mayaherb

I have just finished a commission for a couple living in the beautiful village of Belstone on Dartmoor.
The stained glass piece sits above an internal door and welcomes visitors as they enter the house into their front room.
The original brief was for a Dartmoor landscape featuring three things: two local Tors (featured in this picture), a river and sky.
I added some stylistic painted elements that are typical of Dartmoor landscapes: a wind blown hawthorn tree, an old stone wall and some stylised fern patterns. Coupled with some nice streaky and multi-coloured glass in a patchwork pattern makes a nice contrast.

My favourite part of the process is always the reveal at the end of the making process, when its time to turn the soldered lead black using patina. The transformation in colour is fascinating.

I’ve throughly enjoyed the process of converting the client’s landscape photographs into a stained glass work of art. If you have a favourite landscape you’d like me to convert into a piece of glass art do get in touch!

Freshly back from maternity leave, one of my first commissions last month involved making this poppy sun catcher, with a backdrop of ‘divine light’, as a remembrance panel.

The two poppies are intertwined with each other and inspired by art nouveau movement of stained glass, with undulating lines inspired by natural forms.

Its good to be back!

In August we welcomed our beautiful daughter, Eryn, into the World. I am currently taking around 10 months away from my craft business to care for her, so I will not be taking any orders or commissions in that time. I look forward to embracing my craft again though in June 2022! Do get in touch if you have any commission enquiries in the meantime.

My new collection of stained glass Christmas tree decorations is now ready!

This year all my pieces have been hand-painted and fired in the kiln, made either with streaky stained glass or ‘Tatra’ glass which allows plenty of coloured light through from your Christmas tree lights.

My favourite pieces are a collection of eight British woodland animals including a hare, badger, barn owl, fox, harvest mouse, fallow deer, red squirrel and hedgehog. I think they’re rather cute (!) and evoke feelings of cosiness (many of the designs feature the animals curled up asleep) and celebrate the start of the winter season in the Devon countryside.

Other Christmas tree decorations include a set of candles, holly, stars and Christmas trees with a geometric abstract pattern, all hand painted on brightly coloured stained glass.

For an exotic, alternative Christmas I’ve also designed some red and green chilli pepper Christmas tree decorations for those chilli lovers out there!

I hope you enjoy browsing through this year’s Christmas items. I  make all pieces to order in 1 – 2 weeks, so if you’d like to purchase any please visit my shop and place your order by 9th December at the latest if you’d like them in time for Christmas!

One of the most uplifting and creative movements in 2020 amongst all the sadness and angst is the ‘The rainbow campaign’. People all around the world have been putting up rainbows for everyone else to see to help people get through social distancing and loneliness,  sending out a message saying ‘everything will be OK’.

Before it all kicked off in March 2020 I had made a stained glass rainbow emerging from clouds for my 6 month old daughter’s nursery. I hand painted her name on one of the red strands to add a personal touch to her rainbow.

Since then I’ve had requests from people wanting some uplifting nursery rainbow pieces for their own babies and young children’s bedrooms. I managed to get hold of some non-lead solder as a safety precaution too.

The rainbow and cloud sun catches serve a dual purpose, sending out a re-assuring and uniting message on their windows to neighbours and passers-by.

I’d like to take a personal thanks to all who have helped us through this difficult time – in particular NHS and key workers – who have selflessly been battling the pandemic for the benefit of us all.

I’ve been able to self isolate at home and have found solace in my workshop – rainbow making, as it turns out, can bring one a great deal of comfort.