Our Stained Glass Art Glass Studio | Cain Architectural Art Glass

“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

The most surprising thing to most people is the preparation that goes into our projects. Sharing ideas, designing, making full-scale layouts, finding material. We are often halfway through a project before cutting the first piece of glass. Most people relate only to the actual building of a window, not its creation. The walls of our studio are windows with deep ledges, with large sheets of glass that are propped up with light shining through for our consideration. Minute differences in color or texture are almost indiscernible to the untrained eye and are considered as we choose which piece of glass to use. The glass might be left in place for days so we can see the subtle changes of the light at dawn, midday or dusk; on a sunny day or overcast one.

We have patterned our business approach after European and colonial artist/craftspeople. Working on our property in the country frees us from the high overhead of commercial real estate and provides us with the flexibility and solitude to work creatively. With no office staff and marketing people, we are able to keep our overhead low and direct the funds we receive for commissions directly into the creation of our projects.

It’s what’s on the inside that counts.

Projects evolve. We see them a little differently each day, constantly trying to improve what we have created. All of our sketches are done free-hand, and we can make full-scale refinements with computers and modern technology.

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.

Being surrounded by sunlight helps us create windows that match the
direction of the light they will receive in their final setting.

How colors interact with each other is of great concern. In 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.

We buy our stained glass in sheets to give us a wide range of colors 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.

When we find a company that makes stained glass, we order their samples and build a rack so we can study them in natural light. We now have 35 racks with hundreds of glass samples. Combining the different characters of the glass as well as their colors for each project individually is an art unto itself. 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.

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.

Painting on glass is an art unto itself.

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.

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.

Hand beveling on our 1915 Henry Lang machinery. By holding the glass over rotating iron, stone, cork, and felt, many small facets are created to give the bevel its character.

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.

After transforming our design into 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…

Glue chipping is an old art glass process where one heats animal glue in a double boiler and pours it 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.

Working glass over a flame enhances its translucency and frees us from encasing each piece of glass in metal. Working glass over a flame has brought me the closest to my fascination with the translucency of nature. Mixing and drawing hot glass to make it thinner gives me the range of color I need.

All five of my stepchildren 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.

Documenting our projects as they develop for our archives and emailing updates to our clients.

People appreciate that their project is designed specifically for them and will never be reproduced.

We are always looking for new ways to use glass. Painting, acid etching, carving, beveling, lampworking… combining the materials from different sources and working them in creative, neverending ways is a wonderful way to spend one’s life.

Every summer – Virginia Creeper…..