Page Title

Note: a pencil with a rubber dinosaur on the end is not normally standard studio equipment.

The design goes off to be scanned and enlarged to full size through the wonders of science and a computer.

Traditionally the sizing-up would be done by an apprentice or lowly staff member with a grid; nowadays it is quicker and easier - and far less tedious - to let a computer do the mechanical work.

Once the permission is through and contracts signed, I head off to choose my glasses. For a big job this can mean a trip to Waldsassen in Germany, home of Lamberts Glass ; mouthblown glasses have lots of variations in colour throughout the sheet and every sheet is different. I watch the glass being made - always magical - and then to the sample room. Spend ages saying "I'll have that - no, that - oh, I didn't see that one - ooh, what about that?…" Husband claims that I am like a child in a sweet shop...

The design is drawn (and often redrawn), various discussions can be had with clients until we are all happy with the design. Sometimes the comments can be quite dispiriting - "Is that meant to be some sort of a dove?" a vicar queries...

For a church window, permissions will need to be sought from the various church governing bodies. This can take months, so it's as well to have other ongoing work! Even a domestic window can have delays over builders' schedules, sorting out funds etc.

The design - called a videmus ("let us see") by church historians, but usually just "the design" by artists! - is usually smaller than the finished window. So, while I await the arrival of my glass, I make an accurate life-size cartoon, which means that exact measurements and templates for the twiddly bits have to be taken.

Spend time up ladders taking templates of all the openings. Since the header is often asymmetrical, the template has "outside" and "inside" faces. It's important to get this right and avoid the embarrassment of the window being installed inside-out.

It's exciting to see the full-size design unrolled and spread across the studio floor - and sobering too.

The scaled-up design is checked, the correct dimensions of the window are drawn out on tracing paper to make a cutline. The design is placed under the tracing paper which will be the cutline and then traced through, and the templates that I have taken from the existing window are drawn on. Now I have the full cutline, a working drawing on which all the glass will be cut.

Places where glass is to be acid-etched are marked so that I remember to cut the correct glasses.