How i became a Stained Glass Artist

It started on 10th December 2020 on my 30th Birthday. I woke up feeling excited, nervous and courageous, turning 30 seemed like such a big number…was I officially now an adult? It felt like perhaps I was, except when I was younger I’d assumed by this age everything would be figured out.

The reality was very different. I was in ‘no man's land’ regarding my ‘career’. It was the start of the pandemic and I was cleaning a school part-time. Earlier in the year I'd left our small family business to pursue my own path and be more creative - my soul was aching sat behind a laptop screen replying to negative emails and packing parcels in an industrial warehouse.

Being creative, using my imagination freely, and working with my hands has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My earliest memories are the smell of opening a wooden art box filled with pastels, paints, pencils, and mini easels and spending hours playing with them. Do you know the ones I mean with the latched draws and cute compartments? Heaven! Even the primary school proudly displayed one of the paintings I’d created at home because they were impressed so much.

In primary school, I took extra art classes during lunchtime and after hours. In secondary school, my favourite lessons were Art, Graphics, Design Technology, Woodwork and Film Studies. Even bunked long-distance running PE lessons to hide in my Art teachers class room for an hour instead. The grades I received were top marks and the school encouraged me to push myself further in these subjects.

In college I studied Design, learning how to create a brief, build something from nothing to then presenting in an exhibition format. We practised woodwork, 3D design, ceramics, photography, Adobe Creative Suite, History of Art, life drawing, painting, line drawing and stained glass. Receiving distinctions across the board, my eyes were opened to a wider world of arts and crafts and I was hungry to learn more.

University I chose Interior Architecture and Design which taught me how to technical draw, use CAD, write structured essays, create in-depth projects with accompanying 3D models, as well as paint, textiles, collages, digital art, furniture building, coding basic computer programs for art installations, adobe suite software and so much more. In the end, graduating with a first-class honours BA degree.

(Above images - being interviewed on Kent Radio about one of my projects which involved the public writing messages and drawing pictures on the pavestones in Canterbury city centre.)

Art & Design was the air I breathed - I couldn't live without it. I didn't want to spend my time doing anything else.

After graduating, I joined the family business choosing some of the occasional furniture that was sold, built the website, photographed products, created advertisements, attended events & exhibitions, managed the multiple e-commerce platforms and packed the orders. In my spare time to satisfy the creative spark I taught myself fibre art techniques, knitting, dressmaking and crafting. This led to teaching arm knitting workshops around the UK, one of my favourite regular locations was Daylesford Farm in the Cotswolds which taught me a lot about marketing & value.

Up until that point selling things I'd made wasn't really a part of the process but this era showed me how it could be monetised properly - meaning I could spend more time creating - the dream!

Like most craft enthusiasts I opened an Etsy store selling these makes, it didn't take off like Studio Saunders did (not that I was expecting it to) to me this Etsy store was a place to offload the fibre art and knits that were quickly taking over my room. However, every time I unexpectedly sold a piece a voice quietly whispered in my head “One day you could do this full time…perhaps”.

After renovating the flat we live in now, mostly by ourselves, I acquired so many new skills - plastering, tilling, carpentry, plumbing, repairing, upholstery, decorating and landscaping. When we moved in in 2019 I made so many things by hand just because I wanted to learn the process.

We gained a spare room which quickly became a studio for us to be creative in. I’d make and sell things on the side, teach workshops, work in a local haberdashery part-time and work for the family business taking care of the online sales and packing.

Spinning these plates was dizzying and I was secretly longing to focus on one thing. It felt like I couldn't be an expert at something while spreading myself across multiple jobs. But I wanted to learn and earn as much as possible.

After much internal debating, I quit the two stable jobs (family business & haberdashery) which took up the majority of time and probably kept me quite complacent and decided to become a full-time self-employed creative person. Woooo!

Shortly after this, the pandemic arrived. Boooo!

That's when I panicked and found a cleaning job in a school to pay the bills as I didn't qualify for any of the COVID government grants and cleaners were classified as key workers.

The plan before finding that job was to get into the weddings/parties/events industry by hiring out all the fabulous backdrops, prop boxes, neon signs and decorations I’d made for our wedding which ended up being cancelled because of the pandemic.

Since this whole industry ceased to exist during the pandemic it didn't seem like a wise time to try and get a job in it. So I needed something which could keep me afloat while I figured out a new plan. Hours and hours were spent listening to ‘How to start a creative business’ podcasts, ‘Founder’ podcasts, ‘Positive mindset’ podcasts which flooded my brain with a ‘You can do anything you set your mind to!’ attitude while cleaning at this school. I treated the experience as a deep learning /brain re-wiring opportunity to pass the time.

Five months later when my 30th birthday started approaching I asked myself ‘Would little Jess be proud of where she is now?’ and the answer was a sombre ‘No’. So as a birthday present to myself, I rang up my boss and quit that day.

Luckily I had been putting small amounts of money aside over the years as I knew in my heart of hearts I wanted to build something for myself, be in charge of my own destiny and live without a boss telling me what to do. There was a nest egg to keep me afloat for a while - which was crucial.

The second birthday present I received that day was a beginner's Stained Glass kit from Ben. A few weeks beforehand Ben asked what I might like for my birthday and casually I mentioned ‘perhaps some Stained Glass tools’. To be honest I hadn't been thinking about Stained Glass, it was an unplanned suggestion as something fun to play with while in lockdown and had fond memories of Stained Glass lessons in college.

Little did I know, I was about to fall immediately head over heels in love with the craft and make it my full time job!

(Smug ‘I’m in love with Stained Glass’ face.)