Ford, Jayne
Stevens Competition Commission Winner 2014
Jayne Ford is an award-winning artist who works in a broad range of media and draws on many different techniques to create her work.
Her journey in architectural glass began with a Glaziers’ Company training placement in 2010, undertaken at Pugin, Hardman and Powell in Birmingham (Ashton-Hill Award). Here, she worked on Gothic Revival restoration projects and says: “The Ashton Hill Award was a great opportunity for me to learn how Victorian glass-painters created their beautiful windows. Much can be learnt from replicating painted historical glass and I use the same skills I learnt during my placement to make my contemporary glass painting work today.”
Jayne went on to win the 2014 Stevens Competition Commission plus the Glaziers’ Award for Craftsmanship for a fused-glass appliqué window design for Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstance the commission did not proceed. However, other commissions for a wide range of architectural glass followed, such as windows for Urmston Cemetery and Trent College Chapel; highly ornate painted glass for the Parsonage Trust, Didsbury; a large oceanic-themed painted glass installation for a hotel in Darwen plus sculptural pieces for outdoor art-trails, including the Manchester Bee in the City event 2018, where her mosaic-work raised £20,000 for charity. In 2017 Jayne was selected to make the inaugural stained glass presentation roundel for the annual Lord Mayor Reflects charity event in the City of London. Jayne has also been appointed to paint site-specific installations recreating life-size images of the much loved naval training ship HMS Conway in Wales (Bangor and Anglesey).
Two examples of Jayne’s stained glass are shown in the adjacent images:
The upper image shows a commission for a private residence in Manchester. It features a fox (to reflect the residential street name) and a bee (a much-loved symbol of the City of Manchester). Jayne used kiln-fired oxides, silver stains and vitreous enamels to create an interplay between the contemporary geometric shading of the two creatures and the flowing plant-forms, harmonising the composition overall with seasonal colour transitions.
The lower image shows a subtly romantic art deco-style window made for a 1930’s house in Sheffield. The owners wanted their collection of vintage glass bottles including in the window; two of which are embossed with the names of their respective hometowns and one from Sheffield where they had made their home. Jayne replicated the embossed sections in matching glass, thereby preserving the original keepsakes, and combined them with antique painted and pressed glass fragments. The composition was completed with wine bottle bottoms and ribbed bottle sections to add tactile and quirky elements to the design.
For further information see jaynefordglassdesign.co.uk
The Worshipful Company of Glaziers and the Stevens Competition
The Worshipful Company of Glaziers first appears in written records in 1364-65 during the reign of Edward III, when the emphasis was on the protection of the personal economic welfare of Glaziers. However, in recent times the focus has shifted to the preservation of the heritage of stained glass and to the support of education in architectural glass art, design and conservation.
In 1932 the Company launched an annual competition for young artists, which from 1972 operated under the banner of the Stevens Competition. The competition provided an opportunity for aspiring architectural glass artists, designers, and craftsmen to compete in a format which simulated the process typically undertaken in order to obtain a commercial commission.