Stained Glass Window Workshop

By Natalie Thomas

Last Saturday St Mary’s held a stained glass workshop at the Hope Community Methodist Church, Barnby Gate. This event welcomed around ninety members of the local community, all eager to learn about and engage beautiful stained glass inspired craft.

Stained Glass in St Mary’s

Stained glass is an essential part of our restoration mission during the ‘Reawakening of St Mary Magdalene’ project. The Church hosts an abundance of stained glass artwork with a rich history, most of which dates back to the Victorian era, an era that saw a revival of this beautiful artform. However, the window which lights the Holy Spirit chapel hosts particular historic intrigue as unlike all the others it was made up of medieval stained glass. In 1846 all of the medieval fragments of glass, which were smashed by Cronwell’s army, were salvaged from around the Church and painstakingly assembled in this window. If you look closely, you will notice the mismatched patterns and incomplete panels that make up this unique piece of artwork.

Detail from the Medieval stained glass window in the South Eastern corner of St Mary Magdalene.

The restoration of our stained glass is an important part of the renovation works at St Mary’s and takes a lot of delicate care. The majority of our stained glass is in great condition, however general renovation is being completed. Specialists will be coming into clean the windows, and repair some of the lead lining over the windows. Additionally, our construction team will be repairing the stonemasonry on the tracery around the stained glass. However, there will be more special attention being paid to the front windows repairing some missing fragments of glass. This will be carried out later in the process after the educational pods are built and we look forward to sharing the progress of these repairs with you!

Stained glass window conservators from Ark taking a closer look at the work ahead

Our workshop

This workshop was run by Karen Slade, an expert craftswoman, from The Company of Artisans. Initially trained as an illustrator, Karen’s love for history guided her into a career of historical artistry and conservation. Her work has included working in living history and re-enactment, as well as building her own kiln to create medieval tiles and later stained glass. Alongside her husband and business partner, she trained as a building conservator and has contributed to significant restoration projects. A recent project of theirs was the ceiling of the library at Alnwick Castle.

This event began with a brief history how stained glass was originally made by spinning molten glass into flat disks which would later be cut and dyed. We were then introduced to the design element of stained glass craftsmanship and shown designs we could do in similar patterns. She also highlighted how early designs just used yellow as for the first couple hundred years, it was the only colour artisans could stain the glass. They later discovered how to use other colours and stained glass artistry grew. Stained glass was used a lot in churches to depict stories from the Bible like how the North Isle windows in St Mary’s each depict four Old Testament figures. However, if you were a rich patron of the Church, you could fund the making of stained glass panels and have yourself depicted as one of the people within a religious scene.

After hearing about the fascinating history of stained glass, our participants went into the workshop where they used laminate to create stained glass inspired decorations. The theme of the event was Spring, and they had multiple stained glass window designs to choose from ranging from Victorian flowers by William Morris to the medieval hare from Long Crendon Church. They could also choose to copy a window from St Mary’s or even for the creatives illustrate their own design.

Two young visitors drawing out their designs

This workshop was a success, and everyone got stuck in creating beautiful designs. Please keep an eye out on our social media platforms to see highlights from the event and the best designs. If you missed out on this but are interested in taking part at another event run by Karen, don’t worry! Join us in April for our Medieval Masterpieces Workshop to try your hand at some tile making. We look forward to seeing you there!

Examples of some of the amazing designs created by the local community