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About
Altamont, New York: 1962. I threw a football that ricocheted off one of the stained-glass windows of the Chapel. The Prefect told me to fix it. I’m guessing he reasoned my competence at this because I maintained the vehicles in the “motor pool”. Our small college property’s buildings included an old leaning “shop” full of antiquated farm instruments and junk. I found a huge electric soldering iron which had been used on metal roofs and several toothpaste tubes I cut into lead strips and some small pieces of flat butterscotch colored bottle glass. The end result was not pretty. What I managed to do, however, was an improvement over the 4-inch square piece of cardboard covering the broken glass at the bottom of the window. During chapel services after “the fix” I would position myself in the chapel so that I could see the light that I had resurrected.
Thirty years passed before I started cutting glass again. There will be no more breaks.
This site presents samples of the 70 pieces I have made. The pieces follow both the Prairie and Tiffany languages and traditions.
The WORKS page currently includes photos of 18 pieces. The STUDIO pages include photos of the building process of 2 pieces. As time allows more pieces will be added to these pages.
Building a beautiful stained-glass work is about controlling your design, your plan of construction, and perhaps most importantly, your faithful execution of the process. No two people will perform those 3 things in the same way. That’s what makes it yours. And that is what makes it beautiful.
This site is dedicated to all of us who love these traditions and disciplines. The first time you cast a kaleidoscope of light through a newly completed stained glass piece you framed, you will never feel ordinary again. Our task as “makers” is for the “lookers” to feel extraordinary as well. Enjoy the view.