The Old Girls’ Chateau Escape by Kate Galley is out now 💚 Get your copy!
In my mid-twenties I lived opposite a small community theatre and art centre. One day I noticed a sign up outside with the tantalising words Learn Stained Glass in a Day.
I thought to myself, that was about as much time as I had to put to a new hobby and signed up. I loved the class. We learned how to cut sheets of coloured glass and how to shape lead strips, called cames, around the glass to hold it in place. How to solder the joints and cement the finished panel. I took my wonky effort home and was so delighted with it, I showed it off in my living room window for weeks. I was hooked.
Over the next ten years I made many windows and decorative panels for friends, family and eventually the paying public. I had a workshop in a shed at the end of the garden and would sneak away to work with the radio playing for company. I went to college evening classes to help me sharpen my skills. Then I decided to invest in a kiln so I could work with fused glass and I joined a glass group which met up weekly near my home. The group was an eclectic mix of incredibly talented women who all brought something different to our meetings.
We worked together for various exhibitions and they really helped me to push myself. One exhibition was at The International Festival of Glass in Stourbridge. We’d spent months working on pieces inspired by a National Trust Property in Buckinghamshire – Waddesdon Manor. My exhibit was a huge cast glass piece called What Alice Saw. It was over twenty sheets of glass fused with printed images of the parterre garden, as seen from Alice De Rothschild’s window. It was a real honour to see my work there.
I also produced a series of pieces including hundreds of handmade glass beads. I think these are still my favourite of all my work.
I’ve always been drawn to glass art and even though my time is mostly spent writing now, I do look longingly at my kiln occasionally and know it’s only a matter of time before I fire it up again.
‘What Alice Saw’
