Sycamore Studio - Stained Glass
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Practice makes Perfect

11/28/2020

 
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Over the last year I have been spending time working on sketches that are not created at the request of clients. These sketches are studies I do in order to keep my artistic vision fresh. I study the work of modern stained glass masters like Ludwig Schaffrath www.pinterest.com/nikolagrozdanov/ludwig-schaffrath/ and others of the German school and the work of Charles Z. Lawrence who I was luck to know personally. Eventually I will choose some of the designs and execute them in glass. 

The best glass with the best colorist - a winning combo

3/6/2020

 
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Nell Roemer does the color selecting at Sycamore Studio. Her seventeen years working with glass from all over the world has made her a master at creating stunning work with colored glass. A studio can have beautiful glass in its stock but its's knowing what to do with it that counts!  As you can see here, Nell knows what to do with it! This is a recent commission she created at Sycamore Studio just west of Philadelphia PA

Off WIth her head!

8/26/2019

 
When we finished the last three windows I decided that St. Mary's head was not up to the standard we achieved with all the other heads. So I had James repaint it. It was the first head James had painted and we were really at the beginning of the journey to decode Charlie Lawrences painting techniques. James must have painted Mary ten times before we even fired the first one. But when the other heads (all of which were painted multiple times) were finished they all had emotional depth that the Marys head was missing. So even though James had gone on to other jobs he came in and did this last head over.
Part of the problem was that when I blew the sketch up to full size it didn't have enough detail. I'm sure that was part of the problem first time around.
So I went back to Charlies preliminary sketches. There were a dozen or so, each one with a different gesture and affect. Charlie was a perfectionist. he drew Mary over and over - each time as a totally fresh sketch. No tracing the figure and changing one arm. Oh no! We're talking about a totally new idea every time. If the arm changes position all the drapes change too in order to balance the new gesture.I looked at each one carefully and in one of the last sketches before the final I found more clarification of what CZ's intent was. So I emailed the sketch to James and when he came in we talked it over. I wanted him to combine the two sketches using data from both to clarify the final. We talked about the emotional engagement the other heads created and how important this was to these window which were down at eye level.
So he worked on it for two days first making sketches of the trace line and then painting the head on glass. We put it in the kiln at the end of the day and fired it and left. the next day I pulled it out and popped it in the panel taping it in with scotch tape. I put the panel up and looked at it. The matte felt just the slightest bit too weak at the perimeter her face, but I wasn't sure. After looking at it all day I knew it needed one more hit. I called James and he said he had been worried about it lightening in the kiln too much. After it came out of the kiln this time it was perfect. 
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Fabricating Charlie's Last Designs

7/18/2019

 
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Last October my friend and mentor, Charlie Lawrence called me. He wanted to know if I would help him fabricate his last four stained glass windows.
Charles Z Lawrence has five stained glass windows in the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. and is considered one of the most important stained glass designers in 20th century America. Of course I was thrilled to have the chance to work with him. We began working on logistics, photographing sketches  for the client and writing up a contract. Then the holidays came and we let things lie. On Christmas Day Charlies daughters posted on Facebook that Charlie was in the hospital. He had terminal cancer. By the end of the month he was in hospice. I went to see him, took the sketches and glass and we talked about the windows and how he wanted them executed. On January 1, 2019 Charlie passed into the next life.

The church asked me to make the windows after Charlie died. 
It wasn't just me. Years ago i started working with a very talented colorist named Nell Roemer. I hired her at the studio I was managing at the time. She turned out to be a brilliant glass picker and most importantly, when Charlie had us fabricate windows for us she became an avid student of his ideas about glass and color. She listened. And she watched Charlie. He taught us both a lot about stained glass.
​But the team was not complete. I brought in a painter I had been training to paint on glass. James Tafel Shuster. The guy can draw like nobodies business. I'm a PAFA boy and so is he. We totally get each other. I knew I could teach him how to do Charlies style. 
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So in March 2019 we began the journey. The end goal: Make the best windows we have ever produced in our careers. Do it for this man we loved  - CZ - Charlie - Charles Ziegler Lawrence, The man who taught os so much.
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Juried into AGN Show:  Rochester, NY and Now at The National Cathedral IN washington,d.c.

7/2/2017

 
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My piece, "Selenium Path", was juried into the 2017 show! Below are this year's jurors.
Lindsy Parrott, Curator of the Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass, Long Island City, NY
Susie Silbert, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Glass at Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY.
Diane Wright, The Carolyn and Richard Barry Curator of Glass, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA


Installing Stained Glass at St. Mathews Episcopal, Sunbury, PA

7/1/2017

 

New neo-Gothic Window For St. MAthew's in Sunbury

6/25/2017

 

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Sycamore Studio has just finished fabricating a new clerestory window for St. Mathews Church in Sunbury, PA. Rick worked on several window creations for them when general manager at Willet Studios, and was delighted when asked to create the last of the north facing clerestories. It was a wonderful opportunity to use the depth of knowledge imparted to him by Crosby Willet during the twelve years they worked as a team. This window is a classic neo-gothic design employing the jewel tone colors that define the high art of the twelfth century. Installation to follow soon!

View the Video  - The Art Of Making A Stained Glass Window

1/2/2017

 
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Image of Videographer, Marty Lindley and Rick. Click the image and see the video!   

My Autonomous panel "Blue Grid Vortex" Receives Award in Chicago 2016 AGNX Glass now exhibition

7/17/2016

 
This year the jurors for the AGNX Glass Now exhibition were Lindsy Parrott, Rolf Achilles and Judith Schaechter. 17 Stained Glass Autonomous panels were juried into the show and three awards for excellence were given. My panel, Blue Grid Vortex was among the three awards. Also given the award were glass artists Sasha Zhitneva and Marie-Pascale Foucault-Phipps
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Blue Grid Vortex hanging in my studio

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Installed at Chicago University next to panels by Joseph Cavalieri and Sean Merchant

Tiffany Rekindled - Presentation at Lafayette College

4/11/2016

 
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I'm presenting a talk April 7th at the Skillman Library  at Lafayette College about two windows that were restored under my leadership at Willet Studios back in 2002.

https://galleries.lafayette.edu/2016/02/12/richard-prigg-tiffany-rekindled/

One window (pictured) was listed as "lost to fire" for years in an authoritative book about Tiffany's work. When at Willet I worked closely with my mentor Crosby Willet who is a graduate of Lafayette College. Crosby one day informed me that this lost Tiffany, the Alcuin and Charlemagne window  was not lost but languishing in crates stored up on the Lafayette campus. We eventually restored this and another Tiffany, The Death of Sir Philip Sydney.
I will speak about the restorations and specifically the two very different techniques Tiffany used in these two windows to solve the problem of supporting multilayered stained glass construction
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    I've made a living in the stained glass field for over thirty years as artisan, manager and now, artist and studio owner. Now that I have a website please come and visit periodically and see what I'm up to. Maybe it will be a new church project, or a piece of work made purely for the love of glass. Or some news of Sycamore studio in the news. Join me on my glass path. Its better than streets of gold any day.

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