Glass

My artwork using mosaic stained glass began just a few years ago, in 2016. We had started a community art project at my home church, Grantham Brethren in Christ, using mosaic stained glass as the medium. We were creating a series of windows that were reclaimed from an old home that was replacing them with new double-insulated windows. I designed the set of windows and had a large group of people come together over the course of a season to glue the shards of broken glass pieces to the old windows.

 

When it was completed, the last step was to grout the cracks with a black sand-less grout material that I had never used before, so I started making another window so I'd have something to practice the grouting with. And that set me off on this journey with glass a a medium I love to use to create imagery and windows that reflect and refract light into our homes.

 

I am especially interested in the idea of rescue — taking perfectly good old windows out of the trash (or headed to the dump) and re-claiming them and beautifying them — with the express goal of returning them to a residential space to brighten a room with this intense sacred quality of light. It reminds us that our homes are holy ground, and our lives should and could reflect this light into the world around us.

 

I started creating these mosaic stained glass windows in 2016. To date I have completed over 125 windows, with dozens of commissioned pieces for homes and other installations. I got my start selling them at the Village Artisans Gallery, Boiling Spring, PA thanks to their former owner PJ Heyman. They have continued to sell well at that beautiful location, and I strongly encourage you to visit the gallery to see work by a vast array of local Pennsylvania Guild artists and craftspeople. It's well worth the trip.

 

I enjoy creating custom windows for specific spaces, but the catch is that I cannot often use an old upcycled window usually. I need to find a new carpenter who is willing to create hefty windows that are a custom size.