Why is it such a popular gift lantern - particularly for those difficult to buy for men? And always the same colour combination?
Where can you put it? And how can you light it up?
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And in its next form - a black metal lantern (again from Ikea)
You’ll also find it on a glass block…
…and on a mug (& matching coaster)
Many customers have this hanging in their gardens, or by their fireplaces, or on their windowsills.
– and one has been giving comforting light and colour at funeral services in Halifax for the past few years.....!
But this sort of encouragement tends to evaporate once you hit secondary school, and art just becomes one more exam to pass….
I did take my art O & A levels, but I don’t remember feeling any creative excitement during this time, so I stopped bothering. Rather a sad period this; how many of us lost a childhood passion during our teens?
But suddenly I was asked if I could design a cover for the monthly Toc H magazine (I was working for this charity at the time). I took on the challenge with some delight and had fun with delicate pen and ink illustration.
I do vaguely remember going to an Aubrey Beardsley exhibition at the V&A round about this time, so the influence probably came from there…..
The cover I came up with (for “Light”) proved to be unsuitable for the magazine, but the kind editor loved the design and suggested printing them as Christmas cards. This started me on a roll!
During the late 1980s & the 90s, I did no drawing at all during the year, but every Christmas I would design a new card. Friends and family would say how much they looked forward to the new designs – so I carried the practice on for about 10 years all in all!
And then stopped….. life tends to get in the way.......
But I recently revived my interest in this very fine style of drawing – and so Ornately Cards emerged.
The glass painting really is entirely separate. In early 2000 I was recovering from a spell in hospital, where I’d had a brain tumour removed. I had no energy, poor balance and developed very severe headaches if I tried to read or watch television.
So my wonderful mother suggested that the painting I’d enjoyed so much as a child might prove easier on the eyes – and returned from a shopping trip with paints, brushes and a How to Paint on Glass book!
(Looking a bit battered now, 20 years later!)
My very first experiment was a simple Chinese character painted onto a small IKEA lantern. I loved the flow of the thin, slippery paint – not to mention the glorious colours!
I don't have a photo of that one - but here is another early IKEA lamp
And, of course, I had time to devote to the painting, as I was on long-term sick leave........
You need to schedule your time at home carefully – without a timetable, it’s all too easy to just loll on the couch watching TV or lie out in a deckchair dozing. Instead, try to:
Set yourself a regular timetable – get up at your usual time every morning and go to bed at your regular hour. Eat 3 meals a day and DON’T snack in between
Vary your activities – DON'T just work or watch telly all day, but try out various different activities:Plan some “micro-lifts every day, so that you can have some fun.
Instead of bumping into a friend on your way to work, why not ring her for a chat instead?
Some friends of my mother’s have been enjoying an isolation “champagne night” every Saturday, when they both dress up in “night on the town” clothes and eat a special meal in the “restaurant” in their lounge!
Try joining:
There’s a lot to avoid on social media – but it can also be a fantastic way to connect with new friends who share your interests.
Engage with nature as much as possible – it makes you happier and healthier.
Go outside to get your daily exercise, spend time in your garden if you have one, or watch the birds from your window if you don’t.
Give special care to your houseplants, open a window to let the fresh air in……
And if these aren’t possible, try searching for Slow TV on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHRGA07fn3RpmPvUD-qgE-A ) and have birdsong or a running river playing softly in the background – it’s incredibly soothing…..
This is not the time to “not bother” or “just take it easy”, these can too often lead to negativity and depression.
Instead regain control over your life by:
First of all I choose a photograph from those that the customer has sent to me. The quality of the photo plays a large part in the success of the portrait – and this one of Chandler was just perfect!
I then paint an outline of the full design onto the glass, using Vitrail outliner paint which hardens to provide a thin raised edge – very useful for controlling the coverage of the glass paint.
Once the outline has fully dried, the first layer of paint goes on – in this case it’s a rich yellow gold. Leave to dry for 12 hours……..
Next comes orange – which acts as a “shadow”, adding extra depth & richness to the gold areas. Another 12 hours drying time……..
As you can see, other colours are being added to the flowers – but we’re concentrating on Chandler here!
Next comes black, just to accent the eyes and nose
After that come two lots of brown, one light and one dark. With, of course, 12 hours of drying time between the two colours…… As they go on, you can see Chandler’s personality really taking shape.
And the last colour to be added is white – white is always the last colour, as it takes even longer to dry than all the other colours and it has a nasty tendency to suck up other colours if it hasn’t dried 200%
So all the paint is now on & Chandler is looking very like himself – but just a little ragged and unfinished.
This is where I use Vitrail outliners once again to pick out and highlight his features. The gold, silver and copper outliners catch any light and shine, even if there is no bright sunshine around.
And finally the memorial is complete – the outliners have made Chandler stand out amongst the flowers and have given him the character he so clearly showed in his photo.
He should be arriving in Texas round about now and I hope that his owner is pleased with the likeness
And here, as promised, are a selection of the different memorials I have painted over the years
The lantern I’m currently working on is a great example – it’s being specially painted for someone’s “special birthday” and has been designed with my customer to perfectly represent all the various loves and passions of his friend’s life.
A “special” birthday (this one’s a fiftieth) is truly an event to be celebrated – and what better way than to receive a gift that contains so much love and care and thought? PLUS – it’s a gift that will always remain with the recipient, to be lit up as a happy reminder in the years to come.
We made a couple of small additions (I added in a couple of blackbirds & also the distinctive glasses his friend wears) and he then approved the designs & chose the one he wanted for the front panel of the lantern.
He also advised me that his friend has brilliant red hair (VERY Pre-Raphaelite) & also has a weakness for emerald green shawls! So painting has been carrying on along these lines:
And here are a couple of the panels from the custom lantern that sparked his order off – this one was painted to celebrate a new professorship! I was asked for designs to evoke:
1. the Double Helix (as this is what the professorship was in)
Plus also -
Of course, I do SO many customised cats and dogs for all my various pet memorials, pet portraits and other cat lanterns. Did you know that you can order any of my current designs and have your own cats (or dogs) painted in place of the black & white ones? I’ll need some photos & it costs just a little bit more – but the customisation is well worth it!
Just click HERE to order your pet memorial
This customer wanted a fully customised lantern design to show off a gardening friend’s marmalade cat
Speaking of gardening…… another customer has a sister who is a garden designer. So a special lantern design for her involved LOTS of different flowers and her particular, long loved design notebook
Some of my most popular designs originally came from custom requests. Butterflies, anyone?- it seems that you customers always know best!
And final mention goes to King Richard III. I knew very little about this monarch, other than from school history and Shakespeare. But a request to paint a lantern for a Ricardian sister’s special birthday launched me on a fascinating voyage of discovery…… and a whole new category of products! If you don’t know about the movement to prove Richard’s innocence, then may I recommend that you follow it, as it’s SUCH an interesting historical thriller!
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So here it is! What do you think of it?
]]> Today I have to present a 2 minute pitch about Ornately Lanterns as part of a course I am doing.
So in this blog post I thought you might be interested to read the pitch I've come up with for later this afternoon (typing it out again will help to wedge it in my memory more firmly!) |
I’m Clare Smythson, creator & owner of Ornately Lanterns. I add colour to the sunshine. |
So – what makes you happy? For me, it’s colour, sunshine & warmth. Thus I hope you’ll love the effect of sunshine streaming through my colourful stained glass candle lanterns – they light up any dull room or garden with radiant jewel-like colours. |
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I paint any glass that catches the light: candle lanterns, suncatchers, night lights, lamps….. and for any home or garden |
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LOADS of customised designs as well – I paint lots of happy memories for special birthdays, weddings and anniversaries…… |
And personalised lanterns often lead to greater things…. A 50th birthday lantern request (“anything with King Richard III on it”) has led to the discovery of millions of Ricardians, those people who fervently believe in the King's innocence….. A new niche of customers! Tomorrow I’m off to the Tewkesbury Medieval Festival, Richard III merchandise in tow! |
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And I paint a lot of dead dog memorials as well! I have 2 on the go at the moment, plus 3 dead cats & a dead horse! |
This is an ever-expanding part of my business…. All of us have had a very special pet in our lives at some point. It’s an important part of grief therapy to have some sort of lasting keepsake to memorialise your pet – and the more personalised the better |
I used to sell my lanterns at art shows around the country, but since 2015 have been selling them online. I never thought that glass would be a successful commodity to ship around the world – but now you can find Ornately lanterns globally, all the way from Alaska to Hawaii to Singapore! |
So – why not make your room a happy place to walk into by adding an Ornately lantern at the window? |
So this is my 2 minute intro to Ornately Lanterns. What do you think? Do let me know in the comments below. Thanks! |