Commissions

As well as making work for exhibitions and to sell, I also do commissions. I really enjoy making bespoke pieces for customers and working with them to make their ideas come to reality.

The process starts with a discussion about the sort of thing the customer wants, and then I usually draw up two different designs. I’m always happy for it to be a collaborative process so sometimes the designs need tweaking or even redrafting considerably. I often send the customer samples of glass with the designs, so they can decide exactly which colours they want. Colour is so personal and the most important thing to me is that the customer is happy with what I make for them.

Below are some examples of recent commissions. If you want something handmade in glass to mark a special moment in your, or a loved one’s, life or simply just as something to treasure, please get in touch.

‘Lemon Tree’ stained glass panel

This customer wanted a stained glass panel for an internal door, to commemorate a family member who had died. They wanted it to feature a lemon tree so I drew two designs – one showing a whole tree and the other just the leaves and lemons without the tree trunk. We opted for a very pale green rather than clear glass background to make the main design stand out more, and I used 3 different greens for the leaves to add interest and texture.

‘Red helleborine’ vessel

Commissioned by a botanist and environmentalist to celebrate a special birthday, this customer asked me to make a piece featuring a rare wild orchid – red helleborine. My first designs were more literal than the customer had in mind, so I went back to the drawing board and came up with a design which was a bit more free. The final piece is 32cm in diameter and the flowers sit proud on the surface of the vessel, providing texture and depth.

‘Willow Violet’ and ‘Joni Wren’ vessels

These two vessels were commissioned to mark the birth of new babies. Willow Violet was commissioned first and the customer was so delighted with the piece that they commissioned Joni Wren a year later. Containing the names and dates of birth of the babies in bas relief, I also included stylised representations of their names: willow leaves and violet flowers on one and a tiny wren on the other.

‘Sheep and collie’ vessel

Another bas relief vessel, this work was commissioned by a vet for another animal scientist. Although the design came very easily – the customer wanted it to contain a collie dog stalking some sheep to represent the receiver’s dog and their particular animal specialism – knowing that the customer and the receiver were animal specialists meant I had to get the animals right! I made several test pieces to ensure I could get the markings of the collie to show through to the top of the glass.