Grandfather on ‘crusade’ to save dying art form becomes TikTok star after videos filmed by daughter go viral

A grandfather who went viral on TikTok after his daughter filmed sweet videos of him crafting stained glass is now on a “crusade” to save the dying art form.

Roland Berry, 73, from Cheltenham, works as a heavy goods driver but his true passion lies in producing exquisite stained glass artwork.

First learning the art form aged 25 after befriending a glass restorer for Gloucester Cathedral, the married father-of-six and grandfather-of-five has since become a master.

In 2022 he created a design for his daughter’s wedding which captured the attention of an online blog.

Noticing the interest, Roland’s daughter, Cicely, 29, decided to document her father’s passion and upload it to TikTok where it went viral and his work has since been viewed by millions.

Roland now receives commissions from across the world while his courses to teach others are “selling out” – and he hopes he can continue to encourage people to see the beauty of the craft in a bid to prevent it “dying” out.

“Stained glass is a dying art, it’s literally on the endangered list with Heritage Crafts,” Roland told PA Real Life.

“It’s a bit of a crusade on my part, trying to get people into it and my life’s aim would be to stop it from being an endangered craft.”

Roland was first introduced to the art of stained glass when he was 25 after he got to know the then glass restorer for Gloucester Cathedral.

“He was in charge of restoring all the stained glass…he ended up teaching me how to do it,” Roland said.

“I’ve always done it for pleasure, it’s never been a big thing in my life but it’s been a constant thing.”

Over the decades however, Roland has noticed a dip in the popularity of stained glass, which he puts down to a lack of new churches and people using it in their homes.

But this was all to change in 2022 when he created a piece of stained glass art for his daughter’s wedding – showing Cicely and her husband’s initials intertwined delicately together with colourful glass.

Cicely said: “My wedding got picked up by a wedding blog and people kept asking where we got the stained glass from.”

After seeing the huge level of interest in Roland’s craft, Cicely decided to put together a video of Roland and a selection of his artwork without him knowing with the hopes of highlighting her father’s talents.

She shared the first video to TikTok in early 2023 showing a selection of clips of Roland smiling, their family, his paintings and a stained glass piece he was designing in pencil – which received around half a million views.

Inspired by the success Cicely revealed she had been filming her father, who found the response “overwhelming” and “lovely”, and they collectively decided to continue together.

Their videos have boomed in popularity, with the most popular earning more than nine million views – a clip of Roland welcoming his very first student for a private class in December 2024.

Cicely said she posted the video, went to bed and woke up the next morning saying “oh God” after it received more than one million likes and over 17,000 comments.

“I called dad and said ‘don’t be alarmed but you might be getting more emails than normal’,” she said.

“It’s really surreal because social media is a bit of a new concept for dad, he doesn’t really use it himself, so to see it go up by like hundreds, thousands of people a minute is really mind-blowing.”

For his stained glass art, Roland uses colourful glass panels to create intertwined letters, as well as depictions of flowers, fishes, cranes, snowdrops and more abstract pieces too.

The videos on his TikTok profile show him setting up his workshop for the day, hosting classes or showing his online audience how he carefully cuts glass on a wooden board after many users asked how this was possible.

“I knew nothing about it at first… it’s been life-changing in a very good way,” Roland said.

“It’s close to being totally overwhelming to be honest but the comments I’m getting are lovely and very humbling.”

Hundreds of thousands of TikTok users have flocked to the comment section to ask where they can join one of Roland’s courses.

“Where is this? I’ve been dying to learn,” one wrote.

“I wish I could cross the pond for a class,” another said.

Viewers have expressed their love for Roland’s relaxing nature as he explains glass-cutting techniques.

“This is so comforting to watch,” one user posted, while another added: “I love watching your videos, they always make me feel better.”

As a result of Roland’s new-found online fame, he is now receiving commission requests for his stained glass art from people all over the world.

“I’ve got three commissions on the go at the moment, one is in California, one is in Detroit, one is in Poole,” he said.

“They’re coming in from all over the place.”

While Roland also dabbles in painting, watercolours and acrylics, focusing mostly on depicting people’s dogs, his stained glass artwork seems to be “capturing the imagination more than anything”.

His courses to teach others how to create stained glass art, which he started up in early 2024 and holds in his garden studio or at local art schools are now filling up very quickly.

“I’ve got one on Saturday which is a sell-out,” Roland said.

“I would love to pass it all on, all I’ve learnt, I’m very flattered when someone enrols.”

Roland now hopes that by continuing to share his story online, others will be inspired to take up stained glass art and for younger people to have more of an interest too.

Cicely said: “The most positive thing to come out of this would be for more people to take up stained glass, because that’s dad’s passion.”