~ St Andrews Front Door ~

In 2021, during the pandemic, I was asked to design a series of three interwoven panels to enhance the front doorway of a newly restored private residence in St Andrews, Fife.

The client wanted an eclectic list of “must haves” incorporated within the design:

• It had to feel authentically “Charles Rennie Mackintosh”, but not a direct copy of any existing work, and not a pastiche. Many of the details are based on existing CRM glasswork which I have worked on, others are from lost works which only now exist in photographs, yet to be re-made in the future.
• The overall inner design should be shaped, with a flatter bottom and a pointed top, resembling that of a garlic or an onion, referencing the panels which I helped make in the House for an Art Lover in 1997.
• It had to include: a golf ball, thistles, and gorse.
• It had to be made of exquisite hand made glass, textured and richly coloured, using the same colour palette used by Mackintosh.

Shortly after the design was started, I changed career, as work during and after the Pandemic had all but dried up. I re-trained as an Ambulance Technician within the Scottish Ambulance Service, which took over a year. The whole project was put on hold until I could complete my training.

Thankfully the clients were extremely understanding, and patient. As soon as my training was completed, I worked in the Ambulance Service by day and night, and in my spare time I cut, leaded and finished the three panels. I am delighted with the end result and enormously grateful for their faith in me.

I’m also really enjoying my new career in the Ambulance Service, which has a lot of transferrable skills.