So say today you visit this website right here in front of you -

Welcome!

“Kiln-Fired Stained Glass Painting – Your Best Guide”, it says at the top.

Yes, the ancient, proper craft.

Now – there are just two possibilities …

“It’s all too much!”

Possibility #1 – someone stops for a few seconds then quickly leaves forever because …

“There’s too much information here. I want something quick and cheap.

I don’t want to think for myself. I mean, why do I have to practice? I don’t want to practice.

I just want someone to tell me how to paint glass like an expert. Right now.”

So it’s “Goodbye!” right now to anyone who doesn’t want to learn and practice. It’s always best to decide this quickly.

But that’s not you, is it?

No – because you’re still reading – this is more like you:

“It’s like a dream come true”

Possibility #2 – maybe you can’t quite believe your eyes because, well, there is so much information here …

“Is this true? There’s so much knowledge and experience here. I’ll read a few articles today. And I’ll think about what I’ve read, maybe try it for myself.

And I can even ask them questions – is this true? Really? Williams & Byrne will also answer my questions?

I’ll come back tomorrow and make sure it’s not a dream! I do hope it’s not a dream …”

No it’s not a dream. Information – excellent information, lots of it – about so many different aspects of stained glass:

• Brushes and other tools, for example
• Or maybe you’re interested in a step-by-step account of how a stained glass design is born
• Or a fascinating analysis of the way in which painting on glass is so very different from painting on paper
• And here’s a useful piece on how people always mix silver stain the wrong way (which gives them so many problems …)
• And there’s even something on using pen and oil on glass
• Or which is better – liquid or powdered gum Arabic?
• Or – if like us you do all your glass painting in just one firing – what happens if you make a mistake
• Or – Heaven help us – how this encyclopaedic glass painting resource began
• Plus (to return to Earth again) the pros and cons of tracing with vinegar

And so much more.

How to find what you want

Here are 3 quick ways to discover what you want to know:

Use the Search box on the right of the screen – it’s just beneath the picture at the top.

Or the Calendar beneath it – it’s a great way to browse.

Or simply click on one of the Keywords beneath the calendar – there’s everything from “A” for arm rest to “W” for whiting.

Or just wander where you wish.

There’s also a menu bar at the top of the screen with “Ask” to ask glass painting questions, “Sign Up” to get free glass painting tips and “Guides” – well, more about them in a moment.

The information is for you, for everyone who wants to explore and learn.

How to never miss a new article

That’s really quick and easy. Scroll up and click SUBSCRIBE, top-right.

Then you’ll never miss an article.

How to learn more – choose a guide

Read and practice and enquire and experiment in your own time and at your own speed.

Whenever you want really detailed information, check the “Guides” page for stained glass painting downloads.

Everything from how to mix paint, how to shade before you trace, how to paint with oil on top of unfired water-based paint, the secrets of successful silver staining plus loads of case studies – faces, birds, flowers and medieval beasts for example …

Cick right here for stained glass painting guides and downloads.

Also with online video for you to watch and copy

There are even free video demonstrations like:

• How to prepare a kiln tray
• How to paint with oil, and
• How to create some magnificent ancient-looking forgeries

And many free video demonstrations also come with the free glass painting newsletter. So you must join to get them.

Plus there are the downloadable guides – very useful because you can have them by you in your workshop, or read them sitting comfortably in an armchair.

Some guides even come with more online video for you to watch and copy.

And all the time you can use the Ask tab on the menu bar at the top to ask questions about kiln-fired stained glass painting.

If you’re serious, so are we.

Whether you’re a professional or an enthusiastic amateur, a complete beginner or a seasoned glass painter – there is something here for you.

If you’re serious, it’ll be a pleasure to work along side you over the weeks, months and years ahead.

Let’s all go forward together.

And do please join the free glass painting newsletter – weekly tips, ideas and free video demonstrations – it’s a great way to learn and improve. Free.

P.S. And if you haven’t seen it already, you must read the challenge of the tycoon’s casket. Discover – if you dare! – all the steps to make an ancient-looking stained glass forgery.

Read "The Challenge of the Tycoon's Casket"

For a quick guide to our firing schedules, click here and scroll down to the free guides on this page of glass painting guides.

Ah ha! But only for subscribers to the newsletter.

There’s even a free and exclusive 15-minute video demonstration on using solder and patina to decorate and strengthen the lead.

All in edition #13 of your technique-packed e-mail newsletter.

It’s free. Sign up here.

As a visual prompt to questions you might want to ask, we’ve now added a gallery of some recent stained glass painting.

To see the gallery, just click here.

We’ve just published 10 new stained glass video demonstrations.

Subscribers can watch these online videos as often as they want. And where they want (technology permitting …).

There are seven video demonstrations for users of Glass Painting Techniques and Secrets from an English Stained Glass Studio, and there are three for users of Glass Painting Techniques for Painting a Stained Glass Head.

In both cases, you’ll just need the password which you will find in the guide in question.

Folks who have an early edition of Glass Painting Techniques and Secrets from an English Stained Glass Studio – we e-mailed you a password in November. If you didn’t get it, please just write and say.

Armed with your password, just click on the menu bar where it says “Video” and choose between “Techniques” (for the e-book) and “Saint Martha” (for her head).

"Why has it taken so long to finish me?"

Careful readers will see that “The Hereford Saga” has been silent for some months.

Yes, our work on completing the full-sized design was mysteriously stopped by some factor (or factors) beyond and outside of our control!

But readers will be glad to know that we have recently been able to re-start our work.

And right now, the full-sized water-coloured design is nearly complete.

That means we will soon be able to make the cut-lines and then start cutting and painting the glass itself.

At last!

So to celebrate – here, therefore, is the first-ever Williams & Byrne Competition …

Readers are invited to post their suggestion about the external factor(s) which, until recently, prevented us from completing the full-sized design. Please do this with up to 100 of your own words.

So, imagine, what immense physical power or impediment or embarassment (perhaps) might temporarily prevent Williams & Byrne of all people from completing the magnificent full-sized design for this prestigious stained glass window?

Remember, it’s the full-sized design that’s been delayed – not the window itself (we haven’t started making it yet).

Be as imaginative and creative as you wish.

It’s not that we want to encourage dishonesty, but you can certainly be a winner without hitting the Truth!

All we ask is that you make some connection with stained glass design, painting or making.

Obey the Rules, use up to 100 of your own words, and YOU can win one of three amazing prizes …

First prize: a round-headed badger, and a Hake, and 3 tracing brushes (these being a lark, a crow and a small duck)
Second prize: a Hake and 3 tracing brushes
Third prize: 3 tracing brushes

20 leaded light designs from the 17th century - a Free download for every entrant

In the event of a tie-break, we will award copies of The Glass Painter’s Daughter by Rachel Hore who kindly acknowledges Williams & Byrne in her introduction to this, her latest novel.

But let’s go further than that.

We’ve got a fabulous collection of stained glass designs which date from the 17th century – clearly not our own!

In August, we’ll publish a download with our favourite 20.

These truly are some of the most gorgeous geometric designs that you will ever see.

And everyone who enters in accordance with the rules will win a free copy of this amazing top-20 download.

The top-20 stained glass designs from 1615 – sent to you by e-mail for you to enlarge and develop however you wish.

Competition Rules:

1. Your answer must contain up to 100 of your own words.
2. Your answer must make some connection with stained glass design, painting, making or fitting.
3. Prizes will not necessarily be awarded for accuracy. Other qualities – such as general interest, humourousness or oddness or imagination – are equally important.
4. No flattery.
5. No rudeness.
6. You agree that Williams & Byrne – in order to avoid legal prosecution – may be unable to reveal the Truth. (Trust us: this is a clue.)
7. You have the right to ask us for more information, but we have the right to remain silent without incriminating ourselves.
8. You can post as many answers as they wish. (Indeed, you might want to return and see what other people have suggested.) But only your latest answer will be adjudicated by the judges.
9. The closing date is Midsummer’s Day, 21st June 2009.
10. The winners will be announced on 6th July 2009.
11. The regular judges are David Williams and Stephen Byrne of Williams & Byrne.
12. We are excited to announce that the Visiting Judge will be the master craftsman and sculptor, Mark Richards FRBS, who has recently completed a twin-sculpture of HRM Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. This latest work will be unveiled by the Her Majesty the Queen at this year’s Royal Ascot. We are therefore extremely grateful that Mark has agreed to join the regular panel for this opening competition.
13. The judges’ decision is final.

So, what external factor(s) delayed us from completing the full-sized water-colour design?

Let your imagination run wild, but please be plausible, strange, funny and/or interesting.

And please do make your answer connect in some way with stained glass.

You’ll definitely want to know that the very first Williams & Byrne competition starts on …

Saturday 16th May 2009

You don’t have to design or paint glass to enter.

No! What we’re looking for is an ingenious or amusing or possibly even accurate (who knows?) answer to a particular question.

Just satisfy the panel of illustrious judges, and you will be in with a chance of winning one of three fabulous sets of the very finest stained glass painting brushes, lovingly selected by us for your personal and long-lasting happiness.

• Even if you don’t paint glass yourself, imagine the warm glow of pride when you show these brushes to your friends and relatives.
• You will certainly be the Talk of the Town and will be able to name your own price when it comes to after-dinner speaking.
• Your boss will not find it in his power to refuse your request for a 977% increase in pay.
• We know you’d even develop a magnetic personality but we’re fairly sure that, if you’re reading this, you have a good one already.

So accept no substitute and embrace your Wild Side: only the real Williams & Byrne stained glass studio offers you the finest glass painting brushes as prizes.

Terms and conditions apply.

We will reveal the question on Saturday 16th May.

"Let's party!"

Yes, a “year” simply measures the time it takes for a planet to orbit the Sun.

So, if the period of three hundred and sixty-five and a quarter days isn’t emotionally significant in itself, then nothing significant can be created just by multiplying this period by 10.

And yet …

Anniversaries are important.

My own life has become immeasurably happier since I left my old career 10 years ago today.

I was and am lucky I had the freedom to do this. I reflect on this each day while I cycle to and from the studio, but especially today.

In my present career (which is not the same as the whole of my life), there are two things which Make All The Difference.

First, working with David, designing and making stained glass windows in dialogue with our clients and their buildings.

Second, teaching, and all the conversations that we have each day with stained glass painters and makers across the world.

The first item is hubristic, like the pride of Ozymandius; the second item, less so – the wonderful thing is that skills are acquired and enhanced and subtly changed and passed on to other people.

More than that, and at the heart of things, it’s all such fun.

“That’s no way to run a studio!”

“Oh Yes It IS!”

"Please, Sir! Why do some glass painters want to make their painted glass look like canvas?"

And each day is different.

Anyway, there’s a new Questions & Answers section we’ve just added.

We’ll use it for for all sorts of things, including video demonstrations.

When you have Questions, please go there and Ask for an Answer.

We’ll reply with the Best Information that we have.

But we won’t be posting too many replies this particular weekend.

It’s my birthday.

Not 10 years … but 97 50.

Therefore:

Williams & Byrne announces the arrival later this month of a competition in which You can win Prizes!

Knowing that all you stained glass painters are such other-worldly souls, we don’t propose to offer you anything as earth-bound as an all-expenses paid holiday in the country of your choice.

No …

We’re talking brushes, here.

Specifically – badgers, haiks, larks, crows and small ducks.

How’s that for an inducement?

Does it speak directly to your Dark Side?

Remember … coming soon … the first competition

It’s the Only One with Brushes!