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Monday 10am - 3pm Tuesday 10am - 3pm Wednesday 10am - 3pm Thursday 10am - 3pm Friday 10am - 3pm Saturday 10am - 3pm

Shakspeare Glass

Name: Shakspeare Glass
Address: Westover, Langport, TA109RB, GB
Telephone: +441458252477
Price range: ££

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Shakspeare Glass

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Independent, anarchic, eclectic, enthusiastic and apoplectic (!) glassblowing studio and gallery in Or our glass is in galleries around the UK.

Shakspeare Glass is the home of glass blower Will Shakspeare. Often featured on television and in the press Will is one of the country’s best known glass blowers. We always have an evolving and inspiring range of Will’s glass on display and everything is made by hand in our Langport premises. We generally blow glass 3 to 4 days a week, but it is best to call before a special journey to confirm. We also show work from other selected British makers in our galleries including glass, ceramics, paintings, metalwork and jewellery. We can be found in Langport, by the river (TA10 9RB) where we have a car park and a small coffee shop, or in Taunton at Riverside Place, TA1 1JJ, 01823 333422.

02/11/2026

Up and running

Well its all go for tomorrow, the workshop is toasty and I will be attempting to blow glass tomorrow. Best find my shorts! A few bits and pieces to sort out and then back to the proverbial grindstone. Furnaces are a bit like the weather - when they are cold you cant quite imagine how hot they are and vice versa.

27/10/2026

The Big! Turn On

Not what you think, I mean the furnace!. I keep getting asked when I am finally going to turn the furnace on. Well I finally have a date in mind. 30th of October. I have been asked whether it is an occasion - like here goes and whoosh, furnace hot, glass being blown and c***r being drunk – sadly not. I will throw a handful of burning newspaper in the furnace, press a button to start the fan which will then open the air pressure switches, which in turn will open the gas pressure switches and, fingers crossed, the furnace will be alight! For the first day I will try and just let it gently warm up with the door open to drive out any moisture that has crept in. Then shut the door and let it gently warm up to 500 degrees or so. Then I can start to open the high fire systems and edge it up over the next couple of days until it reaches its normal temperature of 1060 degrees. If you take up the temperature too fast, you can run the risk of the pot (which holds the glass) cracking, and that is bad news.
It’s all a bit of an anticlimax, hopefully. Just a steady calm heating up. No flames licking the ceiling, no panic. From the outside there will be nothing to see, but just a warm glow permeating the workshop – which is a bit chilly at the mo!

All being well, this all means that I should be back to blowing sometime during the week of the 3rd of November.

16/10/2026

Collectors

Where would we be without them?

Every now and again we get an email from a collector who has been buying my work for a long time and has acquired quite a few. And every now and again one of them emails pics of their collection. This can be a double-edged sword. Looking at early work is guaranteed to make me cringe on the one hand and be eternally grateful on the other. When you make things and they sell, that can be the end of your connection with the piece and it is lovely to find out that the glass you have created is still giving pleasure years later. It makes it worthwhile. And brings back many memories - the chimney bottle - Sunderland. Syrians - Lance Bowmer at Libertys and the gaggle of Irish students I had working for me at the time. Randoms from the Elan valley in Wales and more up to date the Coast range and spin offs. Quite the journey!
So thank you Tony, your message and pics are much appreciated

05/10/2026

Retirement?

I have enjoyed my time in the shop, chatting to people about everything and anything. It has been interesting and enlightening. A lot of conversations are around the same sort of subjects - quality, art, sustainability, practicality, value, provenance. Quite a few have been about retirement and the world in general and some have been about what am I going to do next?
Well I am actually starting to look forwards to blowing again, maybe as the weather changes, I am missing the rosy glow of the furnace….. Having not blown glass for so long, I kind of miss it! Old age might be fogging the brain, but I’m not sure I’m ready to be an ex-glassblower quite yet. I am still hoping there’s some puff in the old dog yet. And there is only one way to find out! Muscles retain memories don’t they?
Orders are also starting to pile up and I need to dust off the old blowing irons. We have been running out of a few favourites and the time has come to get back on the horse or chair in my case,
When people ask me what I would like to do – I still say blow glass! Happy fool!
https://shakspeareglass.co.uk/products/roots-vase-gold-braun-16180

25/09/2026

Can AI blow glass

Of course, but it can not blow “hand-made” glass, because it would be A1-made then. It can replicate or pretend and undoubtedly blow better glass, perfectly symmetrical, and I am sure that it can add in the odd flaw to make it more realistic.
And if that is what we want, great. Yes we want our windows to be perfect, we want our varifocals to be absolutely clear, etc etc. But horses for courses.
At the moment, the divide between machine and man is narrowing and in many areas almost invisible, but in others it is widening.

Now I do not want to be unrealistically positive, but. Moving forwards, it seems to me that we will not have windowsills and shelves and therefore stuff in our houses, and we will start to appreciate just a few important things. Already we do not have “best crockery and cutlery” in cupboards. “Everyday” items are now of an incredibly high standard and cheap as chips – doesn’t really matter if they break or the dishwasher crizzles the glaze, just buy another couple. Maybe we have become emotionally unable to invest in having favourites – pieces that we would be upset to break or throw away, that we then have to take care over.

I speak to more and more people who are rejecting our throw away society and want the security of having long term connections, who appreciate the importance of value. Now, that is not just hand-made, it is way bigger, but craft is a part of it. I know it’s a big maybe, but in our fast changing world, having a favourite glass might just be becoming more important again. I must dust off my old pewter tankard!

20/09/2026

A few years back a couple of glassblowers came to dinner, way better makers than me! Half way through a very alcoholic dinner, this superb goblet maker said (holding one of my glasses) ”You know these are actually quite nice to drink out of”
In Vino Veritas.

Over the years I have made glasses that have been more on the “art” side. Me being me, they have veered towards heft rather than delicacy. And while going through my stock, I came across these Tableaux Chalices. Occasionally you find things that make you stop and reflect, these did. Completely impractical (nearly) but as an example of me pushing the odd boundary – pretty good. I would not recommend a session drinking from them, but for ever so special occasions.

You can make drinking glasses as “art” but I personally like a glass that is slightly more practical, after all drinking glasses are for drinking, not for metaphorically patting yourself on the back and thinking how clever you are!

Give me a tumbler anytime!

https://shakspeareglass.co.uk/products/tableaux-chalice-5235
https://shakspeareglass.co.uk/products/chalice-16994

12/09/2026

Whenever I chat to other glassblowers, the subject inevitably comes round to the state of our craft. And where it is going?

Studio glass, as we know it, really took off in the 1960’s with the technological advances of ceramic fibre insulation. I can remember watching the TV as a young whippersnapper and wondering why a ceramic tile had fallen off the space shuttle, and more to the point what was it doing there in the first place! I now know it was ceramic insulation – the material that transformed glassblowing. Although Glassblowing is still an incredibly expensive process (and getting more expensive daily) but ceramic insulation has made it possible for studio glass to be produced commercially on a smaller scale. Even in my career I have seen many improvements in furnaces and glass itself. For example, I personally now blow with soda glass as against lead, which used to be the only real option. The glass is purer, cord and seed free as well as being absolutely clear, a joy to work with.
My furnace is now recuperated and alarmed. In basic terms, I can gather glass from my furnace and still have hairs on my arms – if I’m quick!
I have access to superb colours, the internet to show off my wares, my phone takes better pictures than my camera. My lehrs are computer controlled and stay at the same temperature – to the degree – all day.

So going back to the question “What will happen to glass blowing moving forwards?” I don’t know. There will be life Jim, just not as we know it!

06/09/2026

I went to see the great David Byrne (Talking Heads lead man) the other night. What an honour and privilege to listen to the man himself singing Psychokiller, Burning Down The House etc. He is 74 and an inspiration. His voice might not be all it was but he was still out there. He seemed and, of course, the audience agreed that he was at his best singing the classics, supported by his amazing band.
It made me wonder whether I might be better looking back a bit, honing and treasuring the skills that I have rather than trying to make new things.
It seemed listening to Mr Byrne, that both his body and mind relaxed into singing the songs that he knew inside out. We enjoyed them – and so could he, and they were brilliant.

Maybe, you get to a point that you need to accept what you can do and do it well. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t experiment and try new things, just don’t rip up the old sketchbooks, but be more discerning. Keep the baby but get rid of the bathwater!
I’m just trying to say that you should remember what got you here and what you are good at.

30/08/2026

I went to see an old friend of mine the other week, probably the grandfather of studio glass in this country, a very wise, clever old bu**er. We ended up discussing all sorts, trips to Guatemala, drunken recuperator measurements, and jugs!!!! Aways a talking point for glassblowers! My point was that trying to make a hand-made glass jug that doesn’t drip is like herding cats. Well nigh impossible. I always think of those awful metal teapots at motorway service stations – guaranteed to cause issues.

To start with, to make a jug that doesn’t drip, you need to know which liquid you are going to pour– there is a huge difference in consistency between water and custard – well there should be!

Just glance at the internet and you will see a vast amount written about this issue - generally called the “Teapot Effect”
You can even get into complex theories of Fluid Mechanics and start using words that I have never heard of.

Simply put:
Adhesion, liquid sticking to the surface of the jug
Cohesion, liquid sticking to itself – surface tension
Speed of Pour. Obvious
Angle of Spout. Again obvious

Get any wrong = dribbling

How is a glassmaker supposed to deal with all that whilst juggling molten glass on the end of an iron
The problem is I still like jugs as a form, and love making them! Especially the clutch jugs without a handle.

They really are more decorative than practical though.

You just cant win.

22/08/2026

I actually got into work early the other day, so ahead of myself, I made myself a nice coffee and sat on our decking, it was bloody lovely. I had forgotten what a nice place it is to relax. There were a few paddleboarders and a little reed warbler seemed surprised to find me there, but apart from that……….

It reminded me how important it can be to take five. Lots of people are coming in our gallery and just looking around, having a coffee on the deck, just enjoying a time out.
We don’t have background music on, we don’t try a hard sell, just a quiet belief in the quality of what we have and what we do.

Just a shout out to my wife. I am amazed looking after the gallery what a fantastic selection of cards we have. We stock cards from many different designers, and try to only buy British. Every day I look after the gallery, there are at least 2 people who tell me that we have the best card selection in the area. I agree. It does however cause me problems when I have to get Kate a card…….

Address

Westover
Langport
TA109RB

Opening Hours

Monday	10am - 3pm
Tuesday	10am - 3pm
Wednesday	10am - 3pm
Thursday	10am - 3pm
Friday	10am - 3pm
Saturday	10am - 3pm

Telephone

+441458252477

Website

http://shakspeareglass.co.uk/home.php

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