I started doing stained glass a few years ago when I went on a weekend course given by Lynette Wrigley at the wonderful Lead and Light in Camden Town. There I learnt the ‘copper foil’ technique, where each piece of glass is first wrapped in sticky copper foil, then placed together and soldered along the whole of the edges. I later used a video to learn the more traditional leading method, where the pieces of glass are slotted into strips of lead, which then only need to be soldered at the joins.
I prefer geometric designs, sometimes with a mathematical or statistical background, in bold colours. I make things for myself and friends, although I did once sell a Christmas decoration for £1.50 at a car-boot sale.
Here are a few examples of bigger pieces. Some further background is sometimes provided.
Spectres
My effort at the mathematical discovery of this century! The ‘spectre’ shape is an aperiodic monotile, meaning that an infinitely large surface can be tiled with spectres, but without any repeats in the pattern. I have regrets about how I designed this.
Latin Square
Latin squares were used in experimental studies of crops, in which each treatment (represented here by a distinct colour), appears once in each row and each column. This is the pattern of the first 8 x 8 latin square in Fisher and Yates statistical tables, 1938. The idea is stolen from the memorial window to RA Fisher in Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (now apparently removed due to Fisher’s connections to eugenics).
Norfolk reeds
Three window panels constructed for a friend, representing reeds on the Norfolk Broads. My friend did the initial design, and I was pleased to be able to use continuous lead to represent the reeds. I used some really beautiful green/brown glass. The idea of having horiziontal breaks, but which do not go right across the panel, was borrowed from some glass in the amazing Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.
Chromatic Scale
Seven colours appear in ‘wrap-around’ sequence, in rows of twelve. Any 7×7 block makes a latin square. This has got a musical connection: if we think of each new square as a semi-tone, a row is an octave, and we led to different tuning systems and Pythagorean commas.
Symmetric Sodoku
A ‘symmetric’ sudoku, proved to have many remarkable properties (must get a better photo)
Squared squares
The smallest square that can be divided into squares of different sizes. This has a fascinating history.
Brain map
This is a commission for the Cambridge Brain Mapping Unit, constructed in four panels. It shows a cross-section of the brain obtained from functional MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging).
Sri Yantra
This traditional Hindu meditation aid has a complex geometric structure.
Prism
This was my bathroom door in my previous house. I replaced the glass from a door that used to be in a pub.
Isaac Newton bought his first prism from Stourbridge Fair in Cambridge, close to where I got the door stripped.
Dolphins
This is the first piece I did – the rather corny design is copied from a piece at the place I did the course. Probably my first and last representational work.
Transposition
This shows a heart with transposition of the great arteries, a congenital condition in which the ‘blue’ blood from the right ventricle goes to the aorta and ‘red’ blood from the left ventricle goes to the pulmonary artery and back to the lungs. The ‘purple’ parts represent the minimal connections between the systems that enable the baby to stay alive until a corrective ‘switch’ operation can be performed.
Squares
A 32 x 33 rectangle can be divided into unique squares of side 1, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15 and 18. Try it. Any resemblance to Mondrian’s style in the 1920’s is purely deliberate.
Beta distributions
Prior (blue) and posterior (green) beta distributions from a Bayesian analysis, including a normalised Binomial likelihood (yellow) for 15 successes out of 20 Bernoulli trials. The red area indicates the posterior probability of a success rate greater than 70%. I apologise to those for whom this is completely incomprehensible.
St Marks
This is copied from a tile pattern on the floor of St Marks in Venice, and used to sit above my front door. The purple does not show up properly in this photo – I also wish I had left the design as a simple rectangle instead of meddling with the shape.
Wheel of Life
This is based on the the Wheel of Life – a traditional Tibetan Buddhist ‘teaching aid’. The colours are those of the archetypal Buddhas who form the antidote for each of the six realms. (The purple frame does not show up in this photo which was taken in the evening.)