Etched Glass Ely

Founded in 1994, the Leadbitter Glass Studio has been supplying Etched Glass panels to homes and businesses across Ely ever since, delivering to every other part of the UK too. With the National Stained Glass Museum housed inside the Cathedral, Ely is probably more familiar with the history of decorative glass than almost anywhere else in the country — a good audience for us to be making etched glass for.

Etched glass, sometimes called sandblasted glass, obscures sections of clear glass to leave a permanent pattern behind — an old technique that sits comfortably alongside the museum’s medieval and Victorian panels, even on a modern front door. Every panel is scaled to your own glass, and the vast majority of orders qualify for free delivery across Ely.

It’s one of the oldest decorative glass techniques still in regular use, and among the most straightforward to explain: the pattern is worked directly into the glass, with no colour or lead involved. Our glass has appeared in a Prime Minister’s home and on Hollywood film sets, though most of what we make is for homeowners across Ely. We also produce other styles of Decorative Glass for Ely clients, including Stained Glass, Bevelled Glass, and Fused Glass.

See your glass before we create it!

Our Free Client Pages Design Service

Every Ely order comes with its own Client Page, and within a few days of ordering, a computer-drawn proof of your design appears there, scaled precisely to your glass. If the proportions need adjusting, or a detail sharpening up, tell us and we’ll send a revised version. We’ll keep refining it for as long as it takes, and won’t switch the sandblaster on until you’re satisfied with what you’re looking at.

Perfect For House Names And Numbers

Etched glass suits house names and numbers particularly well, and it’s one of our most common requests for the fanlight above a front door. If your Ely home has one, we can create a panel showing your house number or name. For the sharpest result, we generally etch the surrounding background and leave the lettering itself clear, so it stands out at a glance.

How Our Etched Glass Is Made

We start with a sheet of toughened safety glass and apply a mask cut precisely to your chosen design, protecting everything except the pattern itself. High-pressure abrasive is then blasted onto the exposed glass, wearing the surface down to a permanent frost wherever the mask doesn’t cover it — the same basic principle you’ll see explained on labels beside far older panels in a museum collection, just carried out with modern equipment.

Because that frost is worked into the glass rather than sitting on top of it, there’s nothing to peel or fade later, unlike a stick-on “etch effect” film, which tends to yellow and lift within a couple of years.

If an old etched panel at home has cracked or gone missing over the years, a photograph is usually enough for our glass artists to reproduce the original pattern closely.

Ready to have Etched Glass, or any other decorative glass, made for your Ely home or business? Get in touch today for an accurate quote and turnaround time.

Browse Our Etched Glass Galleries

Our website holds one of the largest collections of decorative glass patterns anywhere. Browse hundreds of Etched Glass designs in our main gallery, arranged by theme and by door style, to find the right pattern — or simply for inspiration towards your own. Visit the Main Gallery to see what’s possible.

Notable Etched Glass Commissions from the Ely area…