Of course it makes sense that one of my favorite hobbies includes small bits of sharp things, hot solder, and caustic chemicals. For me, making stained glass is truly a labor of love, and I do not exaggerate when I say that I have put blood, sweat, tears, burns, ground-up fingernails, and a lot of bad words into this craft.
Chris set up a lovely workbench for me in the basement of our first house, an arrangement that was a vast improvement over the sheet of plastic I had to hang up in the kitchen of my first apartment (you know, to keep the glass dust out of my leftovers), and a huge step above the old bedroom door precariously balanced across two workhorses that I had going in the house in Irvington.
I still have a space all my own in which to house my little operation, however with my “studio” currently located about 18 inches from the front bumper of the cars parked in the garage, midsummer and the dead of winter are not the most pleasant times of the year to start projects. But I will…you know, for art’s sake.
Most of my work has been made for family, friends, and fundraisers. And to those of you planning a wedding, I highly recommend NOT making your own wedding favors, especially if they are made out of stained glass and you have to make 150 of them. What ended up adding a very personal and truly heartfelt contribution to our wedding started out as an immense source of stress. But I do love seeing them in the windows of friends’ houses, though. After almost eight years, they still sparkle.
I have also done a few commissioned pieces, and would love to do more of them. Think: wedding or anniversary gifts, window décor, wedding favors (yes, really, I would do wedding favors again), lanterns or lamps…I’d love to get ideas from people. If you are interested in commissioning a piece, please email me for details.
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- A very simple Texas suncatcher. This may have been the first piece I made for my in-laws, and it’s sort of spiraled out of control since then.
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- A patriotic heart suncatcher for Alice
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- Seasons Series: A spring Texas bluebonnet
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- The bluebonnet with the lights on.
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- Seasons Series: Black-eyed Susans for summer
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- The summer lamp panel under normal light, to show some of the detail of the glass.
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- Seasons Series: fall foliage
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- Fall leaves with the lights on for more detail
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- Seasons Series: a handsome winter cardinal
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- More detail of the cardinal’s glass
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- A wedding gift for some dear friends. This design is based off a detail from the Taj Mahal, one of their stops on a trip to India.
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- A detail from the Taj Mahal window. I really like the red glass, a texture called glue chip.
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- I honestly can’t remember if this macaw window was one of my commissioned pieces or if it was for a Silent Auction.
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- The lighting here is admittedly bad, but this panel was made for the Education Department at the Indianapolis Zoo. It was a reminder of Pasha, one of the zoo’s polar bears (yes, the glass used for the bear is actually white).
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- Eventually we figured out how to take photos with better backgrounds, but this seahorse was done to commemorate the opening of the seahorse exhibit at the Indianapolis Zoo.
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- This was a three-sided tabletop lantern I made for my sister (side 1).
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- Another side of the tabletop lantern. Luckily for Sara, I really love the types of glass that I use for beach and ocean scenes.
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- One of the largest panels I’ve done, this was a commissioned piece of the owner’s two pet birds.
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- A dolphin window made as a Silent Auction item.
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- The Boston Red Sox window I made for Sara and Kevin’s wedding gift. It was really fun to surprise them by having it on their gift table at the reception. Just don’t expect one for the Patriots anytime soon…
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- Made in memory of Molly, a friend’s departed dalmation. While it was a little sad knowing how much she was missed, the spotted glass was still pretty neat to work with.
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- A window co-designed with some friends from Best Buddies for the Art of Friendship fundraiser. This was a lot of fun to work on…thanks Victoria and Chelsea! Incidentally, the winning bid went to the owner of the Indiana Pacers. I’m just saying…
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- A panel made for a friend to match the wall decals in Baby Evan’s nursery.
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- Another window for a friend. This one ended up in Baby Marlee’s nursery to match her “pink butterflies” theme.
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- Mom’s first panel, an egret.
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- The egret lamp panel with the lights out.
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- Sara Jane’s lamp panel. This was my first attempt at including some non-glass objects in a piece, and the shell in the lower right seemed to work well.
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- Sara Jane’s panel in the dark. Since I used all opaque glass here, the light diffuses pretty nicely.
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- Since Jon and Christine spend so many of their vacations scuba diving and snorkeling, I thought I’d make them a little reminder of the scenery.
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- I started out with one blue cross for Miss Katy, but this pattern got quite a bit of use for Christmas in 2009.
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- The cross in red mosaic to match a friend’s kitchen décor.
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- Green and blue mosaic cross.
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- A little random, perhaps, but the perfect design for some lovely friends who are huge Beatles fans.
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- An old pattern I actually designed several years ago, this sun was resurrected for a friend.
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- One of the easiest designs, I used this butterfly as a demo piece with my Best Buddies team as we designed a panel for the Art of Friendship fundraiser. They each got to make their own butterfly to take home and got a sense for how to make stained glass.
