Plymouth Stained Glass

The Leadbitter Glass Studio supplies Overlay Stained Glass (leaded glass) to clients in Plymouth and the surrounding areas. You can supply your own image of a design you like or browse our extensive Stained Glass gallery for some inspiration. Then head over to our how to order page once you’ve chosen your design. While browsing our galleries, remember that every design can be produced in most glass sizes to suit your needs. All of our designs can also be altered to meet your exact specifications, you may want to swap out some colours or add some extra leaves into a pattern. If you have any questions about the process, feel free to contact us.

Our studio was established in 1994 and has supplied leaded glass to Plymouth ever since.

We also supply Etched, Bevelled and Fused Glass to homes in Plymouth and the surrounding areas.

Stained Glass For Today’s World

Originally, stained glass was manufactured by fixing together small pieces of fragile glass with a ‘H’ lead strip. Lead was then soldered to the glass to hold it all together. You can think of it essentially as a thin jigsaw being held up vertically, it is never going to be very durable and will crack eventually. With security a concern to UK homeowners, every stained glass panel we produce is made from a solid sheet of toughened glass, either in single or double glazed format. Even though the older technique is sometimes still used in Plymouth today, modern Overlay Stained Glass as a product, is much more versatile and durable, making it a more popular choice. Overlay Stained Glass also meets all of the latest building regulations whereas the older method does not.

Our Overlay Stained Glass (or Leaded Glass as we call it) is created by applying lead strips to both sides of a solid sheet of toughened safety glass. Overlay Stained Glass Colours are applied to one side of the panel underneath strips of lead. Our glass can be supplied to clients in Plymouth as single glazed toughened glass, or a double glazed unit. The traditional ‘jigsaw’ method however cannot be supplied as a double glazed unit because it is produced using small fragile pieces of glass with gaps in between.

See Your Glass Before It Is Made

When you place an order with us, we’ll create a computer generated proof to show you how your panel(s) will look before production begins. You can view hundreds of examples of these proofs in our Client Pages section which were created for customers in Plymouth and around the world. After ordering, we’ll generate your requested design in your sizes and send the proof across for you to approve. If you’re happy with the proof and give us the ‘go ahead’, we will proceed with manufacturing your glass. If there is anything you would like to change about the design, we’re happy to make those adjustments and forward the new version to you at no extra cost. We will never make a glass panel until you’re 100% happy with the design.

The Many Advantages Of Overlay Stained Glass

A big advantage that our Leaded Glass has over the traditional method is that toughened glass can be used. Plain colours, marbled colours and textures can also be used along with soldered lead. These durable and attractive materials produce a beautiful finish that lasts, and when done correctly, can be completely indistinguishable from the older technique. Take a look at our leaded glass past works and judge for yourself.

If you want your stained glass panels to look aged, as though they were the original panels when your house was built, let us know. We can use natural lead, then our decorative glass artists can solder the joints and apply a chemical to the lead to give it a darker, more aged appearance. Soldered leadwork will be an additional cost so please mention you want this when you request a quote. Using Minster glass as the decorative face of a double glazed sealed unit gives the panel an older appearance.

As you can see by the picture of this 1930’s glass design, the coloured areas of the glass aren’t flat. All of the colours are textured the same as the colourless areas of the design. The glass is called Minster glass and it is a very popular choice with our customers.

New But Old

Modern Overlay Stained Glass boasts a wide range of advantages over the older stained glass technique. Saving energy is a big concern for homeowners today and with our Overlay Stained Glass designs, the opportunity for outside cold temperatures to transfer into the home is reduced due to the lack of gaps. Our designs can also be applied directly onto energy saving Pilkington K Glass. This special glass is now a building regulations requirement in the Plymouth area for every new window and door installation. We supply Pilkington K glass on the rear face of every sealed unit we supply as standard.

Durability and security are other advantages of Overlay Stained Glass. This is due to the designed being directly applied onto a solid sheet of toughened glass. Some homeowners in Plymouth have paid a lot of money for ‘old style’ stained glass, but it hasn’t always stood the test of time. Small coloured sections of a traditional ‘jigsaw’ style panel can break quite easily but this cannot happen with our product.

The materials

As all of our decorative glass is created bespoke, you can choose exactly which materials you would like us to use on your panel(s). You can select your own colours from our range, request an obscure glass you want and even the type of lead you want us to use.

Lead

Lead strips also comes in a number of colours and effects. The most popular choice through the 80’s and 90’s was Option 1 Natural lead. Today almost every job we create is produced using Option 2 Antique Lead which is a darker lead (see below). Leadbitter Glass now offers antique lead as standard so this is included in any quote you receive. Soldered joints on the lead strips help achieve that ‘traditional’ feel to the glass. This soldered finish can be requested at an extra price. You can see the different Lead strips available in our Leaded Glass Options page.

Colours

There are hundreds of overlay stained glass colours to choose from for use in the modern day stained glass. Plain colours and Effect colours can be chosen to ensure the panels suit your home. You can even combine our colours with a textured overlay to give you even more options.

Obscure Stained Glass

The Frank Lloyd Wright style door set below was created using toughened Minster Glass and our Overlay Stained Glass technique. We used our Aged Lead (Option 2) and various translucent colours for the design. The door and two side panels are solid sheets of toughened safety glass. Minster glass is one of the most popular types of glass to be used with Leaded Glass designs. Another popular obscure glass we use to create Overlay Stained Glass panels is Stippolyte glass. We can also use clear glass or Flemish glass to create any Stained Glass panel you require.

Browse Our Leaded Glass Galleries

Our website contains hundreds of Stained Glass patterns and our main gallery is the first place to head. We have organised our patterns into themed galleries with glass suitable for the most popular styles of doors. Our Main Gallery can help you find the perfect stained glass pattern for your home or at least give you the inspiration to come up with your own pattern.

We supply Stained Glass to Plymouth and it’s surrounding areas:

Exeter – Torquay – Paignton – Exmouth – Newton Abbot – Tavistock – Tiverton – Brixham – Sidmouth – Dawlish – Teignmouth – Ivybridge – Kingsbridge – Totnes – Salcombe – Dartmouth – Okehampton – Honiton – Crediton – Bideford