Where style is a mish-mash and nothing is new

(The narrow entrance hallway of the apartment is typical of 1930s era walkups in Plateau Mont Royal. It's cozy and solid. The honey hardwood floors contrast warmly with the dark wood doors. Laurel Baker, 33, is an easy-going editor originally from Western Canada who has a preference for places and things with a definite history.)

What makes your home your home? Is it more the place or the objects in it?

Laurel Baker: For sure it's the objects in it. No question. In fact, the last place I was in (a loft-style space) was completely different but it ended up looking kind of the same because of the stuff. It's the belongings. (My style) is a mish-mash. My tastes are very eclectic. But I guess the one common thread is that nothing is new. Everything is old; stuff ranging from the 1920s to the 1980s. I'm not fetishistic about it. I don't collect any era in particular. I just like things that I think are cute and charming and kind of old.

I'm guessing you like to shop in second-hand stores.

Baker: The first thing I bought in Quebec City (we walk down the hall and into the front room, with a bedroom area and a living room area) was my Venetian lamp, which actually has subsequently chipped and I was kind of sad about it. The ceramic base is painted like wood and it depicts a gondola with a gondolier on it and a couple snuggling. He's supposed to have a paddle or an oar or something to steer (but it's missing). It was $15 and, being from British Columbia where old things tend to be really expensive, this was a great find.

(We walk across the room.)

Baker: The second thing that was bought for me from the same cute little store in Quebec City was this little decorative plate. It's 1970s style with a line drawing showing a man's face and some stars. It seems to me that decorative plates are too frivolous to purchase. I see furniture as being practical. I buy impractical furniture because it serves a practical purpose.

OK, wait. How is your furniture impractical?

Baker: It's not, necessarily. You buy furniture because you have to buy furniture and because you like it. But I'm more interested in how it looks than how comfortable it is. I've slept on this couch and it's not bad. The couch, armchair and lamp are part of the uncool teak era; very late Danish modern from the late 1970s. When you walk down to the stores on Amherst St., they have late Danish stuff (but from the 1960s) and it's all priced at, like, $600 or whatever. I got this at (a used-furniture store in) Beaurepaire, in Beaconsfield. It's a charity shop. I like it; I just mean it's not high-end like the '60s stuff.

Tell me about this window. (The large, multi-paned wood-framed window has carved glass in it.) Is it stained glass? And why don't you have curtains?

Baker: Does stained glass have to be coloured? I get little prisms on the wall when the sun comes in. It's kind of nice. But it's not super bright because it's north-facing. I hate curtains. I have some; they're sitting on a chair, folded. I wear a sleep mask. I wouldn't cover this up with curtains anyway.

Who's the guy above your bed? (A hanging carpet above the bed shows a man's face intently staring out. It's bath mat-sized and mesmerizing.)

Baker: That's Ataturk, the father of the Turks. You know when people go to Turkey they always come back with these massive Turkish carpets and they ship them back. But I was backpacking at the time. I was a student. I didn't have any money. I was just, like, well no one can say this isn't Turkish. It has Ataturk on it.

(We walk up stairs inside the rear of the apartment building and to the roof. There is a small, roughly 15-feet-by-15-feet wood deck with a fence, table and lounge chairs on it.)

Baker: This is a community space. It's not used that much. I used this many times in the summer, for having coffee and being on my laptop and doing some work. Or, for having friends over for a glass of wine. (When other residents are up here, too) I just say "salut, bonjour." You clink glasses. You meet each other. I've come up here a few times when it's just turned into a big table of people and conversation. And another time, two people were having a quiet romantic thing (in the corner) and five of us were over here. That's part of the charm of the city. It's living so close to other people.

PE couple nab huge stained glass window commission

THE phrase “stained glass commission” evokes scenes of a medieval craftsman labouring away for hours over pieces of glass and lead in a Gothic church spire somewhere in Europe, but for a Nelson Mandela Bay “couple-in-art” this enterprise is a very contemporary undertaking.

“This is an ancient art form in a modern time,” said Ruth Nesbit, who is working with her 76- year- old husband, renowned artist and stained glass expert Hunter Nesbit, on an intricate commission for St Anne’s Diocesan College, an all-girls school in the KwaZulu Natal Midlands

Hunter’s exquisite design for the new chapel window was chosen from an array of other designs.

St Anne’s put the job out to tender throughout the country and say they had many very good entries, but that Hunter’s design was easily the best.

“The actual design encapsulated what we as an Anglican girls’ school wanted to put forward in terms of Christian values very successfully,” St Anne’s headmaster David Wilkinson said.

“Ruth and Hunter have taken a deep professional and personal interest in the window, and you can see it has captured their artistic imagination.”

The couple often work together on projects, and this one was no different.

“As an artist you have to say yes to everything and this was a unique opportunity for us to leave a lasting legacy,” said the grandfather of four.

Five South African design studios tendered for the Rose Window. But Hunter’s design won because the committee loved the simplicity of the angel, which, when repeated around the centre panel, interprets as a flower.

Ruth’s research and fabrication of the symbols came later in the project.

From design to inception, the project has been running for about a year, with final delivery scheduled for October 26.

A team of talented stained glass artists, trained by Hunter, have been working on the window.

Amanda Snyman, head of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University stained glass department, together with two assistants under the supervision of Hunter and Ruth, an acclaimed artist in her own right, have painstakingly put together the 12 identical “petals of the rose”.

“This has been a challenging project – sometimes painfully so, because you require complete accuracy and very good planning,” said Snyman.

“After that it’s just putting together the puzzle pieces and hoping they fit.”

The Rose Window is made up of 12 petals, one 80cm centre circle, 12 borders, 12 Hilton daisies to represent the local area and 12 blue triangles to symbolise the blue-green rolling KwaZulu Natal hills.

The 3m Rose Window is being funded by the St Anne’s Foundation which, in turn, procured funds from silent donors.

The glass used in the window is French flashed glass and “priceless” English Hartley Wood antique mouth-blown glass, often described as the best in its class in the world.

The Nesbits have a small stockpile of this glass which they bought in the early 1990s – and with the steady closure of glass-blowing studios around the world, the value of the glass has appreciated significantly.

“In all likelihood, the new Rose Window will outlive us all by a long shot,” quipped Wilkinson, with the couple giving it a whopping 100-year guarantee.

Stained glass artist now a leading light in niche industry

However, Gail Muir, owner of Lighthouse Glass Company, has cut out one such niche for herself, as a stained glass artist and lead glazier. However, her path to building a profitable business has not been without challenges.

A single mother, Gail has had to juggle family and business commitments and as any working mum knows, time tends to slip through your fingers like sand with a family to provide for and look after.

Support from her own family was not that forthcoming at the outset either, with a Socialist father set against any ideas of enterprise, while her mother was worried she was entering a career with no future.

Gail started her own business at 19, having been forced by family circumstances to quit art college, find a job and start earning.

However, her fascination with stained glass goes back much earlier. She recalls a house she passed on her way to primary school, which had a stained glass panel in the front door: “I remember my obsession with the colours and how it was done, as well as my disappointment if the storm doors were shut.

“Then, whenever we visited Edinburgh, I was more interested in seeing the stained glass in St Giles’ Cathedral than the shops.”

As a medium, Gail enjoys working with light and colour and for her, committing her creative ideas to glass is far more rewarding than paper (although drawing is a necessary part of the early design stages of any project).

Gail served her apprenticeship with a stained glass manufacturer in Ayr, not only drawing up the designs but also learning the technical process of stained glass manufacture. She was there for about two years before going it alone.

“There were no jobs in stained glass manufacture anyway at the time and I had been virtually running the business myself,” adds Gail.

She began work from her bedroom with a stained glass panel and a piece of chipboard, which she kept under her bed: “I used to get out of bed, tuck my jammies in my jeans and get started.”

However, her difficult and humble beginnings certainly helped her to be more determined and single-minded in carving out a career for herself.

Gail has been in her present workshop in an Irvine industrial estate for about eight years. The building was a former ice-cream factory, which she now owns.

It was her mother who came across the factory premises, and she now helps out with the financial side of Gail’s business.

Contrary to popular belief, the stained glass market is not dominated by church work. According to Gail, this accounts for about 10% of her annual turnover. Other clients include several well-known double-glazing firms, as well as joiners, glaziers, glass manufacturers and the general public.

Her turnover has grown steadily over the years: “The more gradual the growth the better. I never started out with lots of money and it makes the business stronger, as I’ve had to struggle to make it work.”

Lighthouse also offers triple glazing of stained glass in new panels to protect it from the elements. Projects over the years have been varied and often curious.

One client wanted a stained glass panel on her stairwell to match a tattoo in a much less public place. “It was a traditional design – a heart and dagger with a banner and it actually worked really well in stained glass with the black outline against the red.

“I’m not sure whether she ever showed off the tattoo that inspired it, however.”

Gail is currently working on a restoration project for a house in Girvan. This is an aspect of her work which she finds particularly challenging and rewarding.

“It’s a night and day panel in a priest’s house. It’s a bit like being an archaeologist as I have to take apart someone’s work from over 100 years ago and then piece it all together again, re-leading the panel and replacing any damaged glass. You need to make sure that when the panel goes back in, it does not look as if it’s been ‘fixed’.

“You’re never quite sure how the colours will work out either after they’ve been fired in the kiln. I like the fact that restoration work is awkward and a challenge.”

Another time she played detective after a burglary when the robbers completely smashed a stained glass window. Gail had to fit it back together like a jigsaw. “I do get a great sense of satisfaction from seeing a panel restored to its former glory.”

At first, Gail found it difficult to price her work properly. However, she learned from experience you can’t afford to “do a Rolls-Royce job for a Mini Metro price.”

Working alone can be difficult, but at the same time being a single-minded perfectionist can make working partnerships challenging, Gail says. She has trained and employed people in the past, but generally works alone. “For me job satisfaction always outweighs being self-employed. It’s been a long and winding road but an enjoyable one.”

For the future Gail hopes to develop her workshop and just keep “guddling away”. She plans to eventually sell the business as a going concern as her daughter is not keen on the self-employed life.

Gail would love to work on an airport installation to give her the opportunity to work with a large space and promote stained glass on a more public platform.

“I intend to keep improving my skills and I’m pretty inspired by the projects I do right now. So I guess I’m more fortunate than most in that respect.”

'The Colors of Light` opens tonight

As the colors of autumn fade away, the Cultural Arts Council of Estes Park`s new exhibit "The Colors of Light" explodes with color, light and design. Opening on Friday, Oct. 16 in the CAC`s Fine Art Gallery in Estes Park, the exhibition celebrates the diverse work by eight Northern Colorado artists, including Mark James, Kelly Kotary, Russ Longgrear, Jennifer Nauck, Cheryl Pennington, Eli Roehl, Heather Stone and Michael J. Vogel. Each artist uniquely captures the light and the colors within working in a variety of artistic medium and subject matter. Work featured includes painting, photography, fused glass, off-hand blown glass, jewelry, and mixed media glass boxes.

Mark James has been a photographer for over twenty years. He is self-taught and has worked in virtually every area of the medium, from photojournalist to commercial photographer to fine art gallery owner and everything in between.

Kelly Kotary`s goal as an oil painter is to try and capture the essence of whatever the subject may be light on a patch of tall grass, the texture of an onion skin-while exploring all the different possibilities the media offers. Her love of oil paint and all the unlimited textures and colors is a motivating force in her work. From the thinnest of transparent glazes to huge chunky impasto strokes, Kotary strives to engage each viewer to explore the many levels of light of each painting.

Russ Longgrear began his interest in working with stained glass and started building three-dimensional forms such as jewelry boxes, display cases, kaleidoscopes, and even model airplanes over twenty years ago. In the last few years, he has turned his interest towards creating with the colorful dichroic glass. Russ mixes the reflective colors of the glass with his unique use of design and applies the combined effects to create elegant bowls and platters. He recently has added jewelry to his use of dichroic glass.

Jennifer Nauck, when blowing off hand glass, relies on efficiency and fluidity of movement to create simple, elegant, well-balanced pieces. Her designs have evolved -- after years of learning how the glass holds heat, how it moves at different temperatures, and how it responds to subtle changes in angle and speed of rotation. In preparation for "The Colors of Light," she pushed beyond her perceived limits, and has created several platters, vases and wall pieces radiating in individual and blended colors, and in symmetrical and asymmetrical shapes and forms.

Cheryl Pennington moved to the Estes Park area in 1978. Upon retiring from her career as a teacher, she began to pursue her interest in black and white photography. She began printing her own pictures and hand coloring them, using Marshall Oils and pencils to color the photographs. Pennington also re-photographs and prints historic photos from the Northern Colorado front range area. Historically, many black and white photos were hand colored before the advent of color film. Barbara Clatworthy Gish, daughter of the well known late Estes Park photographer Fred Payne Clatworthy, has given Pennington permission to hand color many of her father`s historic images, and several will be included in the exhibition.

Eleanor (Eli) Roehl works in the pristine beauty across from a 14,000-foot peak in the Rockies. In this remote studio, her appreciation and awe of nature is reflected in unique, one-of-a-kind art jewelry. She uses hand-built, fused precious metals in abstract and expressionistic designs. After living in the Caribbean, Eli fell in love with the vibrant colors of aqua and blue-green, which she incorporates into her jewelry. She personally selects the colorful semi-precious stones she uses in her designs. Inspired by the stones themselves, as well as a connection to spirit that is intuitively recognized by those who are drawn to her work, she creates earrings, pins, pendants, rings, and bracelets. Her elegance of style translates into highly collectible jewelry that appeals to an upscale, sophisticated market.

, Heather Glismann Stone began her career as a glass artist while recuperating from a motorcycle accident in 1978. Stone learned to make stained glass windows to pass the time. By 1980, Stone had started to design glass boxes with inlaid seashells. Her glass work has been in several galleries, museums gift shops and high end craft shops across the country. Stone also incorporates her original photography, antiqued postcards and fused glass pieces that she has made in her original glass works.

Michael J. Vogel started his love of photography as a young boy growing up in the Chicago, IL suburbs. With a Brownie 35 mm camera, he started photographing in black and white, eventually moving on to Kodacrome film and his exploration of color photography. Vogel`s love of nature and wildlife is the driving force in his work today. Working in both 35 mm and digital formats, he enjoys capturing the United States from coast to coast. Vogel has documented lighthouses on the Pacific Ocean and shorelines of the Great Lakes, and many of the western national parks. He also travels abroad, and has documented the splendor of Canada and Germany. Vogel will be showing several archival photographic digital giclees on canvas that capture wildlife and the scenic beauty of Rocky Mountain National Park in the exhibition.

The public is invited to attend an opening reception for the "The Colors of Light" on Friday, Oct. 16, at the CAC Fine Art Gallery located at 423 W. Elkhorn Ave from 5 to 8 p.m. Refreshments and hors d`oeuvres will be served. Musical entertainment will be provided by Cynthia Hoyle on the CAC 1930 Baldwin grand piano.

The exhibition will run through Nov. 8, and the gallery is open daily 12 noon to 5 p.m. or by appointment. For more information call the Cultural Arts Council of Estes Park at 970-586-9203 or e-mail: info@estesarts.com.

The Cultural Arts Council is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit arts organization with the mission to enhance the quality and accessibility of visual and performing arts for people of all ages. All program revenues go back in serving the greater Estes Valley and its visitor population.

Kitchen Discovery — Tiffany Bowl Brings $28,200 At Clarke’s

Clarke Auction concluded its strongest summer season with its September 14 sale — one of its highest grossing auctions ever, according to founder and owner Ronan Clarke. "We had a fine July, a typically strong August, but the September auction was the topper — [it ranks] among our top five general sales in 11 years," he said.


The auction's top lot was a sleeper — a glass bowl, estimated at $100/150, that turned out to be a circa 1905 Tiffany piece that sold at $28,200. The piece, a mystery to the consignor with heavy wear obscuring any marks, had been pulled by Clarke from a stack of kitchen mixing bowls. He joined it with a Baccarat vase and gave the lot that low estimate. Six in-house bidders competed, with multiple phones with the bowl and a vase finally hammering down to a dealer in the room. "The buyer for the bowl got a Baccarat vase thrown in for his $28,200!" said Tom Curran of Clarke Auction.

The trade also took home a Tiffany Studios counterbalance lamp base, estimated at $600/900, for $2,350. A vintage Tiffany-style lamp and shade, estimated at $300/500, realized $2,700, whereas a similar lamp sold for just $300 in the very next lot.

Asian decorative arts were also strong as the auction coincided with Asia Week in New York City. A pair of Chinese vases as lamps realized $1,645; Asian lidded jars sold for $940 versus an estimate of $300/500; and a lot of two Chinese vases, with an estimate of $300/400, ended up at $1,116.

Columbus honored as brave beacon of hope for Italian-Americans

On the north wall of Heinz Chapel in Oakland, Christopher Columbus keeps some impressive company.

He stands in a rowboat and wields a sword, the heroic image captured in a stained-glass image near the middle of a 73-foot-tall transept window. Next to him is Florence Nightingale. Nearby are more than a dozen other historical heavyweights known for courageous deeds, including the Virgin Mary, Joan of Arc and several saints.

That Columbus is honored alongside such icons surprises no one in the Italian-American community in Western Pennsylvania.

To them, he is a symbol of strength, vision and hope — and not just for ethnic Italians.

"Christopher Columbus had the courage to come to a new land, to risk everything and come to an area that was totally unknown," said Carla Lucente, honorary consul of Italy and co-director of Duquesne University's Center for International Relations.

"He opened the door to the New World, not only for Italians, but for everyone else — the Slovaks, the Germans, the Irish. He was the great discoverer."

As ethnic Italians today celebrate Columbus Day, commemorating the famous seaman from Genoa, many are reflecting on his legacy.

City Councilman Bill Peduto, a second-generation Italian-American, described Columbus "the same way someone who is Irish would describe St. Patty: it is as much an issue of identity as it is pride," he said.

"When we learn about American history, one of the first people we learn about is Christopher Columbus," Peduto said. "He sets the first chapter of our own shared history in this country."

Dennis Looney, chair of the French and Italian Department at the University of Pittsburgh, said all Americans celebrate Columbus Day in some fashion because it's a national holiday.

"All cultural ethnic groups create their own traditions," Looney said. "And Columbus becomes an Italian-American hero because he represents their beginnings. But in the case of Columbus, that tradition in time gets institutionalized and eventually is turned into a national holiday.

"Columbus was nationalized," he said. "I don't know how often that happens in our history. That's one of the intriguing thing about Columbus."

It is why Columbus is depicted in stained glass inside Heinz Chapel, and why cities across America name streets after him and erect statues and monuments in his likeness, he said.

Outside Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Oakland, a statue of Columbus portrays him "looking heroic, standing at the helm of a ship, looking to the future," Looney said.

"He represents courage and pioneering spirit and he (has) become a symbol, not only for all Italian-Americans, but for all immigrants who are making that same trek."

Said Guy Costa, chairman of the Pittsburgh Columbus Day parade committee, held each year in Bloomfield: "He gave us hope. And that's what people need to get through life."

Still, Columbus has his detractors.

After all, some have argued, Columbus is known for "discovering" a land that was inhabited, and he made that discovery only after vastly underestimating Earth's size, thus believing he had hit the East Indies when he stumbled upon the New World in 1492.

"There's been some hullabaloo about him bringing disease to the New World, (and) there's a certain degree of people saying he didn't discover America, that we're celebrating the wrong person," said Sam Patti, who owns La Prima Espresso Co. in the Strip District and participates in the American Italian Historical Association. "That's not totally accurate."

Plus, it's missing the point, Patti contends.

Yes, he said, Columbus Day is a source of great pride for ethnic Italians. But it's a celebration of a shared American experience.

"We are, as John F. Kennedy said, a 'nation of immigrants,' " he said. "Listen, there was mass migration. The Italians, Slovaks, Irish -- they all had the same motivations, and they all made the same sacrifices.

"We have to understand the sacrifices those people made. Columbus Day is about appreciating what these people did. ... How can you know where you're going if you don't know where you came from?"