106. Bee happy

Our fanlight is in

23rd May 2016

Since we completed the epic stained glass window that rises all the way up our staircase, Ford has been itching to make some more stained glass. The gap above our front door defined by the arching brickwork offered the ideal opportunity to have another go. As the Georgians knew well, a fanlight is a great way of extending a gracious welcome to your guests before they have entered the building. We are keen to do the same.

The design warps the perpendicular pattern of the brickwork into the suggestion of a sphere, with our favourite insect hovering in the middle. The house is called the Orchard and the address is number 1B, so the bee is both a symbol of pollination and fruitfulness and a simple expression of our street number, though I suspect we may need to give couriers additional guidance.

The photos here show the basics steps of making the fanlight: drawing the cartoon, cutting the glass, lining the edges of the glass pieces with copper foil before soldering them into sections, then putting the completed sections together using lead cames. Ford used glass leftover from the staircase window to make the fanlight and I used oak leftover from the staircase treads to make the oak frame it sits behind.

The porch-cum-larder at the front of the building, which has no other windows, is now illuminated by the colourful soft light of the fanlight. And the front of the building looks finished for the first time, as well as even more wacky. It’s now two years since the ground workers started digging the foundations, so this is a moment to cherish.