Introducing: Janet Rogers and Crushed Chilli Gallery

 Janet Rogers is an award-winning glass artist working in kiln fused, leaded stained glass and Pate de Verre. In her own words, '[her] work combines traditional craftsmen's techniques with bold modern designs to produce vibrant works with a contemporary feel'. She is based in the 'Crushed Chilli Gallery' in the centre of Durham City, which also hosts exhibitions and workshops. Amana caught up with her about her practice, including designing and producing commissions for domestic and commercial projects around the UK, running workshops with local school children, and exhibiting and selling a range of artists' work in her studio and gallery, 'Crushed Chilli'. 

Crushed Chilli Gallery, photos taken by Amana Moore (abiding by government Covid guidelines)

Amana Moore: Let's start with an introduction. Who are you, and where do you come from? 

Janet Rogers: My name is Janet Rogers, and I was born in Gateshead, which is about 15 miles away from here. I left school at 16 with not a very good education. I could type - did only shorthand. So, I went to work in an office which supplied film and television with editing equipment and things. So, if you were doing film and television in a university, for example, I would supply the cameras in the editing suites and show people how to use it. 

I did that for 25 years and then started my own company selling televisions to bookmakers. So if you went into a Corals or a Ladbrokes or a William Hill, we put the big screens in all the switching TVs. I did that for 10 years and then sold it to a PLC, so I was quite lucky! After that, I was still fairly young to stop working.

Janet talks about how she had always loved the arts but had never had the opportunity to study them. When her and her husband bought a house and started renovating it, she wanted a stained glass window but it was expensive to commission one, so she thought she would have a go herself...

So I bought the glass and I bought a cutter, and I just had a practice. All the first ones I did were really rubbish, but then I made my own front door window and that was it from then on... I was probably about forty-five, and I’d just started a new career.

"I made my own front door window and then that was it from then on... I was probably about forty-five, and I’d just started a new career."

Did you come from a family with creative parents?

They’re not particularly creative but they were both capable of making things. My dad's a joiner, so he’s good with his hands, and my mum used to make workman's gloves… but it was never painting or anything like that. 

It's quite a big transition, from audio-visual tech to doing glass work. How did you find that? Was there cross-over?

I think I used a lot of my business skills – I know how to price jobs, how to price your time, to keep records, which perhaps sometimes artists don’t have straight away. These are things I think they should teach more at university, because they teach you about the theory of doing art but when you get to the end you think: how am I going to make money out of this? It’s important, because you have to eat! 

"at university [...] they teach you about the theory of doing art but when you get to the end you think: how am I going to make money out of this? It’s important, because you have to eat!"

What did you use as a studio space when you started out?

I started by working from home in the greenhouse, and then I worked in the back of an engineering company in Spennymoor, and then this place came up for sale. 

The studio, which is named ‘Crushed Chilli Gallery’ is a beautiful space, full of light that brings the glass pieces to life. It is situated besides St Margaret's Church, just off Crossgate in Durham City. 

Why did you call the gallery 'Crushed Chilli'? 

I can’t spell. I’m a really bad speller. I was making he website and I was sitting in the kitchen and there was a jar of crushed chilli on the side, so I thought “I’m going to call it that.” I should change the story but when the kids from school come for the workshops, I think I should probably tell the truth! 

"I was sitting in the kitchen and there was a jar of crushed chilli on the side, so I thought “I’m going to call it that.”"

It's a lovely space. Do you know what it was before you had it?

When I bought it, it was St Margaret’s Church hall, but it’s been a lot of things: an electric substation, a Jehovah's Witness hall, and the church used it as a nursery, I think. I’ve now been here for 10 years. 

Yes, space is really important. Do the university students use this space much, for your workshops? 

I am gradually starting to get more and more students coming in, but Durham University especially don’t have a dedicated same space for art. You’ve got the art society and other groups but you haven’t got an art block where you can go and paint.

It doesn't have to be massive, and you don’t have to be really artistic, but art is good for your head. That’s where I’d like to aim this at, for it to be a place where you can make things... and have a coffee. 

Before Covid-19, Janet ran lots of workshops for different age groups, from nursery school age birthday parties, to school trips, to hen-dos. She is hoping to start these up again soon, after the restrictions ease. You can find more information about her workshops and commissions on her website, here.

Let's talk a bit more about your practice. How would you describe your process? 

All my work is fused glass, not glass blown in a furnace or anything.  You buy the glass in, you get clear glass and you get coloured glass and it comes in sheets, or in frit which you fire and slump into shapes, using bought shapes or shapes you can make out of clay. With fusing glass they all need to be the same coefficient of c.o.d.90 for them to work together. There are lots of different manufacturers of fusing glass which work at different GL efficiencies. You can never mix these different types because they will leave stress and fracture. 

Left: 'Bullseye Crackle Glass', Janet Rogers; Right: Pate de Verre, Janet Rogers, Crushed Chilli Gallery website

Pate de Verre is the oldest form of making glass. With Pate de Verre you make a plaster and silicone mould and then you pack it out with glass frit and glue and then this is fired. It doesn’t hold water or anything, it is purely decorative.

I did some Pate de Verre units for a Russian man in the South of France for his cast bronze light fittings. They did a 3D print out and I made casts of them, made them into Pate de Verre and then we put lights in them.

Do you do lot of work with light? 

I do a real range of things actually. I replaced Spennymoor’s town hall clockface, which was really high and very big, in Perspex. Spennymoor also have a glass dome which is made of 16 glass panels, which we took out, and replaced. That’ll be there for hundreds of years. I also did Durham School’s chapel and some dorm rooms.

It sounds like such a variety. How did you build up your network? 

When I first started, I did a fair bit of advertising in House and Country and I got some really high end customers there, but I didn’t particularly make much money from it because the advert itself was really expensive. But I did windows for Right Honourable Michael Portillo and for Paul Fryer, so I’ve been on their roofs, fitting their windows! But when you’ve been around for a while, people start to remember that you’re here and they come back. I get commissions from all over the UK. 

"I did windows for Right Honourable Michael Portillo and for Paul Fryer, so I’ve been on their roofs, fitting their windows!"

What’s your favourite piece that you’ve done? 

I did a one for an artist called Paul Fryer. He drew it and designed it and I did put some extra lines in for the window. It's two stretching electronic towers, which are pylons, in one of the Grand Design houses. And that was lovely, I really enjoyed doing that. 

It must have been fun, but challenging, working with another artist on a commission. How do commissions usually work? 

If I get a commission, I ask for the size first and then I can price it, so they can decide whether or not it's within their budget, or if they want to save up perhaps. If the price is right, I ask them for some ideas and pictures and then I do a drawing to scale of that size, because people tend not to understand scale – they’ll say they want a picture as landscape, but you literally can’t fit it into a landscape window. I then make a watercolour for them. Once they have approved it, I can start making. Sometimes, when it’s done, I also help install it, if it’s really big. 

Crushed Chilli Gallery, Amana Moore

"I’ll do my drawing - a black line because it’s the line for the lead. I draw with glass in mind because obviously glass will look very different."

How does the process of making it into a watercolour or a drawing work? Is it a case of simplifying the image? How do you go about visualising it? 

I’ll do my drawing, a black line because that’s the line for the lead. I have to draw with glass in mind because obviously glass will look very different.

Something that strikes me is that the lines are very decisive...

Yes, because you have to work with the glass: you have to consider whether the structure will hold, whether the pieces are too big. It needs a frame to hold it, but you also want it to visually knit together. 

Janet Rogers, Crushed Chilli Gallery website.

You obviously have a natural eye for colour. I'm so blown away by the fact that you taught yourself, and it’s cool that you started this later in your career…

I think I would have found it more difficult if I had this was starting from scratch, at 45. But, because I’d sold my other company, I had a bit of cash behind me, and obviously I'm married, so it's not like you're setting up nothing. I think what I’ve done is easier than if you were leaving the university and setting up alone. I'm not saying it's dead easy, but I've had it easier than others, you know.

It seems like glass as a practice is very versatile and you can do lots with it. Is it a medium which is quite experimental, where you make something and you’re not really sure how it will turn out, or do you plan it very meticulously?

Yes, I do a test I do tests because the glass is expensive, so if you did a huge bit and you just went for it would be a bit of a waste of money if it didn’t work, so it's best to get an idea. I think every business does, you always do a bit of planning.  

"It's amazing what you can get from glass even if you’re not artistic. It’s a lovely medium – easier than paint, I think."

So because there are boundaries, it seems that it's a medium that can be adapted for lots of different abilities. Would you say this is true of the workshops at 'Crushed Chilli'?

It's amazing what you can get from glass even if you’re not artistic. It’s a lovely medium – easier than paint, I think. 

"It's amazing what you can get from glass even if you’re not artistic."

And finally, who is your favourite artist?

Jean Cocteau designed an amazing town hall in Menton, France. It’s fabulous: he’s painted all the walls, there are big, red velvet chairs to sit in… it’s fantastic. He does line drawings and really bright pieces that you don’t always see so much of. 

If you would like to find out more about commissions, workshops or buying gifts from the gallery, please see the Crushed Chilli Gallery website by following this link. 

Interview led and edited by Amana Moore