Sign Up to our Beginners Fused Glass Workshop on 5th April 2025. One place available starting at 10am till 12:30pm.
For further Info and Booking see link below:
Beginners Fused Glass Workshop – 05/04/2025
Out visiting & photographing stained glass projects that the studio has recently completed. This 1930’s pattern was taken from the neighbour’s front door and is inkeeping with the clients property and existing windows.
On this Christmas Day, we would like to take this opportunity to wish all our customers, clients, students, friends & colleagues a Warm & Merry Christmas.
A big ‘Thank You’ for your custom & support this year & wishing you all the best for 2022.
May the New Year be blessed with Peace, Light & Colour.
Our Christmas Craft Fayre Weekend on the 27th & 28th November 2021 at the Ruskin Glass Centre & Glasshouse College.
As well as the onsite designer maker studios and shops, there will be invited guest craft stalls selling a range of gifts.
Our craft market & open studios are a great opportunity to buy and commission local handmade crafts.
Open 10am till 4pm with free entry over the weekend.
Edwardian Stained Glass Door panel: Latest Restoration & Repair project on the workbench, getting its final clean and polish. After about a week of drying flat, will be ready for fitting back into the door.
Just before Easter the studio completed a repair and restoration of four fantastic Victorian stained glass bay window panels. There were several breaks within the borders that needed replacing with restoration glass to match and new border leads were needed across the four panels. The stained glass windows were then cleaned and polished to bring them back to their former glory.
Such a great feature for the house that is worth all the attention they needed, with some wonderful handmade spun rondels and coloured textured glass. The stained glass windows have now be taken to the glazier for encapsulating into double glazed units and will then be installed into new wooden window frames.
Victorian Stained Glass Restoration Windows
The studio recently completed a repair and part restoration of two reclaimed church stained glass windows. The panels are coloured glass diamond patterns, with a red glass border. The glass diamonds have a great random texture to the different tints of colours greens, clears and ambers.
On the workbench before cleaning:
After first stage cleaning:
Some repairs to the red border glass was needed and the 2 panels have had a new leaded border and reinforcement for strengthening.
The studio recently completed a restoration, which turned out to be a complete re-build of a 1950’s circular stained glass window panel. Really a new window based on a traditional pattern, in-keeping with the property. All of the background clear textured glass has been replaced and the centre diamond (also replaced) is handmade mouthblown amber glass. A simple pattern, with good use of colour and texture.
A pattern was made of the existing window which was broken in many of the glass pieces, the glass was then cut to pattern, leaded, soldered at the joints and cemented (putty based) to make stronger and weatherproof. The window has now been fitted back into the window frame of the customers home.
A glass project we worked on last year with ‘West Midlands Historic Buildings Trust’ and local school pupils & college students, to design two stained glass windows for the Former Lye and Wollescote Cemetery Chapel Building (now known as the Thomas Robinson Building), has been shortlisted for the ‘Best Community Action Project’ in the 2016 Historic England Angel Awards.
This link below will take you to the Historic England website for further information and the opportunity to vote: Historic England Angel Awards
I am very pleased to announce that I have been awarded the commission of ‘Consultant Glass Artist’ for the ‘Lye & Wollescote Cemetery Chapels Restoration Project’.
This exciting Project is led by the West Midlands Historic Buildings Trust (WMHBT). The WMHBT is a registered Charity and specialises in the field of building conservation.
West Midlands Historic Buildings Trust has successfully secured funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and other funding sources, to conserve and restore the rare, but redundant, Victorian Lye and Wollescote Cemetery Chapels near Stourbridge, which are Grade II Listed and registered as ‘buildings at risk’, and to bring them back into sustainable use as offices without detriment to the historic fabric and architectural integrity of the buildings.
An important part of the Project is a ‘Activity Plan’ and my role within this will include community engagement, working with local Redhill Secondary School pupils and students from the Birmingham Metropolitan College, to produce designs for two windows within the Chapels. These designs, once approved will then be made & fabricated by us at the Studio in Stourbridge.
Front of Chapels
Cemetery
Rear of Chapels
The ‘Lye and Wollescote Cemetery Chapels’, are dated 1878 and are a great example of Victorian Gothic style church architecture and 19th century cemetery design. The building is Grade II listed and this recognition is because of its architectural and historical importance as part of the UK’s national heritage. The Chapels were designed to incorporate two chapels within a single building, one side designated Anglican and the other non-conformist.
To read more about the West Midlands Historic Buildings Trust, the Cemetery Chapels and the Building History click on this link. This will take you to the ‘Lye & Wollescote Cemetery Chapels’ website.
Over the past 8 months an archaeological dig has been going on at ‘The Glasshouse’ (the home of the Ruskin Glass Centre) in Amblecote revealing, along with many fascinating artefacts, the existence of TWO glass cones dating back to the 1690’s.
On October 11th and 12th a ‘Heritage Weekend’ will enable the public to visit the two digs to view the excavations for the last time before they are backfilled at the end of October. The findings will also be on show at this special event.
Ian Dury, Heritage Officer at The Webb Corbett Visitor Centre, says, “With so much information revealed, we are able to boast that we now have on this site, two of the oldest glasshouse remains in Stourbridge, and the artefacts that have been found have enabled us to establish a time line of glassmaking, a time capsule of British glass making if you like, helping us rewrite the history of the Coalbourn Hill and Coalbourn Brook sites”.
In recognising the many different aspects of the dig’s impact on the area, Principal of Glasshouse College, Paul Gawdan added, “The archaeological dig has been an incredibly exciting opportunity for students and staff at Glasshouse College to collaborate with the local community. The discovery of what is believed to be one of the region’s first glass cones is of great historical importance, and a significant chapter in the site’s heritage”.
Featured activities at the Heritage Weekend include:
- Local History Walks and Talks
- Ruskin Glass Centre Businesses & Craft Studios
- Ruskin Glass Centre Cafe
- Young Diggers
- British Glass Foundation
- Amblecote History Society
- West Midlands Society of Genealogy and Heraldry
- Dudley MBC Tourism Stand
- Wollaston Historical Group
- ‘Glass Echoes’ Exhibition
- Have-A-Go Taster Sessions
- Glasshouse College ‘Young Roots’ Project
For further information please contact:
Ian Dury Heritage Officer
Webb Corbett Visitor Centre
The Glasshouse
Wollaston Road
Amblecote
Stourbridge
DY8 4HF
Tel. 01384 399419
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