Artist Studio
| We do not get to know people by their coming to us. We must go to them to find out what they are like. |
| -Goethe |
| Please call ahead. |
| -Annonymous |
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| "It's what's on the inside that counts." |
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| We buy our stained glass in sheets to give us a wide range of color to select from. It takes the eyes at least 20 minutes to absorb color, and so much of our time is spent in selection. It's not unusual for a few leaves to be cut from a sheet and the remainder placed in our racks. | How colors interact with each other is of great concern. On this very complicated project, we placed the cut pieces on a piece of clear glass that was laid over a pattern. As we progressed, we would hold the "tray" of clear glass over our heads to see how the colors interacted. |
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| When I find a company that makes stained glass, I order their samples and build a rack so I can study them in light. I now have 35 racks. These samples are useful in communicating with our clients, but to select the final glass we group our projects together and visit the vendors to hand select. Ordering based solely on the samples is very risky. | Projects evolve. Each day we see them a little differently, constantly trying to imporve what we have created. All of our sketches are done free hand, and with computers and modern technology, we are able to make refinments full scale. |
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| We cut each piece of glass by hand. Sometimes we'll use a diamond band saw for sharp inside cuts and a diamond grinder for close fits.
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We created a wall 26' x 9' of cut mirror and black glass for a disco around 30 years ago. You can see the design sketch in the photograph. By leaving the edge clean cut, the revolving light would travel along the design lines. |
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| Painting on glass is an art unto itself. This is Missy Scott, one of the most gifted people I have ever worked with. | By "waxing" the glass to an area of the studio where the light is the same as where the window will end up is very important to the success of our projects. We also take into account the presence of trees or sky behind our windows. |
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Hand beveling on our 1915 Henry Lang machinery. By holding the glass over rotating iron, stone, cork, and felt, many small facetes are created to give the bevel its character. |
Documenting our projects as they develop for our archives and emailing updates to our clients.
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| Sculpting with metal in our windows gives us the ability to create life-like forms like tree and vine motifs, sometimes adding thorns and branches that protrude beyond the surface of the glass. Here we use an electric hand-held melting pot to pour the base metal. | After transforming our design to a rubber stencil on the glass, we cut the design with an exacto knife. To achieve the depth and shadows for a landscape design such as this we carved with various mediums from fine to coarse. Removing the stencil, carving, replacing the stencil, carving... we build on the process. |
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| My stepson, Daniel White, has worked with me since he was a teenager. Now at, 27, we work together as a team, learning from each other as he prepares to make our studio his life's work. This partnership and the passing of our art from one generation to another is the pinacle of my career and gives me great joy. | All five of my step children worked in the studio as they were growing up. My father took me to work with him when I was a child, and as an adult I now consider it one of the most important parts of my life. This is Matthew, another stepson, helping me cut a pattern. |
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| Glue chipping is an old art glass process where one heats aminal glue in a double boiler and pours in onto a level piece of glass that has been sandblasted. By varying the ratio of glue to water and how many times we chip the glass we are able to achieve many different textures. | As the glue dries, it grasps the frosted glass and peals it to achieve the chip effect. We always chip three times as much glass as we need so we can select for the effect we are trying to achieve. |
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| To make our windows weather resistant, we push putty under all the leads. This also gives the window much of its strength. Final cleaning is time consuming and tedious, but gives the window a polished, finished look. | A cozy way to spend the day. Putty drying by the coal stove, radios on; pushing putty around our stained glass windows can be a nice break from the stress of creativity. |
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| Sculpting solder with a 250 watt soldering iron. It is amazing how solder will follow the heat and what one can achieve with patience and practice. | We are always looking for new ways to use glass. Painting, acid etching, carving, beveling, lamp working... combining the materials from different sources and working them in creative, never ending ways is a wonderful way to spend one's life. |
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| Being surrounded by sunlight helps us to create windows that match the direction of the light they will receive in their final setting. |
