Volume one: Amanda Winfield, Abinger Stained Glass
We talk a lot about creating considered products that’ll stand the test of time. It’s at the centre of so much of what we believe in and do at Corston.
The art of craft, our new journal series for 2026, looks to celebrate makers that are doing the very same thing.
Their tools, techniques and materials may well differ from ours, but we’re united in our commitment to enduring design and quality craftsmanship.
Our first maker is stained-glass artist Amanda Winfield, whose studio, Abinger Stained Glass, is based in the Surrey Hills.
Honing her craft for nearly forty years, Amanda’s a long-standing member of the British Society of Master Glass Painters and a member of Surrey Hills Enterprises – an organisation that supports local businesses and craftsmanship.
She designs and constructs bespoke stained-glass windows for new build and period homes, churches, schools and businesses, while also passing on her skills through teaching and mentorship.
We visited her at work to capture her story – and the age-old process – on film. The video’s above, or to read the highlights, just keep scrolling.
‘It’s all about the light’
Before setting up her own studio in 2001, Amanda rose through the ranks at Goddard & Gibbs, an east London glassmaker and stained-glass window manufacturer founded in 1868.
Yet her first, formative encounters with stained-glass windows came much earlier on, during childhood, when Amanda would join her parents – keen brass rubbing hobbyists – on church visits.
‘Even as a small child, you can’t help but be struck by the beauty of the light coming through stained glass and the patterns it can make,’ she says.
‘The light can hit a pillar or the floor or something and you can’t help but be mesmerised. It’s almost magical... In dull, north-facing light the rubies and the blues – the medieval colours – still really shine.’
It was then at art school in Chelsea, years later, that Amanda turned her hand to the making process.
‘I don’t think I was ever going to be an artist per se, but then I fell upon stained glass. It was at that point that I realised that you could marry art and craft together in one discipline.
‘It was a bit of a eureka moment.
‘It’s quite different, painting on glass. Painting on canvas, you’re adding, adding, adding... With stained glass, you add to the glass, and then you’re using different brushes and picks to take away to let the light through and create the image.’
A practice that asks for patience
‘This is not a craft or an art for those who want instant gratification,’ Amanda says of the end-to-end process.
‘It’s a particular skill to be able to cut the glass, paint the glass, design, lead a window together. There’s a rhythm to each part of the making of the window which brings its own mindfulness.
‘There’s a relationship between the hand, the eye, the making, the craft. The creation of that window is closely linked to a human and each of those marks that I’ve made with the paint is intentional.’
She tells us that stained glass must have two distinct strengths: ‘The window will be performing a function, so it needs to not let the weather in, and it also needs to look beautiful. You need to make sure that what you make will stand the test of time.’
Lead lines in the landscape
‘Living and working in the Surrey Hills, the woodlands and the trees are definitely my inspiration,’ Amanda says.
‘We’ve got some beautiful trees just behind us in the Abinger Roughs, five minutes away. I can just walk, take in the air, and the light changes all the time.
‘I look at landscapes and I see where the lead lines are in those landscapes.
‘When it’s cloudy but blustery, so the clouds are scudding through the sky, revealing blue and then revealing the sunlight, you get this marvellous movement of light across the landscape.
‘Winter – because the sun’s quite low in the sky – is particularly good for the light. You get wonderful shadows that you don’t get at any other time of year. I see the light changing across the landscape and I can’t help but be inspired, because I can almost imagine it as if it’s through glass.’
Moving the craft forward
As well as taking on more ‘traditional’ projects, Amanda often works with clients who are building houses. Here, the stained glass must be encapsulated to comply with building regulations.
‘An encapsulated stained-glass window is a bit like cheese in a sandwich,’ she explains. ‘You have toughened clear glass either side of the stained glass in a sealed unit.
‘Purists might say that’s not how it should be. But if we want to move this heritage craft forwards, we must move with the times. I’ve been encapsulating stained glass for thirty years.
‘Stained glass has entered the red list of endangered heritage crafts. We’ve lost teaching establishments and we have far fewer large studios, so if we don’t keep this tradition going, we’re in danger of losing the skill.’
Yet Amanda explains that the introduction of a government-backed apprenticeship scheme, offering participants a level four qualification equivalent to a Higher National Certificate, signifies hope for the future of the craft too.
‘One of my former students, Toby, is the first on that scheme and is coming to the end of his training this year. There are now two others, and I am sure there’ll be more.’
Published on 29th April 2026
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