*Photo Credit: Cindy Waggoner Raleigh and Her AI Friend
As a glass artist, primarily a lampwork glassblower, I’ve made a few stained glass pieces over the years, but it has never been my main lane.
So to say that I taught my wife, Elena, stained glass would be a stretch, honestly. At most, I introduced her to the art form and offered a few pointers I’d picked up along the way. But Elena took that small beginning and absolutely ran with it.
She’s been creating stained glass for more than four years now, and I can say without exaggeration: she’s mastering the magic. Elena is one of the most dedicated and prolific stained glass artists I’ve ever known.
Someone will walk into the gallery and ask, half-joking, “Do you have a pink, purple, polka-dotted aardvark?” And she’ll smile and say, “No… but I can make you one.”
And then she does.
She starts by sketching out her very own composition, turning a wild idea into a workable pattern. She’s never used a store bought pattern.
Then comes one of her favorite parts, choosing the glass. She loves the endless variety of colors, textures, and light-catching sheets she has collected. She selects each piece with such care, as if the finished artwork already exists in her mind and she’s simply revealing it.
From there, the real work begins: tracing, cutting, shaping, grinding, cleaning, each fragment a necessary part of the larger puzzle. One by one, she lays them out, fitting them together until the whole image begins to emerge.
Watching her concentration is something special. It’s focused, patient, almost prayerful, or as Elena might suggest, more zen like.
Elena uses the Tiffany method of foiling with copper tape and soldering to bring her pieces to completion, and the way she works feels like wizardry or some kind of glass alchemy, honestly. She doesn’t just assemble stained glass; she conjures it.
She is a true gift to Dancingbird Gallery, and of course , to me personally. I’m continually amazed by what she creates and her passion for the art form.
She didn’t just learn stained glass. She became an artist of it.