Suddenly last summer… I did start a particular notebook and it is now full, of my Hebridean adventure at one end … and my ‘suddenly’ new commission at the other end.
And here we are now in 2026 and I’m madly cutting glass for that new commission.
Would you like to know all about it…..?
My date entry says 23rd July. A meeting…
At Penrith Parish Church. A new window to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the nave. My notes from that day say… 300…..Georgian church on an ancient site.. historic market town… St Andrew. (And I noted that St Andrew responded to Jesus’s call to “follow me”. )
Friday 8th August was a second meeting. To meet the donor. I immediately liked him. He had such definite ideas about the subject matter, proposed position (definitely in the nave) and timescales!… “I’m 93 Debbie.. there is some urgency. Can we have this window for Easter!”
He wanted Christ in the heart of Penrith.
How?
I took a walk around the town… struck by the red sandstone..sundials.. clock faces and leafy trees.
I drove to the edge of town and took a hike up to the Beacon. A stunning heart shaped vista beheld me. … valley, town and hills beyond to the northern fells of the lakes. A rugged path had zig zagged up thru the tall trees to the top… tall to the sky!
I was inspired .. but still wondered. How?
How will I represent Christ. ..
I paused at Shap on my drive home. I was starving and secured the last meat and potato pie. Sat outside in the sun I was greeted by a fellow traveller, and we got chatting. Turned out she was a bell ringer … I said, my business takes me into churches too. And I explained my quandary and how I was going to have to find a way to represent Christ.  .. I was thinking “light”.. or a sunrise o r …..
“Won’t that be a stretch though” she said, “ for folks to get”..
Mmmmmmm.
And that was that. My realisation moment. Just hours into this “urgent” thinking…. I shall have to do Jesus. (Exclaim) And I did my first doodle.
Page 7 of notes. 2 meetings in.
And I had imagined my composition.

From initial doodle…. to working out the lead lines. Hour upon hour of staring and adjusting the drawings on my walls.

Then came the nitty gritty… the consents. Any new window for this church has to go before the diocese. I presented text and drawings to accompany the submission … and kept working up the ideas. Lizzy, my friend of Eden stained Glass, and the expert on the diocese panel, generously bigged me up and said lovely things like ..”Debbie was a flourishing stained glass designer with a skill for including subtleties without shoehorning them in”. (How lovely was that!)

Now after some nail biting weeks, (and how much do I dare to do?) permission has been granted and rubber stamped by the chancellor.
I have my work cut out to complete this for Easter… but, I’m a fellrunner, I said to Reverend David. I love a finish line.
So. Here we go….

I began cutting glass in the new year. Lizzy once again coming to my aid and offering me 3 sheets of beautiful Hartley Wood swirly hand blown glass. Probably 30 years old or so. How wonderful that handmade glass from the northeast should now end up in a new window in Penrith. Other glass came from Pearsons at Liverpool, Tatra glass from Loughborough and my depleting stash of English antique glass.

I dearly love glass cutting and selection. It is wonderfully challenging in my small workshop when working on a project of this scale. Glass everywhere!
Most days start with me juggling the boards of glass. The project is made up of four large panels. It is unlikely that I will be able to view all the panels together until the final fitting. So, there is a huge element of risk and trust and visualisation.
I work mostly on the light box for the painting but I try to offer the glass up to natural light too, by waxing up on to a glass easel.
It is a huge undertaking. But boy am I enjoying it!

More to follow…… (I wonder how many days I have left now)