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The Process of Stained Glass

 

Get him started talking about it and the wealth of knowledge is evident. The passion and enthusiasm stirs up from within.

 

“That’s what excites me about it," he says, “the process."

 

And it’s evident as he describes the process of creating colored glass with various minerals and heat, melting raw materials, and blowing glass around forms.

 

He strides around his shop to massive racks of endless shades and multiple textures of glass. He grabs a sheet and slides out a piece of multi-colored opalescent glass from the rack and begins elaborating on the details of shade and shape.

 

“It’s just one of those things that people don’t understand... how much is involved in producing the glass... Cathedral glass, the blowing process, Bullseye glass, Eurburros glass..."

 

His present location is the low-key, unassuming studio, the “Shop of an ARTIST” located on West College Street that he’s owned since 1991. Some people see a messy garage and while he dreams of a high tech state of the art facility, this definitely works.

 

He builds his windows on a light easel that covers about a quarter of the west side of his studio. That allows him the opportunity to have an all-day assessment of the windows he’s building there.

 

It gives him a chance to make sure that every piece of glass "works" giving the best all around performance at different times of day when it is being hit by different directions and intensities of light.

 

He refers to this long term evaluation of a project as “livin’ with it." Only after he has ‘lived with it’ awhile can he be satisfied that the customer will be satisfied with the finished product.

 

“I don’t understand how some people can work without light.

 

Building the window is actually very relaxing. Doing the design work is stressful because you’re waiting on approval. Building it is time consuming but building it is relaxing.”

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