Adélie Payen has drawn for as long as she can remember.
It has helped, she says, being the daughter of two architects – she grew up in an environment where technical drawings were commonly strewn on tables and desks.
From a young age, her mother encouraged her to look critically at buildings and practise her drawing style. Unlike her parents, however, the 33-year-old carved out a career as a vitrailliste, a stained-glass artist.
“It was something I had always been interested in,” she explained, “but I wondered whether my hands would be any good at it. You have to be good at cutting glass, at precision and at painting.”
Heritage craft
In 2009 she applied for a stained-glass course at Ensaama, Olivier de Serres, Paris – one of France’s most prestigious decorative arts schools.
“I wanted to learn a skill and working with stained glass has heritage, a savoir-faire, something you cannot learn through observation only. You cannot be self-taught because there are specific movements.”
She went on to study stained-glass restoration at the Sorbonne, adding diplomas and prizes to her CV, both at home and abroad. Then, in 2021, she opened her own workshop in Lamontjoie (Lot-et-Garonne).
It is in this tiny 28m2 space that the magic happens.
Ms Payen first draws out her designs on paper before making a tracé (outline) on glass.
Cutting the glass is the hardest aspect of her job, she said – a process that distinguishes a vitrailliste who is in tune with their tools, and one who is not.
The cut glass is then placed on a light table to be painted. Once stained, the glass spends around six hours in an oven reaching 630C. It takes one hour to reach the temperature, after which only five minutes are spent at maximum temperature. The rest of the time is spent cooling down to 0C.
After this it is on to the workbench, where the stained glass (vitrail) pieces are put into their positions and framed by lead, working in a clockwork direction from the bottom left.
These sections are then soldered together before the stained glass can be lifted and placed under a light source for the first time.
“This is the rewarding moment where you get to see your work – and what changes or corrections you have to make,” Ms Payen said.
Read more: The French craftsman making beautiful tiles for a Monaco landmark
Creative collaboration
Her own technique is an amalgamation of French and Scottish styles.
Ms Payen was offered a six-month internship in November 2011 at the Rainbow Glass Studio, a family-run stained glass firm in Prestwick, near Glasgow. She was the first French intern the company had ever hired and the six-month internship turned into a 10-month experience on-site, followed by an ongoing collaboration that lasted until August 2015.
“Adélie was an absolute pleasure to teach and work with. She was an incredibly fast learner and such a talented glass artist,” its director, Moira Malcolm, enthused.
Among the projects she worked on, Ms Payen designed and made a pair of etched glass door panels for the parish church in Anstruther.
The experience opened Ms Payen’s eyes to new techniques and ways of doing the job that she, as a French-trained vitrailliste, has retained to this day.
Her most significant take-away has been the way she cuts her glass.
“When we cut glass in France, as it has to be very precise, we cut out paper shapes – des calibres – which are placed on the glass and we cut around them. But the English don't use calibres and instead place their glass hammer on the line and cut through it, which is called coupe à l'anglaise.
“Mostly I cut in the English way. I save time because I don't have to make the calibres,” said Ms Payen.
“Another difference is that In France, we assemble directly on the wood, whereas the English tape the layout to the wood, which allows them to check as they go along that it's correct, and rectify it if it protrudes a little.”
There are differences, too, in the way stained glass artists are viewed in the UK. Ms Payen explained that French clients often ask vitraillistes to simply reproduce a design by a traditional painter or artist, whereas across the Channel, customers usually commission stained glass artists to come up with their own.
“We are still too much perceived as subordinates, but we are artists as well,” she said.
Ms Payen gave the example of John Kenneth Clark, who worked on the stained glass in Glasgow Cathedral, or Paul Lucky and Susan Bradbury, two Scottish artists she met and whose works appear at Hyndland Parish Church in Glasgow, at St Giles’ cathedral in Edinburgh and St Magnus cathedral in Kirkwall.
Read more: Scottish organisation dedicated to alliance with France
Winning awards
She has, however, been slowly carving a name for herself in the business.
She won the Coup de cœur award in the Concours Parcours Métiers d’Art – Grand-Est for her piece En Chemin, depicting a child learning to walk.
She was also one of the 101 laureates of the 2024 edition of the Concours 101 femmes entrepreneures, an award organised by France’s prime minister to put the work of 101 women under the spotlight.
Her style borrows from the contemporary, figurative and Art Deco movements and is very much inspired by plants. She has a particular interest in trees and seaweeds, she said.
A growing number of clients ask for her to come up with original designs and her work is permanently exhibited at the galerie d’art GAAMA, at the Moulin des Tours de Nérac in Barbaste (Lot-et-Garonne).
Stained glass courses from CAP to Bac +5 are available throughout the French education system, from the very artistic-centred Ensaama to other courses centred on mastering the craft in itself with more of a Meilleur Ouvrier de France (MOF) mentality.
