Westcombe Park

Westcombe Park in South East London has some really spectacular Victorian stained glass. It's Victoriana at it's most sparkliest! In this house a fanlight was added to the existing original set of panels. It's impossible to get an exact match for some of the original textured glasses but luckily Victorian Muranese (the clear textured glass around the roundels) is still fairly common and a new version in a range of colours is made now.

New fanlight being added to match original surrounding panels.

Leaded house number, a slight adjustment from the original street fanlight style.

Original side panel showing diamond jewels, painted centre and cast glass roundels with lots of heavily textured, sparkly surrounding glass!

Many of the houses in this area have beautiful mosaic tiles in the hall.

My customer had the idea that he would very much like to see this pattern replicated in a mezzanine area that needed brightening up...

So we used the basic mosaic design which worked perfectly to create some colourful panels using both vintage and modern textured and handmade glasses...

This clear vintage glass pattern rarely comes into stock, luckily I had just enough to complete the set.

Below are a couple of shots during making...

Plan in progress

Plan approved by the black and white inspector!

Finalising / checking glasses in the studio before leading up.

A Very Happy Christmas...

to one and all...

St Jude - Canterbury Cathedral.

And a peaceful, creative 2018!

From Gateshead to London Docklands to New Zealand

For the full background to this amazing story click here,  here, and here! The short version is that in the late 1800's / early 1900's Sir John McCoy was a wealthy shipowner who became mayor of Gateshead 8 times between 1912 and 1923. He lived in a large house in Gateshead called Springfield, sadly it was pulled down and there appear to be no photos to show what it looked like. Springfield had some beautiful stained glass and at some point in the early 20th century Sir John moved to London and brought with him some of the large panels. He was evidently fond of them but had no where to put them and so they remained on top of the P and O Ferries building in Docklands until the 1970's when they were rescued and craned down from the top of the building by a dedicated stained glass lover. The original blogpost (first in the list of 'here's above!) was spotted by his great granddaughter who lives in New Zealand. Though many new panels had been made from the original glass a lot of the glass remained. After choosing selected pieces this glass was then cleaned and travelled to New Zealand where it was made into a variety of objects by Trinity Stained Glass...  

Painted centre's from the above panels before gluing and cleaning...

Elizabethan head before cleaning.

All photo's above (apart from the before's) courtesy of Helen Crick.

Some of the earlier panels featured on the blogpost which started it all...  

I don't think Sir John could ever have dreamed of what his glass would morph into but I hope he would have approved!

Sue King Glass

I recently fitted some door panels for my amazing friend and glass colleague Sue King. Sue is one of those rare people equally talented across a range of disciplines; glass artist, interior designer, project manager, shop and gallery manager are just a few of the roles she is skilled in, soon she will add Art Therapist to her titles!

Sue's glass work is predominately fused work so unlike leaded panels you are left with pure colour mixes which give a vibrant and lively effect. Sue makes a range of products from giftware like small wall panels and platters, through to large scale work for public buildings e.g. hospitals, hotels and domestic interiors. Though you might not immediately think of fused glass for your front door in an older style of house it can look equally as stunning as more traditional work...

Interior design work for Guys Hospital.

Interior screen for Newham Hospital.

If you would like to see more of Sue's work you can visit her website here; Sue King Glass or better still meet her in person, see her amazing work along with the opportunity to purchase a unique gift at Cockpit Arts Open Studios; 1 - 3 December, 18 - 22 Creekside, Deptford, London SE8 3DZ. Opening times: Fri 11am – 9pm, Sat + Sun 11am – 6pm. 11am to 2pm free on Friday. 

A Beautiful Street

Way back in 2011 I completed some panels for a front door in Dulwich...

The door was made to match the street design which most of the houses still fortunately have. The stained glass work was based on the neighbours original pattern but made with colour and texture preferences.

Different textured glasses were used to add sparkle and pick out features...

Night-time view.

It was a pleasure to work on this design and for a customer so keen to restore the original look of the house. Below are some photos of the original leaded panels of this design.

On recommendation I recently completed work on another house along the street. Though the doors and side panels are all the same this design was slightly different.

Again we used a mix of clear and textured glasses.

The original side panels had a pink glass in the centre of the flower. This glass often known as 'true pink' is one of the most expensive glasses containing gold to make the beautiful bright pink colour. In the door panels we used part of an original Norman slab also made with gold to match the chunky, hand-made streaky look. Both doors (including shaped bead!) were skillfully made by carpenter Alex Duncan.

Below are more examples from along the street with different coloured glasses and styles...

Each one with it's own charm.