CHRIST YOU KNOW IT AIN’T EASY.

The title is taken from the lyrics of “The Ballad of John and Yoko” by the Beatles. As Mr Lennon is one of my heroes thought it appropriate. Especially if I’m going to be discussing images of Christ. I think many people will be familiar with the image of Christ on the cross. It has been reproduced in many formats and in every style imaginable for hundreds of years. I have seen many made from glass and made a few different versions myself.

The first time I saw a glass sculpture of Christ on the cross was by a scientific glassblower called Alex Stuart. He worked at Birmingham University and won an award for his depiction of a sandblasted glass figure on a cross which was made from two glass nails arranged neatly in a cross shape. Clever I thought but of course I can’t copy that. I had to come up with my own ideas.

Making a cross shape for glass rod is dead easy as is making the same with glass tubing. Making a figure in the shape that resembles a person on a cross is easy too. The tricky bit is to fuse the glass figure to the glass cross without distorting any features. One way is to sculpt the figure from molten glass which is already fused to the cross. There are a few details to address. Chiefly these revolve around the loincloth and front upper body. For example, should I include a tummy button or not? How low is the loincloth? To make a clear glass loincloth onto clear glass legs is pointless as the loincloth would just disappear and the Christlike figure would appear as if he had two huge growths on his hips! Not very respectful.

Its handy that the hands or is it wrists are nailed to the cross as these can be reproduced in glass and used as fixed points securing the figure onto other glass rods. Similar process with the feet but here the feet are together so it one or two nails? I know lots of people would do research on the subject and I am afraid to say that I don’t. I just see images and make up my own mind. If I can’t work, it out then I just go with the flow. Sandblasting the loin cloth to make it white seemed they right way to go as I have yet to see Christ in bright yellow lycra!

Sandblasting is the craft of using an abrasive such as carborundum which is blasted at glass via a compressed air gun. Key to getting a good finish is masking off all the areas which one doesn’t want to be white. Probably using white glass would give a better effect but it would also make Christ seem he’s just been ejected out of a washing machine! Nowadays I would use this latter method since I have no sandblasting machine and its sooooooooo messy, noisy and time consuming.

I have until now neglected the head of Christs and should I give him blue or yellow eyes or indeed just clear glass eyes? The whole image of Christ on the cross as an art form is meant to be subtle so anything looking like Micky Mouse or equivalent would be perceived as totally out of place. I tend to just give an impression of eyes by heating a small area of glass and marking the surface using tweezers. The crown is easy as I just make a big head and heat the forehead to squash and shape the crown. Luckily for me as the creator the usual appearance is with the head sunk down so away from the cross which enables me to work around the back of the head to finish the crown.

As the image of Christ on the cross is so common which may mean popular then to tamper with the visuals seem totally inappropriate. Yet I am dying to make a cross then fix a figure on it but lightly out of alignment. Not sure why but it would amuse me and if no one sees it where’s the harm? I did a sculpture of a Christlike figure in the position as if he was on the cross but didn’t make a cross. He also didn’t have a head. Instead, I made an open book and fixed this to his neck. The title of the work was or is (have yet to sell it!) “Jesus is on Facebook and Facebook is on Jesus. Doing a search on that popular of popular social media sites made me realise there are lots of Jesus around!
My real gem of translating the image of Christ on the cross is an installation I completed in the year 200 inside St Annes RC Church in Thurso. Its my local and the priest at the time asked me to make a Christ figure in glass to be hung at one end of the church against large windows where the frames form a natural cross shape. I was nervous that the glass would break and fall on members of the congregation so decided to get a frame made from metal to depict Christ. Inside this frame I fixed glass tubing. The crown was made from glass parts shaped like sea gull wings. Glass tubing was painted blue to represent sea and sky, yellow to represent sand on beaches and green to represent grass in fields. All held together with fishing line. All very symbolic and it’s still standing.