This circular porthole window commission is for an internal door between a bedroom and an ensuite. It is a combination of etched blue on clear glass and silver stain (to give the yellow) with a leaded surround to aid installation. The use of a single sheet of glass was most appropriate for a potentially damp and steamy atmosphere and will be installed with the etched surface facing into the bedroom.
I etch in the garden, working from darkest to lightest tone, using Brunswick Black as a resist for the acid, because the resist is black I have to hold the tonal changes in my head, using combination of tacit knowledge of the material and timed immersion in the acid bath.
The theme was chosen by the clients. The three hares is an ancient motif appearing in numerous scared sites across both the Middle and Far East as well as closer to home in churches across Europe and Britain. They continuously chase around a circle sharing three ears in rotational symmetry. It has a range of symbolic meanings from fertility and lunar associations in Anglo-Saxon and Celtic Paganism through to the trinity in Christian iconography, and is often found adjacent to images of the Green Man in churches, another pagan symbol that got subsumed into Christianity.
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