Tony Campbell, managing director, Creative Glass, writes:
The glass industry lost a true legend in David Winkless, who passed away on 9 May at the age of 64, after a long fight against cancer.
While Dave was still at Aston University, studying fine arts and graphics, he saw an advert for ‘a glass painter’, for local glass company, Coventry Glass. He had never painted on glass before, but he was offered the job and welcomed into the firm by skilled craftsmen including Don Burrows and Frank Boszonek. He worked at Coventry Glass in Binley, running the decorative division of what later became part of Solaglass.
In 1991, Dave branched out and opened ‘Piscean Glass Studios’ in Coventry, along with his first wife, Maureen. This marked a period of collaboration with Creative Glass, based in the North East, often teaming up to work on projects.
Dave always saw glass as a blank canvas that could become anything he wanted it to be: carved, sculptured or shaded with depth, each piece a unique work of art.
Everyone wanted to talk to Dave at exhibitions wherever they were; London, Birmingham, Dusseldorf. [He was] like a celebrity and was somebody that people truly respected.
Dave never complained about what life threw at him, and always saw the funny side of everything, including his illness.
He will be sadly missed by his family, friends, and many friends in the glass industry.
