“the deeper you cut, the more it stands out”

A GLASS ENGRAVER

WHEN I was young, I was always drawing things, and I wanted to go to Edinburgh College of Art to study Fine Art.

My teachers were very encouraging, so when I didn’t get in it was a blow.

Instead, I went to university to do Archaeology and Celtic Studies.

Then I went on holiday to Forres in Moray.

It was a wet day and there was an article in the local paper about an open studio, so we wandered in.

There was a lovely man called Harold Gordon – a glass engraver – working there.

I showed him some drawings I’d been doing on holiday.

“These would be really good in glass,” he said. “You should come and work with me for the summer.”

When I returned to Edinburgh after working with him, I was hooked!

I remember going to see my professor of Celtic Studies for my post-degree interview and her asking what I was going to do.

“Well, Professor Jackson,” I said, “I think I’m going to be a glass engraver!”

Glass is a wonderful medium to work in. It’s almost jewel like.

There’s a contrasting character of transparency.

It can be opaque or it can be mirrored; you can use it bigger or use it small; it can be a window or a door.

I do about 50% exhibition work, which is my own ideas that I come up with, and 50% commissions.

My average day depends on whether it’s a specific commission I’m doing or an idea that’s simmering away in my head.

I do a lot of drawing. That’s what you do before you even look at the glass.

Then sometimes the glass tells you what to do as you work.

You can take things a bit further than you intended, so you have to be sure of what you’re doing as the glass is very expensive.

The actual engraving is a very slow process and it’s quite meditative.

You’re focusing, concentrating very much on the glass – it’s in your hands the whole time.

The deeper you cut, the more it stands out. We call it intaglio engraving.

I’m happy to sit there all day. I put on Radio 4. I like speech radio as there’s something stimulating for the brain there!

I’ve worked in the same building for 47 years.

My late husband and I converted this Victorian church, which was built in 1832, into studios, and it became our home as well.

I use it as an exhibition venue during the Edinb