The Interview Series: Hywel Harris, CorelDRAW user & Beta Tester, runs his own company, Lady Bay Art Glass, with partner Michelene Harris, in Nottingham, England
My Interview series now continue with Hywel Harris. Hywel runs his own company, Lady Bay Art Glass, with partner Michelene Harris, in Nottingham, England. I interview people I have come to know through Corel forums, and who are fellow beta testers of and fellow CorelDRAW Graphics Suite users. And some of us have met in real life.
Your Name:
Website:
www.ladybayartglass.co.uk
Style & type of work you produce?
We design and make traditional stained glass leaded lights for doors and windows. We specialise in recreating designs for period houses from the Victorian era through to the Second World War.
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You like myself is a user of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite. What was it that made you discover, and drew you to CorelDRAW Graphics Suite?
Before I set up my company, where I worked previously, I was able to try out a number of drawing apps including Freehand, Harvard Graphics, Illustrator, and a few others. It was very obvious to me at the time that Draw was much better suited to the semi-technical type illustrations that I needed.
What year was it?
Which Programs do you use, Corel and none-Corel programs?
I use Photoshop, ThumbsPlus, Dreamweaver (I built and manage my own website), Open Office,
Do you use any analog tools in conjuntion with your work?
Yes loads, hammers (very analogue !) glass cutters, grinders, you get the idea…
Which year was it you started your business, your work?
1993
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Would you recomend CorelDRAW Graphics Suite?
Yes I would. I find it very easy to get along with for my sort of work. It is very precise and easy to be so. For me the ability to have many levels of guidelines for setting out a design is unsurpassed, and quick and easy to setup as well. Other tools like clones are invaluable when doing a drawing that has symmetry. Other apps are much more time consuming, both because they don’t have the tools or they make them difficult to use. CorelDraw is especially good at allowing the user to customise the UI so that tools are only a click away.
I have always had an interest in old houses and have done a lot of work restoring ours. One aspect of English period building from about 1880 to 1940 was that a huge amount of decorative glass work was incorporated into the fabric of even the most modest of houses. When I was made redundant in 1993 (I used to be a mining engineer) I could see that there was no one who specialised in domestic period glass design, and in our area there are thousands of houses that have or had decorative glass when they were built. Others were able to do repairs, design ecclesiastical stained glass, but no one had a big portfolio of domestic designs. I set about photographing all the original examples for miles around and from that developed an eye for period detail and layout.
In an interview in the Digital Artist Magazine, who interviewed me a few years back, I was asked what I would like to see in future versions of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite. Is there anything you would like to see?
Coffee. Tea in the afternoon.
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When I started I was using an A3 pen plotter and sticking pieces of paper together but I now have two HP Designjets which are 15 years old but still going strong. The business side of things has changed little.
Really nice to hear from someone who uses CorelDRAW for work on glass. Shows the broad user base no doubt.
