FORMER Portland Leadlighter’s Guild members are being asked to pick up their work, so there is more room for the ever-expanding team.

If you walk just down the alley beside Julia Street Creative Space, through the door to the Woodturners group workspace, and then up the stairs you’ll find a room full of glass, colours, and a few band-aid wearing fingers.

When Portland Leadlighter’s Guild president Laurel Selwood first joined the group, there were only six members.

Now, 20 members share the space, and with plenty of work at hand, they need more room.

Ms Selwood is asking people who have left the group to make a trip to the workspace and collect the work that has been left behind, so more room is made available for new members.

A variety work has been left behind.

What Ms Selwood believes may be a picture of sailboats, has been left behind as a work in progress, along with another unfinished work of a tulip or rose.

One of the works has been untouched for the past 10 years.

“It's great that we're growing, but we don't have a lot of space. We are confined to this space, and although it's a big space, we can't fit all our members in at once,” Ms Selwood said.

“These tables can only fit four people for comfortably working.

“We're in the process of trying to look at ways we can maximize the space, so we've had these sliding shelves made up so that whoever's working here on Saturday can put their work away.

“If you've got two people sharing the one space that means you've got to have storage for two people, which is why we're trying to find the owners of these.

Ms Selwood said leadlighting had changed over the years, with the increased cost of glass having an impact.

Longest guild member Lorraine Rowe said it can be an expensive hobby – depending on the size of a project, but she loved the craft.

The group is active three days a week, that gives every member a chance to join on at least one day that fits their schedule.

The process goes, cartoons are drawn out and glass is cut to a shape in the cartoon with a special tool.

“You put an adhesive foil (copper foil) around the piece of glass and then you solder them together,” Ms Selwood said.

“Whereas this is lead, so instead of using foil around the glass, you use strips of lead and you wrap it around the pieces of glass.

“You can do fun things like, we’ve got sun catches, we've got the birds and butterflies, and you can do simple things like that or you can do quite complex things.”

The guild is also available to do small repair jobs, but reminded the public they were not experts.

The public can visit the guild at the Julia St premises.