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Glass Letter Cutting

This is the cutting out of glass letters, and includes the selection of the glass, and cutting, bevelling, and polishing. This is the most skilled branch for men and the best paid. The forms of letters are drawn on a sheet of paper; the apprentice has squares of glass which he places over the drawn letters and traces the shapes on to the glass. The form of the letters having been traced on to the surface of the glass, the squares are sent into another department to be gilded by girls; this done, they are returned to be cut into shape by a skilled workman. This part of the work requires great skill and care. The letters when shaped are passed on to men to be smoothed, rouged if necessary, bevelled, and polished. The smoothers, bevellers, and polishers, all sit at tubs containing water, and do their work by dipping the part on which they are working into water and holding it against a revolving wheel.

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Her poems were written on glass, were glass.
She hung them in windows and waited for the light
to catch their bevelled edges, to catch faces looking in
but the sun was too pale and people walked by.

He was drawn to her poems, she thought,
an apprentice to her thoughts.
He looked through her and felt the edges of her words -
transparent, almost without a shadow.
His fingers rehearsed every curve
before he set about his work.

Faces turned as the sun shone orange
on the gold of her poems.
He smiled back and took the poet's hand.