How it started
One day I was walking past a small, funny stained glass shop on Illawarra Road in Marrickville, and the guy who owned the shop chased me down the street holding a beer. I drank the beer and told him I wanted to work for him. He said no — and then called me the next day.
Kirby studied painting at Sydney College of the Arts, graduating from the University of Sydney in 2014. “I was very much a painter through my late teens and early twenties — I loved big brush strokes and the feelings a painting can invoke.” Before glass there was a stretch of “junk art”: wooden sculptures built from scrap, steel and nails.
The groundwork went back further. Her parents introduced her to DIY leadlighting as a child, and her father kept an atelier — traditional tools, copper and steel work, the smell of linseed oil and turpentine. The Marrickville shop turned a childhood familiarity into a trade.
Learning the bench
Trained by old-hand glaziers.
After art school Kirby worked in stained-glass master ateliers to refine her technique and find her own style. Much of the real teaching came from older tradesmen on the tools.
Real MacGyvers who use thin chisels and measure to the half millimetre. I've learnt a lot from these men, and hope to be as old and clever as them one day.
The result is a studio that reworks Art Deco, Art Nouveau and Victorian styles in its own contemporary interpretation — classical repairs and restorations alongside new leadlight design, done with the same traditional methods.
Back for 2026
Legacy Stained Glass has taken a break for a year and a bit to have some babies. We are now back to work for 2026. Restoration is a big part of our business.
The studio paused through 2024–25 for maternity leave and reopened in 2026. Day to day, the work leans toward repair and restoration — tired and broken leadlight brought back — with custom commissions alongside it.
Recognition
Kirby brings contemporary sensibilities to traditional leadlighting.The Design Files · studio visit, 2017
In her words
On the craft.
On getting better
“I feel that my ability and skills get greater with each piece.”
On the medium
“A unique and painterly style within a fixed medium.” The window is inspired by a love of the past and an urge to place it in the contemporary.
On the trade
“Trained from a long line of stained glass masters, no technique is unfamiliar to us. Our designs are contemporary, while also reminiscent of the traditional values of this trade.”
Enquiries
Put a Legacy in your home.
Tell us about the opening, the room and the feeling you're after — or send a photo of a window that needs saving. We'll come back to you by email.