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Devon Open Studios 2021

September 11th sees the start of Devon Open Studios 2021 and I am so pleased to be exhibiting at Words and Pictures Gallery again this year, with old friend and amazing mosaic artist Michelle Greenwood Brown.
We will be working on commissions and generally being artists at the gallery until 20th September, please come and see us. Teignmouth has lots of great artist venues, so you can make a real day trip of visiting our other artist friends and we will be happy to direct you to where they all are too.

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A symbolic pool room door, to celebrate a 60th Birthday

bee, stained glass, commission

Stained glass has always been filled with symbolism and used to commemorate special dates, contemporary glass is no different. I made this large panel for local friends. This design highlights all of the birthday girls favourite things, her dog, beekeeping, the sea and the moors that are our local environment. This piece has been sandwiched into a double glazed unit and is the big feature in their pool room and is the top half of their external door.

I have used traditional kiln fired enamels and lustre to make this piece and I am glad to say the birthday surprise was very well received.

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Apple’s for Apple Tree Cottage

I made this lovely pair of panels for the transom lights over an old cob cottage in Devon.

Designed to fit with the name these were great fun to paint and make up into stained glass windows. I love the contrast of the rosy apples against the sky blue glass and they are now in their forever home above the front door.

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2 seaside stained glass panels for an Exmouth home

I made these 2 new versions of my existing designs for a lovely family home in another local seaside town.

The customers really liked some old designs of mine, so I was happy to adapt them to the window sizes of their home, which they are renovating and giving a strong seaside theme. They were thrilled with the results and these jolly pieces are now in their forever home.

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Swallows and Fossils, a kiln formed panel

This was a fun panel to make! It was commissioned by a couple with a Georgian house and instead of replacing their transom light above the front door with a traditional leaded light they wanted to add a contemporary touch to their home. Glass is great for blending contemporary design into a period home as it can be a contemporary design but as it is such an traditional material it never seems to jar.

The theme was swallows and fossils and the clients wanted a real sense of movement. I hope I have captured this and everyone was pleased with the installation

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A special stained glass birthday present for a fisherman

I made this vibrant free standing panel as a special birthday gift for a Yorkshire fisherman. These are his boats ‘Danish Beauties’ as he calls them and I designed the piece from photographs from the customer. I was then shipped up North in time for the special day.

The sky is formed from fused glass melted in my kin and the details are in kiln fired enamels and the whole piece is leaded together using traditional leading techniques and now hangs in his office window.

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Teignmouth Lighthouse Stained Glass Panel

This fabulous piece is of my home town’s iconic lighthouse and it is in a 1930s house in Teignmouth. The customers had several details they wanted included in the piece and you can see a small silloutte of them kyaking in the sea if you look closely. This is another piece that went into a double glazed panel and I work with a local company who sandwich these into sealed double glazed units for me. When I did a site visit I alerted the customers to the fact their wooden window frame was very rotten, so they got this replaced at the same time.

The panel is made with traditional leading techniques and all the details are fired onto the glass in my kiln.

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Myrtle Cottage stained glass door panel

This was a lovely commission of the tree the customers period cottage was named for.
This is a traditional leaded panel with kiln fired enamel details.
It has been sandwiched between the 2 layers of a double glazed panel which gives added security and insulation. I work with a great glazing company who do this for me regularly. The building regulations in the UK specify that doors should be made from toughened glass, so I am increasingly getting my work put into double glazed units and it does offer the best of both worlds, with the charm and authentic handmade crafting of my windows with all the positives of modern glass production.

The customers were really happy with the piece and say it has added lots of character to their home.

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Elegant windows for an Edwardian Town House.

I realized today that I have not updated my blog for a very long time! Which is a shame as I have had a busy year. The new year started with this 11 window installation in a local seaside town. There are many beautiful Edwardian town houses in Torquay and this customer had a lovely entrance hall just crying out for its stained glass to be reinstated.

I created a design based on a vintage pattern from 1903, with elements of a window they had seen in a magazine.
The resulting installation really gives their home the wow factor they were hoping for.

The slight ripples and bubbles of the cathedral glass are great for obscuring the residents and adding privacy subtly and the light blue and green allow for great light transmission.

  • 11 leaded lights for an Edwardian town house.
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Gothic arch stained glass doors for a converted chapel on Dartmoor.

I have been working on these doors for a converted chapel on the edge of Dartmoor since October and finally we got them installed this week. The site is full of character and has the most amazing original stained glass from when the building was a working place of worship.
The customers wanted something much more modern and secular to fit into the doors between the living room and the kitchen and I created a loose Dartmoor scene leading up to Hounds Tor. As you get closer to the glass smaller details become apparent and there are lots of trees, butterflies and even a tiny hawk hovering in the sky. I have added some acid etching and small areas of lustre.

The biggest challenge with these windows is the fact they are so big. at 213cm tall they are considerably bigger than me. I used rigid zinc came for all the straight lines to keep the weight of the panels to a minimum and to give added strength and finer lead lines for the pattern. A good template is the basis of all stained glass and thankfully the