Today I went to the local Church Bazaar and apart from getting some good things for christmas presents I was invited into the main church building to see my grandfathers windows. He has some gorgeous small windows in St johns Renfield Church which are like little jewels of colour in the big expanse of the building. Grandpa was an elder of the church and I did go there with him on sundays when I was little.
Seeing the with all the little details he was well known for -whizzed me back in time to sitting in his studio -usually listening to motzart – while he sat next to the gas fire diligently painting the tiniest details onto each piece of glass……….then the glass would be fired and would have to be sorted in numerical order in order to be leaded..this was often my job when I was there… He’d say “Emma I have a wee job for you on the other table” I’d look over and there would be trays and trays of glass sitting waiting to be ordered….There would be some empty trays with labels saying numbers 1- 107/ 108-297/298-403/404-561 etc and each piece of glass had a little number scratched on at the edge…. So I would do that for a bit while grandpa would tell me stories of his childhood or bad jokes.