JO BIRRELL

JO BIRRELL

Jo Birrell, in common with many other Guild members, had more than one career. Her student days were spent at Edinburgh College of Art, gaining a D.A (Design) and as a post-graduate she specialised in Theatre and Textile Design. 

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The college had a fine glass decorating department and it was here that Harold Gorden, then also a student at the college, introduced Jo to the art of glass engraving. However, it was a short flirtation; her serious courtship with glass came in 1971 when she enrolled at Morely College, London.

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In the late 1960s Morely College asked Mary Stevens to start an evening glass engraving class. This was followed by a day class under Warwick Hutton using the flexible drive technique to decorate panels. Jo benefited from her stay at Morely with the help of five tutors and realised her glass engraving ambition after bringing up her family.

Jo's engravings show the influence of her training as a theatre designer and this can be observed in her minstrels, clowns, dancing children and ceremonial processions. They are also characterised in the flow of the design; the precision with which figures are placed and meticulously executed in a harmonious group has a crisp contour that does not lose her individual brush-like quality. Above all, Jo never fell inot the trap of overworking the engraving and this is reflected in her vigour, wit and sense of humour; one cannot but smile at the medieval instrumentalists' posture and facial expressions, truly charming miniatures, yet she could engrave with equal ease and assurance glass panels of almost mural dimensions. One of her last commissions  were the six panels for the Royal Box at Epsom racecourse commissioned by the Queen Mother.

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In her comparatively short career as a glass engraver, Jo Birrell's search and fulfilment of her creative need has left a legacy from which glass engravers will benefit for a long time. It is this individual approach to a traditional craft, also seen in a number of Guild members, that has played an important part in the revival and reputation of glass engraving in Britain today. 

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Jo Birrell F.G.G died on the 12th November 1983 after a long and distressing illness. The Guild of Glass Engravers has lost a highly individual artist-craftswoman and an affectionate friend to so many.