... and a Homemade Lightbox!

On our stained glass course we met the lovely Jane Bonney. She is a local textile artist and runs courses at South Hill Park Arts Centre in  Bracknell, Berks. Her latest course is Creative Machine Stitching starting 15th February 2013. Jane first did stained glass with Nicola Kantorowicz about 5 years ago at an Oxford summer school - she has since been to 3 of her week long courses. This time round, Jane was working on the above piece inspired by her love of Rome and was using a technique called Sgraffito. The shaded areas within the glass panels are painted on with a special paint, and then the light details are etched off before the pieces are fired in a kiln. Jane wanted to use a lightbox to ensure the areas she was etching were in the right places. So she made her own!

PS. If you would like to read about our DIY Light Box that helps with taking better photos etc please click here. Otherwise please read on!!!
These are some drawers from Ikea. They sit on top of a desk and Jane keeps her scissors, sewing threads etc in them.

Take one out...

Take a desktop lamp with a flexible neck...

Place the lightbulb bit inside the drawer (which very kindly has a dip in it to accomodate this!!)

Place a bit of glass over it (commonly available when you're doing a stained glass course!)

And you can do the most amazing things!!!

Doing some research, a a decent, sturdy lightbox of this size (just over A4) can cost anywhere from £30 upwards. Jane paid £7 for the drawers a few years ago, £10 for the lamp and obviously both can be used for their original purposes when not they are not lightbox components!

Isn't she clever?! And what a beautiful piece of stained glass Jane created - we watched in awe at the patience it took to etch the final design! Follow Jane on Twitter @cree8Bonney, contact her direct at cree8jane@gmail.com or if you're local, book a space on her course here.

Would you like to do a post for us yourself? Please contact us and we will make it happen!!