Heather McNeilly

Shoreline Glass

In the mid 1990’s, whilst working as a gardener, Heather took an evening class in stained glass and it was love at first cut.

In 2003, having spent several years making windows for friends and family, she opened a studio at The Fairground Craft and Design Centre in Andover. She spent the next six years there, working on commissions and gradually widening her skills, including taking a course in glass fusing at West Dean College in Sussex.

Having hiked the whole of the South West coast path, Heather grew to love the wild, rocky coast of North Devon and decided to ‘retire’ to Ilfracombe in 2011.

Retirement did not last long and in 2012 Shoreline Glass was born in a shop in Ilfracombe High Street.

These days Heather works from a shed in her garden often restoring Victorian stained glass from Ilfracombe houses. A course in fired glass painting has opened a new dimension to her work that Heather is still exploring.

Her work here in The Pier Gallery is inspired by her love of the natural world, especially fossils, ferns, birds and of course the sea!