Happy Festivities!

 Wishing all my customers and visitors Happy Festivities and hoping that 2025 brings a more peaceful world for all.

This free standing screen is a montage of London scenes and based on the work of Lionel Feininger. With all the textured clear glasses it has a sparkly winter feel!

Clear glasses absorb background colours providing an ever changing display. As light fades the mineral content of these glasses means that though they are all clear they have different tints!

David Meakin - owner / manager of The Stained Glass Shop, Wandsworth.

 I was very sad to hear the news from David’s partner Kathryn that David Meakin the owner / manager of The Stained Glass Shop in Wandsworth and later The Stained Glass House in Twickenham died a few years ago.

Back in 1998, having written to countless stained glass studios it was David who replied and took up my offer of a trade of skills – a website for stained glass training. I was no computer expert but back in those days a little knowledge could be an impressive thing and as the first website took shape I learnt the basics. I knew the second I walked in to that bustling, busy shop on the one way system that this was the right job for me and it was David who enabled that opportunity, as he did for many others, many of whom didn’t have relevant skills but were hard working and keen to learn.

David was a quirky individual and entertaining manager. He had an extensive repertoire of old time music hall songs which enabled him to let off steam at random times of the day, often related to what was happening in the shop! One of his favourites he liked to sing to me was ‘Lydia The Tattooed Lady’ changing Lydia to Delia! David was a published poet but he didn’t like to talk about his past lives (of which there seemed to be many) instead offering snippets of intriguing information and outbursts of poetry. One of his favourites if you had been taking too long on a job was ‘He also serves who stands and waits’! There was always music on in the shop either radio or CDs like The Dixie Chicks (now The Chicks) and The Gypsy Kings, to which David loved to click his fingers and ole to!

The shop could be a stressful place with a lot of pressure on deadlines, different personalities and tempers could fly. Now that I have been running my own business for over 20 years I have a lot more sympathy with the frustrations of managing a business and how stressful it can be keeping the show on the road. What I most remember about David is that when he really upset me and I picked up my tool box and marched out the shop, although I never got a full apology he worked through the night to make me a bench that I could return to the next day. I did really appreciate that and duly marched back in the following day with my toolbox!

David had a great curiosity for anything and everything and was always keen to learn new things, often quizzing customers on their particular areas of knowledge. In the shop there was a seemingly endless cupboard full of discarded gadgetry mainly cameras that were the next best thing (for a month or so!) and guitars of which David seemed to be a proficient player but who didn’t like to play to people offering again only snippets.

David had a sister Angela who he was very fond of who he had lost contact with. He often talked of getting in touch with her again but as far as I know this sadly never occurred.

David ran a highly respected and successful business that was used by architects, glaziers, religious institutions, the building trade, individuals and organisations in this country and abroad. He was a talented designer and was able to keep standards very high due to having good people working for him who kept on top of quality and trained new people. Many of the people that trained / worked in the shop went on to run their own successful businesses or make stained glass for pleasure, here are just a few of these people;

Jim and Natasha - https://www.peacocksstainedglass.co.uk/

Flora Jamieson - https://www.florajamieson.co.uk/

Nicky Greene – London Stained Glass Centre

Susie Parkes – maker of beautiful bespoke panels.

Kathryn Handscombe – glass painter.

Sergei Tchachenko – went on to work for Hardmans, later returned to the Ukraine.

Matt Reed - https://www.mattreedartist.com/selected-work

Alan Tyfa - https://www.facebook.com/alan.tyfa/

After leaving the shop to start my own business we kept in touch and David continued to refer work to me and to help with advice on complex jobs. I think about those times in the shop often and the highs and the lows and will miss him in the world.

David Meakin and Kathryn Handscombe.

Thames-Side Studios Makers Market Saturday 23rd November....

 Looking forward to the very first Thames-Side Studios, Makers Market. With 40 stalls, a wide range of crafts and FREE entry! On my stall will be a range of Xmas gifts including stained glass snowballs, ladders, sandblasted snowflakes and brilliant cut starbursts. More info can be found here;  <i>Makers' Market</i> | Thames-Side Studios , I look forward to seeing you there....

Post War Style

 After the Second World War many properties in London survived but bomb blasts in the locality would mean the houses were left without their original glass. A post war style came in that was elegant and cheerful and continues to be popular today. Below are 2 panels made for a glazing company, to be in keeping with the neighbours...

Neighbours design;

The design below is another popular one seen all over South East London...

These 2 panels were rescued from the skip by a glazier from a vicarage in Catford and subsequently rebuilt. They are available for sale, size head height 806mm x width 256mm.

They have a rare glass in the centres, cloudy Cotswold!

On Site Repairs

 These elegant panels had multiple cracks. Glasses were matched and replaced on site...

Art Deco Style

 You don't have to have a complicated design to add real flair and value to your home. These original panels were part of the whole external look of the house when it was designed and elements are often reflected in other features. These original panels had multiple cracks which were replaced on site to keep costs down. As an old glass stockist I often have replacements for discontinued glasses.

Inspired By William Morris

 Recently created this little panel for the Inspired By William Morris exhibition run by the The British Society of Master Glass Painters. The panel was a joint project with Peter Garretty with the painting by Peter and the concept and construction mine. Morris had many sides to his character but the side that inspires me the most is his awareness of the damage that mankind can do to the natural world but with an awe and respect for the power of nature to bounce back. The title of the panel 'Two Minute Warning' comes from American Football where 2 minutes towards the end of a game the clock stops and the players group together. It's a time for reflection and creating that final winning strategy before game over. It feels like we are at the two minute stage, we hear constantly about habitat loss and plant and wildlife dramatically reduced. So much land is paved over but there is much opportunity to change this in small ways at a local level, for example on driveways where so many are paved even a corner of plants or a few pots of flowers can make a massive difference to whether wildlife survives. The quote comes from Morris's book 'Art and the Beauty of the Earth'.

'Two Minute Warning'.