About Vitreus Art
Vitreus Art is run by Jenny Timms & Mike Caddy.
Our pieces are owned by people who want their art
to have a changing, dynamic quality. The way the glass
responds to different lighting conditions means your
piece will often give you something new or unexpected...
As well as making the designs you can see here, we
specialise in creating specially commissioned unique
and personal stained glass gifts.
The glass we use
We use Spectrum waterglass for vibrant hot colours;
Kokomo cathedral glass for texture and richness, often
with bubbles (called ‘seeds); Spectrum baroque
glass, Kokomo iridescent glass (which has an oily
shine which changes with the light) and fantastic
streaky and opalescent glass from a selection of manufacturers.
We use the Tiffany method primarily, with copper foil
and solder, because it results in a piece with finer
lines between adjacent sections of glass. For our
domestically sized pieces, this gives a lighter and
finer appearance.
The glass is cut with a traditional glass cutter (itself
something of an art as glass likes to do its own thing
when being scored), and the edges are ground smooth.
The sections of glass are wrapped in copper foil and
soldered into the final piece. We polish the solder,
or apply a chemical patina to give a copper or lead-black
look.
Jenny
Jenny creates most of our designs, having first discovered
her interest in light and colour while at Art College.
After raising a family, she now has the time (and
energy) to experiment with glass and its unique ability
to bring colour into the home or workplace.
Jenny is influenced by a range of artistic and natural
themes, ranging from the Cubist and De Stijl movements
of the early 1900s to abstract expressions and natural
or man-made landscapes.
Mike
Mike is a marketer by profession. After working in
a number of technology-related industries, the opportunity
to develop a more visually creative interest began
when he and Jenny saw examples of modern stained glass
at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral.
Mike’s pieces often have an abstract feel, exploiting
colour and texture rather than being based on figurative
or descriptive designs.
