The Fused Glass Art Panels ‘Winter Sunset in Manton’ By Kathryn Webley

Kathryn’s fused glass art panels are a real delight.   Winter Sunset in Manton, created from the reflection on the canal from a cool winter sun.  Each section of glass mirror the way the water fragments the reflection.  The panel is made using bullseye glass.  The scene itself is carefully built up with the precise placing of glass powders and frits and Kathryn’s own method of layering the glass.

Kathryn loves recreating the changing views she observes from her Narrowboat.

The wall panel is mounted with standoff brackets.

Please note that all Kathryn’s fused glass art panels are handmade so some small variation will occur between works.

Photo credit for Simon Bruntnell.

Fused Glass Art Panels Artist

Kathryn Webley studied sculpture at Sheffield Polytechnic and went on to teach Art and Design in secondary schools.  It wasn’t until she fulfilled her desire to live on a Narrowboat, that she became intrigued with glass.   Fascinated by the patterns and reflections in the water and the associated flora of the canal bank.  Kathryn’s inspiration derives from the ‘corridor of nature’ that canals can create within urban areas. 

With glass, its properties of fluidity and transparency appealing to Kathryn, it is the ideal material to represent the canal scenes she loves.  Using coloured glass powders in the same way that a painter uses oils. Kathryn mixes the powders to create her own canal colour palette. Then using the layering technique of glass fusing she creates a three-dimensional depth within the landscape scenes.  As the seasons change the same stretch of canal evolves, as too does the resulting reflections upon the water, it is by this, that Kathryn’s creativity is alight.

Kathryn works from her purpose-built floating studio ‘The Pod’.  It is moored on the Chesterfield Canal. During its construction, Kathryn gave very specific instructions for room to be made for a kiln.

Kathryn’s work was on exhibit at the Contemporary Glass Society ‘Glorious Glass’ exhibition at St Helens and Aylesbury in 2019. In the second series of the BBC TV programme ‘Home is Where the Art is’ Kathryn was a winner. Two of her commissioned windows featured in a 2021 broadcast of More4’s ‘My Floating Home’.