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In the Studio: Rab MacInnes Stained Glass Artist

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24/10/2017 GMT

Rab MacInnes Stained Glass Artist

BBC World Service - In the Studio, Rab MacInnes Stained Glass Artist

Scottish stained glass artist Rab MacInnes explains his glass art restoration craft

Scottish stained glass artist Rab MacInnes explains his glass art restoration craft.

Art expert Anne Ellis visits stained glass expert Rab MacInnes in his Glasgow basement studio where he creates and restores high end stained glass works. Rab reveals the tools of his trade and his painstaking attention to detail to authentically restore and recreate glass pieces some of which are centuries old.

He’s embarking on a couple of projects by esteemed architect Charles Rennie Macintosh famous for his “Glasgow Style” designs and stained glass work. Macintosh aficionado Anne and Rab discuss his glass art restoring the original Macintosh Willow Tea Rooms building in Glasgow and the recently fire damaged Art School. Unlike some art processes, stained glass, true to the original design and creation is expensive and Rab has to balance budgets with faithful reproduction.

In his studio he talks about the arduous process of achieving the exact stain colouring on the glass, some sheets of which cost thousands of pounds. He shows Anne his notebooks with the stain mix recipes, originally created using chemicals that are now deemed too hazardous to use. Then he introduces his firing kiln, nicknamed “Lola” who is more “temperamental” and less accurate the older she gets.

Then it’s over to the Macintosh designed Windyhill House 30 miles from Glasgow, where Rab restored all the glass work including the magnificent light fittings for Rab to sum up how he feels about seeing his work in location with natural daylight and in context in a working and living building.

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