Image: Stained Glass Museum, London
The Stained Glass Museum in Ely will present 'Wild Folk: Painted Glass by Tamsin Abbott' from 30 July to 27 September 2026, bringing to the gallery a series of illustrations created entirely in glass. The museum describes the exhibition as the first time these panels have been shown since the launch of the accompanying book, making the display a rare chance to encounter the works as independent artworks rather than as published images.
According to the museum’s exhibition page, 'Wild Folk' centres on transformation and enchantment, with glass chosen for what the institution calls its alchemical qualities and symbolic connection to the book’s themes of shapeshifting and transformation. The works combine painting and engraving, and Abbott works across both sides of the glass to build depth and atmosphere. The panels also use a range of traditional stained-glass methods, including expressive brushwork, sgraffito, and the engraving of flashed glass with diamond and stone drills.
The museum’s August newsletter offers a slightly different emphasis in describing the project as featuring “a remarkable series of illustrations created entirely in painted glass,” and says the images bring folk tales to life through the luminous, jewel-like qualities of the medium. The newsletter notes that the exhibition is intended to appeal to all ages and invites visitors to read Jackie Morris’s collection of folk tales alongside the glass illustrations. It also states that admission to the exhibition is included with the museum’s usual entry ticket.
The book 'Wild Folk: Tales from the Stones' is listed by the museum shop as a collaboration between Jackie Morris’s words and Tamsin Abbott’s stained-glass paintings. The shop text describes the book as bringing together seven richly illustrated fables of transformation and power, “summoned from the ancient stones beneath our feet and transformed by word and image into portals between past and future.” The same page identifies Abbott as a member of the British Society of Master Glass Painters and says 'Wild Folk' is her first book as a stained-glass illustrator.
Abbott’s exhibition is also framed by the museum’s broader remit as an independent accredited museum and registered charity devoted to collecting, exhibiting and interpreting stained glass. The Stained Glass Museum is based in the South Triforium of Ely Cathedral, and its exhibitions page places 'Wild Folk: Painted Glass by Tamsin Abbott' within a programme that also includes events, workshops and collection-based interpretation.
The exhibition listing says the panels are being shown in Ely through 27 September 2026 and can also be viewed on the museum’s Bloomberg Connects digital guide. The museum’s webpage adds that the show is titled 'Wild Folk' and identifies the artist’s use of glass as central to the work’s meaning, with simple materials transformed into something “luminous and jewel like” for the display at The Stained Glass Museum, Ely.
