Hywel and Michelene Harris

Lady Bay Art Glass was started in 1993 and is family owned and run by Hywel and Michelene Harris. We became interested in leaded glass in the late 1970's and the public obsession for terrariums started us on the road of making and selling gift items at craft fairs.

 

This developed over the next 15 years into the range of stained glass gifts that we still make and sell today and also into the realms of traditional leaded panels, first as the repair of panels brought to us and then on to designing and making panels to commission.

 

A photo of our craft fair stall ca. 1981

Moving into a 1906 house in the area of Lady Bay in West Bridgford, Nottingham (just down the road from the Trent Bridge cricket ground) in 1985, we found that in trying to find suitable designs for a set of stained glass panels for our sitting room most of the patterns available were quite unsuitable. So out of our search came the idea for the business. Most of our work now comes from within the immediate locality, an area with approx. 10,000 houses, the majority having been built between 1890 and 1939.

 

Since about 1997 we have been exploring the use of flat glass as mosaic for both mirrors and more recently table tops, details of which you will find here. Michelene is the one with the creative flair for developing these designs which have been remarkably successful so far.

 

We were amongst the founder members of the Lady Bay Open Studios, a thriving group of local artists and craftspeople who open their studios and display their work as part of a walk round tour on the third weekend in May every year. The event regularly attracts crowds of well over 1000 visitors. The group also extend invitations to a number of guest artists each year to exhibit alongside the permanent members and this has ensured that the event always has something new to excite the public. Having opened our studio for 9 consecutive years, we are now having a break in order to enjoy the event as visitors!..