The Williams & Byrne stained glass studio for beautiful designs, exquisite glass painting, expert glass restoration, marvellous glass painting courses and a picture-packed e-book on glass painting techniques
Using glass, light and colour to transform space
 Whatever we design and make for you — doors, windows, a panel for your wall or a sculpture for your garden — the glass we make transforms the space around it. Its varieties of colour and texture enchant the eye and entrance the sense of touch.
Bespoke stained glass doors, stained glass windows and other special painted objects
 Our beautiful and bespoke stained glass doors and windows completely change the light around them and the room they’re in. We don’t necessarily need bright or direct light, we don’t always need natural light: we understand how to use whatever light there is to change the mood, convey a special feeling, or express the ideas you choose in your home, office, church or public building.
As well as doors and windows, our bespoke work includes sculptural objects for house or garden, and sumptuous wall-mounted panels that you light up in whatever way you choose. We design specifically for you, using handmade glass and a thousand different techniques to create beautiful objects that are one-of-a-kind. Here’s where you can see pictures of our bespoke work.
Small stained glass panels to change the character of a room
 A range of warmly coloured stained glass panels, some traditional, some contemporary: small, beautifully designed, and brightly painted. Imagine flowers, for example, which are always in bloom, or a jewel-coloured bird that is forever in flight: this is the kind of change our small panels can work in the room where you place them. Our limited edition stained glass panels are made-to-order: we choose different colours to suit your taste and environment, and can also add inscriptions.
Stained glass restoration and conservation to the highest standard
 The studio is an accredited member of ICON, the Institute of Conservation. This requires that our standards are as high as you could wish them to be. Williams & Byrne is also included on the Conservation Register — this is by assessment (it is not a listing that we can buy). You can see our expert stained glass restoration and conservation here.
Marvellous courses and training at our stained glass painting studio
 We run glass painting courses that create confidence and skill: a treat for yourself or a wonderful gift for someone special. There are always two of us to teach and demonstrate, and we take a maximum of six people per course: this is so that we can show you exactly what you want to know. (We can also teach you one-to-one if that’s what’s best for you.) A small group, a lovely studio, our beautiful designs for you to copy, a course that’s rewritten and redrawn each time to suit who’s coming, and our complete attention: that’s why people absolutely love our stained glass painting courses, and travel to us from across the world.
Read about the techniques and secrets of stained glass painting
 To pass on what we know, we’ve written a fascinating book about the glass painting techniques we use: it’s a downloadable, step-by-step repository of our experience and skill, written in clear English and packed with colour photographs.
People all over the world from Japan to Guatemala (by way of the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand) download our book each day. Here’s where you can also find out about the tools, materials and techniques we use to do our beautiful work. If you’re interested in glass painting, then you must download and read our book, Glass Painting Techniques & Secrets from an English Stained Glass Studio.
Contact us here
For our address, telephone number and e-mail, just click here. For directions (but please ring before you visit), please click here for a map — a hand-drawn map, of course.
Our stained glass studio’s strengths
We believe that we do our job well because of four particular strengths. Our original and inspired designs. Our ability to paint on glass in any style. Our unrestrained craftsmanship, which means we extend ourselves beyond the limits that others accept. And our ability to manage projects.
 These four strengths mean that we maintain our love for what we do whilst always running the studio in an efficient way. That’s what creativity requires. (And we won’t be gainsaid on this point by would-be defenders of ersatz Romantic humbug who think that chaos and a fevered brow will do the trick. It won’t.)
Original and inspired designs
 We create stained glass designs and stained glass cartoons in the widest number of historic and contemporary styles from the simplest to the most ornate. Our draughtsmanship and our penmanship are superb. We design beautifully. We design for our own clients, such as architects, churches and private individuals. We also design for other stained glass studios in the United Kingdom and internationally. Click here for designs and cartoons.
Exquisite glass painting and silver-staining
 We paint exquisitely on glass, using an enormous variety of techniques and media. Our stained glass painting is therefore lovely to behold: rich, deep and powerful. We paint in many different styles, depending on what is needed to get the effect we want. Here, as an example, you see a family coat of arms we painted: a luminous, shining cockatrice on glass. This stained glass panel was a present from a son to his father on his father’s birthday: it sits stunningly in his father’s study. See here for pictures of our glass.
Craftsmanship
 We are attentive to every last detail. For example, we use beautiful handmade glass that can be prepared to our exact specification of colour. We use hand-milled lead which is infinitely preferable in texture to the standard machine-milled lead that other studios use. We also carve the lead in order to create the extraordinary shapes we often need. It follows that we even make our own cement rather than using an off-the-shelf preparation; this is to ensure that the ingredients and consistency are appropriate to each individual piece.
 So, whether you want a beautifully designed and painted stained glass window or an unpainted leaded light that is made from magnificent antique glass, our work is stunning – right down to the last detail, for example the twisted wrought iron bars which hold the window in place. Here, in our stained glass workshop, in Shropshire, UK, we make beautiful stained glass windows and leaded lights in all sizes and styles.
Studio and project management
 We are excellent at studio and project management. This is an essential part of how we succeed in making lovely stained glass objects. Our discipline and our technique coupled with our ability to run an efficient studio constitute the environment in which we can design and paint beautifully for you. It gives you peace of mind to know that we do what we say; and it’s the same peace of mind which allows us to devote ourselves to design and glass painting.
Joy in our work
We work extremely hard, and we love the work we do.
Williams & Byrne
Designers, Painters & Restorers of Glass
Telephone +44 (0) 1584 856724
Williams & Byrne Limited, Church Farm Studios, Stanton Lacy, Near Ludlow, Shropshire, UK, SY8 2AE
E-mail studio@williamsandbyrne.com |
