Rekindling old hobbies and pastimes has been a familiar theme over the past year when all of us have spent more time indoors.
But a Poringland man has gone a step further by setting up a YouTube channel, The Happy Gilder, to showcase his love of skills that really are a dying trade.
Paul Chamberlain, 42, describes himself as an ornamental glass artist, an art form which borrows heavily on techniques that were developed in the Victorian age.
He’s bringing the hobby right up-to-date by sharing the well-guarded secrets of this art in the hope that people take it up as a lockdown hobby or even a career, by releasing a new online video each week.
Paul got into glass art almost by accident six years ago.
He said: “It was 2015 and my father-in-law brought a sand-blaster round and I started using it and got some nice results just pottering around. I started going into charity shops and finding old mirrors with a nice frame and I’d upcycle it.
Many of the techniques Paul uses date back to Victorian times
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