Stained glass art skills at risk as demand drops

A new apprenticeship scheme is focusing on stained glass making as the craft faces an uncertain future.

A drop in demand, practitioners getting older and less training mean there are fears for the industry's future.

"Just imagine how coloured glass could bring so much colour into the whitewash and greywash buildings that we have today," said Swansea College of Art student Seren Trodden.

"It's just a simple thing to add. It's just a gloomy world otherwise."

Seren is studying stained glass in her first year at Swansea College of Art Trinity St Davids as part of her craft and design course.

Her grandfather Jonah Jones was an internationally renowned sculptor and stained glass artist and she wants to follow in his footsteps.

Stained glass making was placed on the endangered crafts red list by the Heritage Craft Association in 2023.

"I'm really enjoying learning the craft, and am passionate about the subject.

"People work in these boring offices in these skyrise buildings with just flat windows and clear glass.

"How about including maybe a common room with stained glass? It would bring a little bit more joy and fun into it," she said.

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Toby Britton, the first apprentice to join the scheme, said he was drawn to the craft from an art background.

"Spaces like churches and cathedrals, I think are really magical," he said.

Former Swansea student and former head of department Rodney Bender, who now has his own studio in the Swansea Valley, said although glass was not an easy material to work with, it was worth the effort.

"It taught me everything in many ways and has taken my life in lots of different directions," he said.

Works by former student of the college and internationally known and innovative architectural stained glass artist Amber Hiscott can be seen worldwide.

She sees the new apprenticeships as a chance to be hopeful for the future.

"I think it's a really good idea to have this apprentice scheme and I think it's important that young people learn how to work with the craft and its relationship to art and the architectural glass," she said.

"I have great confidence that it can have such a powerful effect in an architectural space that it will continue to be used for generations."