Gilroy Stained Glass Ltd

Name: Gilroy Stained Glass Ltd
Address: 230 – 2560 Simpson Road, Richmond, BC, V6X2P9, CA
Telephone: +16048777793

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Gilroy Stained Glass Ltd

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John & Laura Gilroy AMGP trained in one of England's oldest glass studios. We specialize in traditional and contemporary glass painting at our Vancouver studio.

www.gilroystainedglass.com

10/19/2026

We can see light at the end of the tunnel, we’re just hoping it isn’t a train, as we edge towards an installation date of next month for our latest commission. All the etching has been etched, all the painting painted, all the silver staining has been stained, kiln firing fired. Six panels leaded, cemented and polished. Three more panels leaded and soldered awaiting finishing, and three more to go through fabrication.

We get asked why it takes so many man/woman hours to design, cartoon, cutline, select glass, cut glass and then do all of the other mentioned above. Well, you have to make sure it’s designed and fabricated to be structurally sound for many, many years. But, what everybody really wants to see is does it look really good, and for you as an artist to have pushed yourself and your abilities. We have a tough install ahead, and what will be the usual great sense of relief when all of the hard work and meticulous planning has given you the final piece you envisioned. Piece of cake really.

07/29/2026

We are making good progress with our 120 sq ft window commission.

We paint upright at the easel with daylight (we are so lucky to have great north facing light), and daylight bulbs when required, illuminating the glass from the rear. The cartoon is to one side for reference. We defuse the daylight behind the easel as this helps to show any areas that may appear unevenly painted, too dark, or too light, and requiring more work. Similar techniques are used for drapery, and working at the easel this way allows for correct follow through of highlights and tonal values from one piece to another, as well as gravity allowing the paint dust to fall downward while we are working, and be easily mixed back onto the palette later.

Pictured here are a number of heads plus related hands which have been attached to a glass easel with beeswax, and John is working through the first stage of tonal painting until we’re happy. There’s a bit of a way to go with these heads yet, but it’s useful to show the process. The selected and cut glass pieces are completely covered in paint oxide, allowed to dry, and we then work in the negative removing that paint with brushes and other tools to create the tonal values. Highlights are taken out at this stage before the first kiln firing as once it has been fired it cannot be done later. The oxides are fused into the glass at approx 700 degrees Celsius. The next stage will be to apply different oxide paint for the hair, repaint again to build up semi tones and darks and then kiln fire again.

04/07/2026

I hope you all had a good Easter and were able to take some time for R&R with loved ones this long weekend.

Speaking of loved ones; a big congratulations to John who has been elected to the Professional membership of the Canadian Association of Heritage Professionals! John has been working for over 40 years at the highest end of our medium with extensive experience restoring and conserving stained glass of all ages, including medieval. He is very much looking forward to getting more involved with the BC chapter of CAHP and continuing to help preserve this fascinating art form for future generations of Canadians.

Here he is working on one of our current projects restoring and re-leading the windows of St John’s Shaugnessy.

03/20/2026

When the wall needs to be three times higher and you still need a ladder…

02/10/2026

We haven’t posted in a while as it’s been pretty busy here in our little studio. John has removed three windows from a local church, and is in the process of dismantling and creating new cutlines as part of a long term restoration project.

I’ve been designing a new 120 sqft window for a new church, and with the final draft of the design given the thumbs up, I’m drawing the full sized cartoon initially in pencil and then in Indian ink.

We’ve found that by utilizing fold-up tables and the adjoining bench I can work on areas without separating sections from the cartoon as a whole. The window will have seven figures which all need to run through correctly. It’s not the biggest painted window we’ve done here, that was a near 300 sqft Resurrection window back in 2010, but at times I really feel for the Police Chief Brody character in the film Jaws when he says “we’re going to need a bigger boat”.

With great North facing natural light for the easels and a view of the mountains our studio is a pretty good boat.

Address

230 – 2560 Simpson Road
Richmond, BC
V6X2P9

Telephone

+16048777793

Website

http://www.gilroystainedglass.com/

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