PAGANUS: Stories in stained glass

I wanted to make the stained glass windows from see-through packaging. The designs are taken from various real life windows that I have photographed in churches I've visited or that I've found photos of online. I then scale down the photograph on a computer to the appropriate size for the window aperture, and then trace the design onto the packaging with Sharpies. I wondered about just colour printing the image but doing it by hand was more fun, and also allowed me to change the colour scheme from the original, and to draw the background designs freehand.

I'm still not sure about the result: the colours of the Sharpies are limited, even considering that I sometimes mix the colours, either like paint on the packaging surface, or by colouring each side with a different colour. I am also not sure whether the pinks and purples are too modern for a Victorian chapel. But I don't really want to remake every window as it is quite a time-consuming process. Any thoughts? Many of the photos below were taken before I had finished all the stained glass, but I've included them to show the process.

I wanted the design to be Christian on the surface, but hiding a secret code. The left hand window represents the Heavens, with angels on a starry sky background - Archangels Raphael, Michael and Gabriel in the main three windows. 

The right hand window with its green leafy background represents the Earthly domain, specifically England, with King Arthur, St George and Joseph of Arimathea in the main three windows, suggesting a secret Grail code. 

The central window has an androgynous St John in the centre, "the disciple whom Jesus loved," thought by some to represent Mary Magdalene in Da Vinci's famous Last Supper. To his/her left is St Christopher who "bears" Christ, and to the right is St Margaret, patron saint of childbirth. Above them will be Gabriel coming from heaven (on the left) to tell Mary she will bear the Christ-child, next to the risen Christ appearing in the garden (on the right) to Mary Magdalene, below the Holy Grail in the topmost window. Any ideas what secret code this window is trying to suggest? It's very derivative from the Da Vinci Code I know...

Each of the three windows has a dragon, slain or tamed by St Michael, St Margaret and St George. The upper scenes in the Earth window also show serpents: the snake tempting Eve in the Garden of Eden, and Moses rebuking the Israelites for worshipping the Bronze Serpent (with a child being compared to it as Christ is the alternative). 

If the secret message of the central window is that Mary Magdalene bore Christ's child (like the serpent arising from the chalice of St John in the centre), then the Earth window suggests that her serpent child came to Britain, and headed a lineage of dragons, the Pendragons, whose most famous King was Arthur. Joseph of Arimathea on the far right looks suspiciously like Merlin, and, with Glastonbury Tor in the background, he guards the San Greal itself.