Circles and Squares….
Having read the book Circles and Squares: The lives and art of the Hampsted modernists by Caroline Maclean during lockdown part 3, I started to read everything I could about the short-lived Bauhaus in Germany and how the artists and designers influenced art and design during the 1930s. Whilst the vision was quite simple, the internal politics were complicated during a very unstable time in 1930s Germany. The stained glass workshop, led by Josef Albers, didn’t last long (1920-1925) and, like many small creative businesses, the conflict of the radical art and commercial trend led to its collapse.
https://www.bauhauskooperation.com/knowledge/the-bauhaus/training/workshops/stained-glass/
The piece I made and designed was influenced by some of the artists of this time.
I had some technical (and very frustrating) difficulties with one piece of glass ‘frosting’ in the kiln. The intial problem was that I was firing too high at 650 degrees C and also painting on a tinned side. I took the temperature down to 625 degrees C and painted on the other side. I was so frustrated, with working out what the issue was that I even had my dremmel out polishing it at one point!
Frosted piece fired tinned side up
Only took 4 attempts to get it right.
It is unfortunate that most of the windows made by the Bauhaus didn’t survive the second world war, although several pieces of Albers work can be found in the US where he moved to before war broke out. There is some really interesting information on the Guggenheim website about his exhibition held in 1995 - Glass, Colour and Light in a blog written by Claire Lui.
https://www.guggenheim.org/blogs/findings/the-little-known-glass-works-of-josef-albers