TELEPHONE:
ADDRESS:
Calle el Gomero, 60 – 38280 Tegueste
ACTIVITY
Decovitral is a traditional workshop in Tegueste, in the north-east of the island of Tenerife. Its main figure is Francisco Javier Delgado Afonso, who in the last 15 years has specialised in the Tiffany, fusing and lead-came techniques, among others. After starting out in industrial… glass at the age of just 17, his creativity, wide experience and desire to excel led him to set up his own artistic glass workshop in 2005.
He is now a standard-setter in artisan glasswork in the Canary Islands, and in recent years he has given technical advice to the Tenerife Island Council on its programme for certifying new craft glaziers, periodically helping to examine applicants for artisan’s licences. Stylish designs, professionalism and good customer relations are the hallmarks of his work, and have led him to form some interesting partnerships with architects and designers.
TRAINING
Fran Delgado trained as a draftsman and woodworker. At the age of 17 he entered the field of glass by working for 9 years as a glazier. Over his career he has explored the great artistic possibilities offered by coloured glass, experimenting continually in a… self-prompted way. In 2002 he entered a partnership with an Austrian master glazier with whom he did many joint projects in what was his first workshop. In July 2005 he set up Decovitral: a laboratory where, as he says, as in alchemy, dreams are turned into glass.
Specialist courses:
– Glass decoration techniques, given by Eduardo Nieto, master glazier at Bohle Maquimetal (Madrid, 2006)
– Fusing, Advanced Level I, with Vicente Ugeda Calabuig and Santiago Hernández Osa, VIDRIARTE (Alicante, 2009 & 2011)
– Enamels and grisaille, with Fabio Pizzol of STUDIO PIZZOL-ITALIA, Pepe Ríos (Córdoba, 2010)
TEACHING
He has given lectures at events such as the Craft and Design Workshops held by the Tenerife Institute of Architects.
SELECTED WORK
He has a long track record of projects, notably including those performed at the iconic House of Sixto Machado (headquarters of the Círculo de Amistad XII de Enero society in Santa Cruz de Tenerife) or for the Dioceses of San Cristóbal de La Laguna, as… well as many stained-glass restorations in hotels and churches and stained windows and skylights made for private clients and reputed restaurants such as Silbo Gomero or Sorgin Gorri in Tenerife.
