Hemel Hempstead Etched Glass

The Leadbitter Glass Studio was first established in 1994 and has proudly produced Etched Glass and Victorian Etched Glass panels for homes in Hemel Hempstead ever since. While it’s one of the oldest forms of decorative glass, Etched Glass is increasingly used to produce stunning modern designs. Etched Glass panels are a popular choice for homes in the area along with upscale commercial buildings. Almost all panels we produce qualify for free delivery to homes in Hemel Hempstead.

Our studio also provides Stained Glass, Bevelled Glass and Fused Glass to clients in Hemel Hempstead.

After you’ve placed your order with us, you’ll receive our free design service – known as the Client Pages Service. This entitles you to a Computer Generated Proof which you will receive a few days after ordering. The proof shows what your chosen design will look like in your custom glass sizes. It also gives you the opportunity to request design changes before production begins, ensuring you get exactly what you want. You may for example decide that you want to alter a decorative border, add some extra flower petals or increase the size of a house number. We’ll make these amendments until you are 100% happy with the final design and you give our glass artists the thumbs up to begin production.

Your numbers up!

If you want to display your house name or number in door glass or fanlights, Etched glass is the ideal choice. Many homes in the Hemel Hempstead area have top lights (transom lights) above their doors, which is the perfect place to display your etched house name or number. Etched house names and number panels are one of the most popular requests we receive, our glass artists produce hundreds of them every year! If you have a transom window above your door, we can create a stunning etched glass panel displaying your house name or number in your choice of font and decorative border. We can also create etched door glass to match the fanlights if required.

Recent Etched Glass commissions from the Hemel Hempstead area:

Leadbitter Glass has supplied many homes in and around Hemel Hempstead with our beautiful etched glass. Here are some examples of local orders…..

Etched Glass Coffee Cup Door

Way back in 2012 we were asked to create a toughened glass panel for an internal door. The design the client wanted was of a steaming coffee cup. As with all orders we receive, we created a CGI proof to show the client what the panel would look like before manufacture. This allows the client to request changes to the layout or maybe even add a decorative border. The link above shows you the drawing we created for the client.

Browse Our Etched Glass Galleries

Our studio can produce almost any pattern you can imagine in etched glass. If you haven’t found the right design for your home yet, head on over to our extensive Etched Glass Gallery for some inspiration. Within the gallery, there are categories such as Traditional, The Edinburgh Range and Repeat Backgrounds, Modern, Victorian and many others. We also have thousands of stunning designs in various forms of decorative glass across our various galleries which may be of interest to you.

How is Etched Glass made?

We never use ‘stickers’ on our etched glass panels. We produce our etched glass the right way, by sandblasting the glass so the etching is permanent and of the highest quality. You might find that some companies say they offer “Etched Glass” when they actually just place a vinyl sticker onto the glass, so no ‘etching’ has actually taken place. Not only does this result in a poor ‘etched effect’, but the stickers can turn yellow and even start to shrink after a few years of being exposed to sunlight. Companies sometimes say their etched glass is ‘screen printed’, but this also suffers from the same discolouration issue over time. Always make sure you are paying for an authentic ‘sandblasted‘ etched glass product for quality that lasts. You can see the problems encountered with fake etched glass here.

Our process

First, we cut a temporary mask to shape and overlay it onto one side of the panel. This ensures the areas we want to remain clear aren’t etched. We then place the masked panel inside a sandblasting booth while coarse grit/sand is fired at high speed across the panel. Once the etching process is complete, the temporary mask is removed and the areas that were unprotected have now been etched. If the glass is single glazed, we then apply a protective sandblast coating to the etched side to prevent unwanted grease smudges. If the glass is to be double glazed, the coating doesn’t need to be applied because the etched side will be protected within the unit.

Etched glass supplied to any home throughout the Hemel Hempstead area:

Watford – St Albans – Luton – Harpenden – Berkhamsted – Tring – Chesham – Amersham – Bovingdon – Kings Langley – Abbots Langley – Rickmansworth – Potters Bar – Welwyn Garden City – Hatfield – Dunstable – Aylesbury – Leighton Buzzard – High Wycombe – Chorleywood