Tamsin Abbott Stained Glass Artist and Illustrator

From her Herefordshire based studio, Tamsin Abbott creates beautiful pieces of highly detailed stained glass with magical narratives.

Tamsin finds inspiration from many sources, her first degree in Medieval Literature, myths and legends of the British isles and the beauty of the natural landscape around her Herefordshire home. She is also inspired by the glass itself, a material with alchemical qualities and mystery of its own being neither a solid nor a liquid as we would normally understand it.

The majority of glass which Tamsin uses comes from the last remaining manufacturer of mouth-blown sheet glass in the UK, using intensive and highly skilled craft processes. The resulting colour blends and movement within the glass often inspiring the ‘story’ which Tamsin will illustrate upon it. The illustrations are created either through painting directly onto the glass or by using a scraper board technique whereby black glass paint, containing particles of powdered glass, is applied across the surface of the glass and then etched, or scraped into, before the piece is kiln fired. Thereafter comes the skilled and painstaking process of leading, soldering and cementing the glass into its final surround.  The results of these labour intensive techniques are remarkable and unique.