About Caroline...

Caroline Lambert

Caroline Lambert is a practising Glass Artist and Teacher with a passion for colour and a tremendous enthusiasm for her subject. She has over 15 years’ teaching experience, having studied Decorative Stained Glass at the City of Bath College.

She keeps herself up to date with all the latest methods, products and techniques and is always keen to learn new skills.  Recent learning experiences have included glass blowing, large scale kiln work and reactive fusing glasses.  Although some of these have no direct application to her regular classes, she maintains that a good teacher must always try to keep abreast of new trends in order to give her students the best possible experience!

Teaching regular adult education day and evening classes and workshops in Stroud and Dursley, Caroline teaches upwards of 100 students each week in a creative and supportive learning environment, with ages ranging from 4 to 94 years!  

Caroline designs and plans all her own activities, working from her studio in a converted Waiting Room in the garden at Station House in the Gloucestershire village of Wickwar.  She does undertake private commissions but she is very choosy about which she will accept; design quality and innovation are her watchwords here.

Caroline's classes regularly sell out within days, as do her weekend workshops and Summer Schools, so it's worth keeping an eye out for new dates and events.  Don't forget: Caroline is not tied to any specific location and will be very happy to come to you if you would like her to run a class in your own village hall or other venue.

Techniques

Copper Foiling

The copper foil technique, made famous by Tiffany, is ideal for both 2D and 3D projects such as sun catchers, mirrors and Tea-light holders.

It involves wrapping the edges of each section of glass with a self-adhesive copper tape. These pieces are then soldered together to create the finished project.

Copper foiling is a great way to start off in stained glass, as you need less specialist equipment than for leading or fusing, and it is easy to set up and continue at home.

Caroline carries all the tools and equipment you need to get started, either to use within one of her classes or to buy for use at home, and she is happy to share her skill and experience to ensure a positive outcome, whatever the project.

Caroline has an extensive library of project and design ideas to get you going, and will also help you to realise your own designs, either 2D or 3D, if that's what you prefer.

Caroline is happy to include copper foiling in all her stained glass classes, courses and workshops.

Fused Glass

This remarkable process involves layering and fusing together colourful pieces of glass which are then heated in a high-temperature kiln so that they fuse together. There is something almost magical about the way the kiln turns a collection of glass pieces into a shiny, glistening, fabulous piece of glass art.

Although the technology is complex, Caroline takes care of almost all of the really technical stuff, leaving you to turn your ideas into a thing of beauty!

You can go on to add a selection of ‘inclusions’ such as metals, powders, frits and stringers to create stunning panels, sun-catchers, coasters and jewellery, while a second kiln-firing will turn virtually any flat project into a bowl or other 3D object.

Although this technique was known to the Egyptians, it has only become really popular within the last few years and it is now Caroline's most popular subject in both her regular weekly classes and weekend workshops.

Caroline now has three kilns running in her studio and she includes glass fusing in almost all of her stained glass classes as well as her various school projects.

Leaded glass

Leaded glass has been around for more than a thousand years and involves cutting coloured and textured glass and framing it in lead. There is something deeply satisfying about designing and producing an art-work that uses techniques that have changed little since the Middle Ages and which will still be admired long after your grand-children are grown up with children of their own!

This the most technically demanding of the three disciplines, as well as the most time consuming, but the results are always worth the time and effort.

After cutting the glass pieces, individual sections of lead are then shaped around the glass before each joint is soldered together to create a solid framework.

The finished panel is then cemented to make it weather resistant, before being polished to give the lead its distinctive gun-metal finish.

This is the technique that most people associate with 'Stained Glass' and Caroline is happy to include it in all her regular weekly stained glass classes as well as periodic day workshops.  It can also incorporate elements of both fused glass and copper-foiled stained glass.