Glass ACT

Meet three women crafting beauty with glass

- CAROLINE BEDDOW

Nathalie Liege, 57, was born in Paris and now lives near Shrewsbury, where she creates modern stained-glass windows.

I was transfixed by the beautiful medieval stained-glass windows of the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. In the 13th century, most people couldn't read, so these windows told a story in pictures. Stained glass is still a storytelling art form. I completed my training at Wrexham University, and in 1998 I got a two-year grant from the Worshipful Company of Glaziers and Painters of Glass, which included a fully equipped studio in Shrewsbury. Since then, I have worked with coloured glass, fusing glass and hand-painted glass on private and public projects. One church project was to create a modern window at St Luke's Church in Grimethorpe, Yorkshire, which remembers those who lost their lives in the local mines.

In 2024 I moved to a larger studio in Wem in Shropshire. It includes a library of over 150 specialist books. I'm currently working in Prees in Shropshire to create a window for their primary school to thank locals who have raised funds to restore a 15th-century stained-glass window by artist John Thornton in the next-door St Chad's Church.