The craft of Stained Glass is often described as ‘the art of light’, with each piece celebrating the patterns, textures and colours within the sheet glass used. In a garden environment, stained glass can be used to compliment or contrast with its surroundings, adding pops of colour in the winter months, creating height and interest to borders or pots or simply used as a beautiful piece for your climbing plants to ascend.

In this full day workshop, we will be creating an eye-catching garden feature, using a contemporary black powder coated steel frame to display your glass that can be displayed in a plant pot, garden border, or even embedded in a base to make it a free-standing sculpture! (bases not included)

To allow us to create smaller and more intricate designs, we will be using the Tiffany Copper Foiling technique during this session, which is suitable for both complete beginners and those already experienced working with glass. All you need to bring is yourself and an open mind!

Starting with an introduction to different types of glass and design, we’ll cover how to handle and work with glass safely and show you examples of work to provide you with some inspiration if your journey to the centre itself hasn’t provided enough already! The beauty of creating these garden ornaments is that you will be producing 3 individual panels to place within the metal frame, with each panel taking any design of your choice – be that inspired by nature, colour combinations, patterns or textures and will be completely unique to you.

You will then be guided through how to cut and shape each individual piece of glass, wrap them in copper foil and then join them together using solder to fit each ‘pane’ of the trellis, before applying a number of finishing touches such as wire or patina (darkening of the silver solder), then a protective wax and finally securing your work into the frames.

All tools, materials and safety equipment will be provided. However, due to the nature of the craft, please can you ensure you are wearing closed shoes (no sandals, crocs or sling-backs) and that long hair is tied back. If you wear reading glasses, it is also advisable to bring these for the close detail work!!

As the soldering process does involve lead based products, it is not advisable for pregnant women to attend and children between the ages of 16 & 18 must be accompanied by a responsible adult.

Kate is a professional glass artist with over 30 years of experience working with both the tiffany and leadlight techniques of stained glass. She moved to Cumbria 6 years ago, and was so inspired by the beauty and heritage of the county that she then set up her company North Lakes Stained Glass, and now sells her landscape and nature work online nationally and internationally, as well as at craft fairs and a number of art galleries around the region. Kate recently appeared as one of the featured artists on the BBC TV show ‘Make It At Market’ that aired in March 2025, and now runs regular workshops to introduce and develop students skills in stained glass, and has created numerous larger commission pieces for residential properties around the country.

10am – 5pm
Max numbers 6
Min Age 16. 
£100 Additional Material costs to pay on day: £40

Please note tickets are non-refundable. Exchanges to other classes by the same tutor may be offered more than 2 weeks before the start date (subject to availability).