A Day in the Life of a Stained Glass Conservation Student

     Today was an excellent day in my glass world. First thing this morning in my Stained Glass Conservation and History class my partners and I gave a presentation to the group on our experiment  using an ancient text as an instruction manual on breaking glass with a hot poker and grozing the pieces to fit using old fashioned tools. Our power point presentation went very well and was well recieved by the head of our course.
     After a lunch break and making a few more appointments to see properties, we went back into the workroom for Basic Glass Handling and Conservation, which is the hands on part of the course. Our class today was led by the head of the York Glaziers Trust, whose main task is to conserve the Medieval glass in York Minster. The first half of the class was a lecture/discussion on how and why to document the process of conserving any stained/painted glass window. It was very interesting, because he brought along copies of a series of historic documents showing the documentation of a particular window begining in the 1600's and progressing up to the present conservation of the window.
     The more exciting half of the class came in the second half, when we were asked to inspect and assess various pieces of glass, the majority of which were between 600-800 years old! We had some basic instruction on photographing the glass in situ or on a light box, which can be very tricky due to the lighting, and then we all went round looking at each others sets of glass to see various types of problems that arise in glass over the course of its 800 year old life. Its very surprisng how some of it looked almost new, while other pieces were so coroded, they were as thin as tissue paper.So that is a day in the life of a Stained Glass Conservation student.
      I hope you have a good weekend! I'm meeting up with my Auntie Mary tomorrow morning, and will have a brief respit from the hostel tomorrow night, as I will be sleeping in Skipton!

Home Sweet Home?

     Well sorry to say, I am still in the hostel. As nice as it is by hostel standards, I would much prefer to be in my own house by now. Its a frustrating system over here. They don't have what we call the muliple list system, so for every house you want to see, you have to go to the individual agent who has it listed. Things also go very quickly, so if you see it on their website or with a sign hanging out front, it's already been rented. To make a long story short, I think I found the place this morning. I have to do the paperwork on Thursday and hope to move in on Friday or Saturday. The houses here are quite small by American standards, but this one does have 2 bedrooms, a dining area and sitting room, AND most importantly a washer and drier! (Its surprising how many times you can wear a pair of pants/jeans when you have too!).
    On a better note I had a lovely weekend getaway at my Auntie Pat's house. She lives in a town called Bingley, which is about an hour away in the car, but on the train only takes about 35 minutes. She invited Auntie Lyn,  Uncle Dave, Uncle Hugh, and his friend Marcia over for dinner, so it was a little reunion of sorts. I stayed over and had my first good nights sleep in 4 days. (The disco behind the hostel is only closed on Mondays) It was so awesome!
     In the morning we went to my first "car boot sale". Think garage sale on wheels. Everyone pulls into a parking lot with all their junk to sell in the boot (trunk) of their car. I picked up my first Toby Jug, a tea pot commemorating the Queen's Golden Jubilee, and some York Minster coasters. I am such a tourist! 

My First Days in York

     I arrived in York on Sunday, and was met at the train station by my Auntie Linda, which was a lovely way to be welcomed to my new city. After a walk through town and a nice lunch, she left me to get settled at the Ace Hostel. The Ace is a great place in the center of town, housed in a newly renovated Georgian building, with lots of amenities. I thought I might not like sharing a room with 10 strangers, but so far there has only been one or two other people (all women, by design) in the room. It is a bit strange, especially sharing a tiny bathroom, but everyone is very nice and considerate. All but one of my roommates has been from Asia and traveling around Great Britain on their own.
     Monday started with a meeting to review the course with Sarah Brown, the course Director, who was most apologetic for her fellow countrymen at the visa office. Apparently there have been a lot of recent changes in the law, to the extent that one of the course professors has not been able to come from India, where he is part of the team working to conserve the Taj Mahal. I definitely feel that I am in lofty company, as most of the professors share similar distinctions! Monday ended with presentations by all of the 2nd year students, detailing their summer workshop placements and experience; they inlcuded placements in Germany, Scotland, York, Canterbury, and MOMA in New York City.
     I won't bore you with the details of running around doing administrative things, but there have been a lot. Tomorrow should see me with a bank account and cel phone at long last, and I hope to see several rental properties before the day is over.
     Today was the busiest and most exciting day by far. I have been grouped together with 2 other students. Our task was to read several texts from the 1400s, which gave instruction on how to make stained glass windows during those times. Most were written by monks or other clergy, and included glass making, cutting, painting, etc. After reading the texts we had to try to reproduce the results using one of the texts as a guide. So I spent most of the morning and then the afternoon, creating a chalk-covered board on which we drew our design with a piece of lead, and then trying to cut a piece of glass using a RED HOT POKER! The chalk board was easy, but it took us about 4 hours to cut one piece of glass! It was a lot of fun!
     In the middle of the day we had a lecture by Dr. Peter Gouldsborough on the Philosophy of Conservation, which was very interesting and thought provoking, but not as much fun as playing with a red hot poker! and with that thought I will say Good night!

A Begining of Sorts

I'll start by bringing you up to speed on my final days in America, as many of you won't know how things "turned out". Without belaboring the point too much, I finally obtained my student visa by taking the train from Wilmington, up to New York City, on the day before I was due to leave. After letting my file sit on his desk for 6 days untouched, the visa officer couldn't possibly overnight the visa/passport back to me to arrive on a Saturday, even if I paid for and included the prepaid UPS envelope, when I mailed the passport to him. He did not mind if I wanted to bring it in myself and wait for him to place the sticker in my passport. Needless to say, this did put a strain on my packing schedule, but I did finally get the visa! The funniest part of the whole story was that when I did turn up in New York at the visa office, the officer handling my case had called in sick! I can't imagine why! It's a good thing I am tenacious.