HEART OF GLASS
Rachel Mulligan uses the ancient craft of stained-glass making to tell modern stories
Many of the stained-glass windows that cast their jewel-coloured shadows on the floors of old churches were originally designed to depict Biblical narratives to once largely illiterate congregations. Centuries later, we may live in a more secular society, but artist Rachel Mulligan is still creating stained glass that has a message. “Just like those pieces from the past, I want to tell a story,” she says. “I love the idea that future generations might be able to look at my work and learn something about us.”
Taking inspiration from family, friends and the countryside surrounding her home – and even her allotment – Rachel puts a contemporary twist on traditional motifs. One project, The Seven Ages of Man, used phrases from the ‘All the World’s a Stage’ monologue in Shakespeare’s As You Like It and applied them to the chapters of her father’s life. “I chose my dad because he had a long and interesting story. He started out as an English teacher, then followed his dream of acting once he’d reached his eighties.” Another – Carefree in the Sun, which was made to celebrate the centenary of the birth of poet Dylan Thomas, saw Rachel capture images of her son and his friends during a sunny summer holiday. “I’d just read Thomas’s autobiographical poem Fern Hill and had this idea to relate it to something personal to me,” she says. “Tommy had just left primary school and I wanted
to convey that moment between childhood and adolescence.” Like the poem, the panel evokes the spirit of the season with swallows in the sky, apple trees and Tommy fishing in a dappled stream.
Today, Rachel props up an assortment of glass samples against the window of her garden studio in Farncombe, Surrey. “It’s important to see the glass with the sunlight behind it,” she says, standing back to admire a piece in bottle-green ‘crackle’. “It takes on a completely different tone to when it’s lying flat on the worktop.” These mismatched fragments might seem shapeless now, but over the coming months they will be transformed into an intricate stained-glass panel that will ultimately take pride of place in a local farmhouse.
As well as private commissions for homes, Rachel creates pieces for public buildings and exhibitions, and has seen her work displayed at Strawberry Hill House in Twickenham, Haslemere Town Hall and the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea. Although she studied fine art at Coventry University, Rachel discovered her passion for stained glass at an evening class. Wanting to take her new-found hobby further, she took a postgraduate course at Central St Martins and an MA at Chelsea College of Arts before setting up her own studio. “Like the printmaking I studied during my degree, it’s a laborious creative process; you don’t get results straightaway,” she says. “But I love that it’s not only about the finished art itself; you’ve got to take into account the architecture and surroundings it will become a part of.”
Before sheets of hand-blown glass can be turned into art, Rachel must first sketch her designs. “I tend to work to scale,” she says. “Obviously not if it’s for a massive window, but if it’s a manageable size I’ll outline it in charcoal because it’s easy to rub out and change.” Once finalised, she’ll send the client an image in Indian ink on watercolour paper: “There’s a fair amount of pressure – it takes a lot of time before you’ve even started.” Next, she cuts out the glass sections using a diamond cutter and pliers before engraving and painting on different colours to add detail and texture. Then the individual pieces are fired in her kiln at around 600°C, before Rachel leads and solders the pieces together, like fitting together the pieces of a puzzle. “I loved jigsaws when I was little, and I think what I do now requires a very
Her panels evoke the spirit of the season
similar mindset,” Rachel says. “I can see that finished work in my head.” The last part of the process is the most stressful one: the fitting. “It’s incredibly tense as you wait to see whether all the hard work has paid off.”
With the workshop’s windows overlooking her wildlife garden, Rachel is particularly inspired by nature. “I’m not that keen on travelling to exotic places, so why make lions and tigers when I can recreate British flowers or the fox that lives around the corner?” she says. “I’m fascinated by the changing seasons, but I find it virtually impossible to imagine autumn if it’s spring, or winter if it’s summer, so I’m always trying to create a sense of time in what I do.” A perfect example of this, Labours of the Month – which was purchased by Godalming Museum in 2014 with funding help from the Victoria & Albert Museum – depicts a full year on Rachel’s allotment – watering seedlings in April and harvesting pumpkins in October.
“Light is the active ingredient,” she says. “One of the things I love most about stained glass is that it isn’t static; it can transform depending on the time of day and type of light.” Rachel is also passionate about passing on her knowledge to make sure this ancient craft stays alive. “I want to show that although it’s a traditional skill that dates back centuries, it can still be used to reflect modern-day issues and provide insight into our time,” she says, “because although glass can be broken in an instant, it can also go on to last a hundred years.”
“I try to create a sense of time”