Illuminating Stained Glass: Creativity, Conservation and Craft at Barley Studio

This book provides a compelling overview of how stained glass can play a significant role in our visual culture and heritage. While the closure of traditional church buildings has endangered the future of this well-loved discipline, throughout the centuries, stained glass has had a capacity to adapt, with its unique ability to use colour and light to uplift our senses. The conservation of historic windows and creation of contemporary work at Barley Studio over the last 50 years provides an ideal platform to examine stained glass today, with insights from the authors’ personal experience as designers, conservators, and educators.

The book begins by examining Barley Studios conservation and restoration work, focusing on the unique schemes of medieval windows at St Nicholas Church, Stanford-on-Avon, Northamptonshire and St Mary’s Church, Fairford, Gloucestershire. It then considers Helen Whittaker’s work, demonstrating the variety of techniques used to engage a contemporary audience. It discusses the key design factors that stimulate her creative approach and reflects on the connections between traditional and contemporary stained glass. The range of perspectives presented within this book draws attention to and celebrates the power of this unique art-form and reveals how it can reflect changes in popular tastes and trends.

Juliette MacDonald is Professor of Craft History and Theory at the School of Design, Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh. Award-winning artist-designer Helen Whittaker is Creative Director at Barley Studio, York, where alongside her new commissions she oversees restoration work for a wide variety of stained-glass conservation projects. Keith Barley is internationally renowned in the field of stained-glass conservation and founded Barley Studio in 1973. Keith is Master Glazier for Ely Cathedral and has acted as consultant to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, St Patrick’s Cathedral, New York and the Cathedral of Siena in Italy.