Other Designers

When churches asked Roy for a stained glass window, he would normally suggest they use the services of one of his current designers. However, architects sometimes decided they wanted to showcase a local artist’s work in a window.

Miller Studios produced over 400 windows church windows but only about 20 were produced using other designers. Most of the windows by other designers were unpainted, as this cost less and also an artist without experience in stained glass design could not easily understand the intricacies of the art of painting or staining glass.

The first windows Roy made using ‘other’ designers used thick slab glass. The chipped facets in slab glass windows allow light to sparkle like gemstones.

Gary Hansen designed a large abstract, triangular window in 1969 for the new St Andrews Church, Blenheim. Gary, a mixed-media artist, taught art in high schools for years and in the early 1960s had designed and executed the large glass mural, for the Wellington Overseas Passenger Terminal, now the Clyde Quay Complex in Wellington.

Marilyn Lusk designed a window in 1973 looking up the Arrow River, Arrowtown, using patterns from nature, the base of which was made from slab glass.

Gypsy Poulston designed a slab glass window for Craighead Diocesan School, Timaru, where she worked as an art teacher.

Shona McFarlane designed a massive window in 1976, The Rainbow, in Manukau shopping mall, Auckland, executed by Roy, which remains one of the largest coloured glass windows in New Zealand. She then designed at least six other windows for Miller Studios, which were executed by Paul Hutchins.

Roy Entwistle of Geraldine in 1976 designed a St Francis window for St David’s Church, Peel Forest, Canterbury. Roy, an art teacher at Geraldine High School, developed a passion for stained glass and designed five windows for Geraldine churches, executing three of those himself. Later, in 1979, Roy Entwistle designed another window, Parable of the Three Servants, which Roy Miller executed, for the Otama Presbyterian Church, Southland.

Elizabeth Stevens, a prolific artist from Alexandra, designed in 1980 two geometric windows for the Dunedin Public Hospital Chapel, executed by Paul Hutchins.

Rev. Doris Hartley Tutill in 1980 designed a window for St George’s Hospital, Merivale, Christchurch, executed by Paul Hutchins, (currently in storage due to the Christchurch earthquakes).

 Bill Sutton designed the Scott Memorial Window for the Christchurch Cathedral.