The turn-of-the-century reverse-glass craft behind the cover of John Mayer’s Born and Raised is a lost art. David Smith, the traditional sign writer, embosser and glass gilder who created the work, won the assignment after the American musician had tried for a year to find a source for the ornamental hand-lettering style he had in mind.
“You can’t see it and not want to bring it closer to your eye and investigate,” Mayer says on this behind-the-scenes documentary, produced by filmmaker Danny Cooke. (See end of post)
Smith, based in England, is one of few artisans specializing in the hand crafted reverse glass signs and decorative silvered and gilded mirrors that inspired Born and Raised, and led to a commission for the single Queen of California.
Mayer wanted certain elements – coins, clocks, people’s faces that were significant to his life – for Born and Raised. These were hand rendered at large scale, as were initial sketches of the overall concept. Then each individual element was scanned, a vectoring process that is time consuming but extremely rewarding, Smith says.
The design is then either hand painted or screen printed backwards onto glass. Acid etching – known as French embossing, dating back to the 17th century – causes corrosion and eats away the glass. The printed artwork is cut using stone wheels, and sandblasted.
The glass is placed in a kiln for up to 24 hours until the correct curvature is formed – he experiments at this stage to ensure the correct degree of bending occurs. For Born and Raised, Smith applied 24 karat gold leaf to the acid etched lettering to give it a bright, mirror gilded finish for a sense of opulence.
The Making of John Mayer’s ‘Born & Raised’ Artwork from Danny Cooke on Vimeo.
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Another place to live, thanks for this talent that is so diversified.
Thank you for stopping by, especially since this is one of my personal favorite posts.
just mind blowing.
So true, right?
Reblogged this on divya yogini and commented:
I love this video of the artwork of John Mayers latest album. Got so inspired, it’s amazing to see how talented people can be just listening to the thoughts of shape from another person. Love this!
Thanks for the re-blog, appreciated
Art & Craft together – let’s just hope he gets more commissions and more exposure, so his art might be passed on later!
I know what you mean. I noticed a lot of coverage due to the Mayer cover, so perhaps that’s exactly what will happen.
Inspiring. Such detail.
A mighty craft, which I had never really understood before.
The video ia amazing! I loved watching his complete process. Complex and fascinating!
Yes, truly an artisan.
wow that seems like a lot of work.
But really beautiful!
I agree. The sequence of steps required to produce the final artwork is mind-boggling.
Holy Gorgeous!!!
I’m with you there. Would love to see the original of the album art.
Reblogged this on O LADO ESCURO DA LUA.
Thank you for the re-blog, appreciated.
Abraços do meu país: Brasil. Boa semana!