Uffington white horse

It's back to glass today!  A long time ago I lived in Oxfordshire, and would sometimes visit the village of Uffington where there is an ancient chalk horse carved into the slope of White Horse Hill.  It's reckoned to be about 3,000 years old, and is a beautiful, fluid, stylized shape.  Here's a particular lovely photo of it:

(photo credit: http://www.dronestagr.am/white-horse-hill-uffington-oxfordshire-uk/)

Anyhow, my memories of this place, its waving swathes of grass and the nearby lush woodlands have inspired my next piece of stained glass.



I started with wild garlic flowers (again) at the bottom.  The technique I use for painted glass is to apply the paint as a thick, opaque layer, then scratch it back to allow the light to shine through the pattern.  It takes a long time, but gives a lovely crisp image.



Here's my worktable as I'm about to start putting paint on glass - pretty messy!  Both the green piece of glass I'm going to paint, and the (glass) paint palette are on a light box, so I can make sure the paint is really opaque.



In the middle of the window is a grassy hillside with the horse, and above that a stand of trees which are characteristic of those along the Ridgeway.  The paler green glass is mouth-blown and bubbly!



Here's the finished mini-window - about 15cm wide and 25cm high.  It's slightly hard to see, but the orangey-red glass has pretty streaks like a sunset.  It changed colour slightly when fired, which is something red glass can do.



I'm planning to explore both the 'trees on the skyline' and 'ancient Britain' aspects of this a bit more in the future - more chalk figures, and ancient sites to come!
Also, I have woken up my Etsy shop after a long sleep, you can find it here.
Vicky xx