ve been making glass projects for over 25 years, amassing a nice collection of glass.  Some pieces are so precious that I pull them from the shelf, enjoy their beautiful details and put them back again.  I’ve decided that I should REDUCE my glass stock…including the old, hand-rolled pieces I’ve been hanging onto.

In this blue panel, one piece of grey glass still had a sticker reading, “Made in Western Germany” on it!  This is a mouth-blown glass that has a slight waviness and tiny air bubbles within…a stunning piece.

So, after I finished the panel, it’s time to clean off my workbench by placing the remaining glass back in the racks.  Instead, I decide to REUSE the glass already scattered on my table and design and build a smaller blue panel with a totally different look.

Even after finishing the smaller panel, I still have small pieces of glass to put away…but I don’t!  I choose to make little blue birds with the pieces.  I even RECYCLE the off-cuts.  All the small bits of leftovers end up in the hands of another artist who uses them in mosaic art pieces.

By now, you’ve probably realized that I would rather be making stained glass pieces, not cleaning up the work bench.  Reduce, reuse, recycle…the best way to procrastinate!

Janet will be in the gallery again on the 18th and 19th of August.

I usually create my own designs but a few years ago I saw this tiny (just over an inch square) picture in a magazine and thought it would be a good candidate for a stained glass panel – I sometimes get lazy!  So I cut out that tiny picture, modified it somewhat and am just finishing my version of the original.
After making sure I had the appropriate glass and enough came on hand to frame the finished piece, I cut and laid out the black glass border in a 12×13 jig after taping the inside edges with 7/32″ copper foil.  Next I cut out the trees, ground the edges, taped them, and after the corners of the black border were soldered I soldered the trees in place.

This gives me a relatively stable framework that can be lifted slightly so that I can slip the glass for the individual bands of colour underneath, trace the shape, cut, grind, tape and tack-solder each in place. I started at the bottom with the green-brown band a worked my way up to the sky ( which alone used 5-1/2′ of copper foil).

A finished solder bead is then applied to the face of the panel. It is then flipped over to solder the reverse. The zinc came is then cut and soldered to the black glass border.  Wire loops are soldered to the upper reverse side corners. A confession – I have never mastered darkening the fame successfully so after thoroughly cleaning the glass and applying the patina to darken the solder, and cleaning thoroughly once again, after everything is dry, I paint the zinc frame. ( a no-no, I’m sure!)I then polish the piece with furniture wax – and hope someone will buy it!

I am somewhat restricted re the size of any project now as I have to work in my apartment Kitchen. I cut glass in a 12×26″ area between the wall and the sink in front of the toaster oven – I have to tape glass there too as the light is good. (My eyesight is not so great now and I see double at times ). My grinder is beside the stove, close to the one reliable outlet on on the stove side of the kitchen and where my work board sits. Before I can solder however, I must press down the copper foil firmly on each piece of glass with a fid. That job is done on the other side of the sink. So now I’m ready to solder. The soldering iron is plugged into the same reliable outlet used by the grinder, the kettle etc. the stove top is OK except if I want to cook or bake. The whole set-up is not great, but I no longer have the luxury of a shop – great sadness!

A plug for the Scugog Library’s  annual Snowflake Sale (a fund raiser for the library which takes place in the month before Christmas). My work is there along with that of a dozen or so locals. So if you are in Port Perry, do some of your Christmas shopping at the library!

Mary will be next at the gallery on July 23rd.