Stained Glass Work by Students

I have a great time teaching bridge in my studio and often offer day classes as part of the silent auction at our church. We usually make a small heart design to learn the process and then the students choose a second piece, always picking something that is a lot more challenging than they really should be doing. 
The students below were quite thrilled with their pieces and seemed to appreciate my "magic touch" stepping in when the going gets tough.

CAROLYN GRAY - Before 1994 while we lived in Tweed

  

Caroline’s Rustic Branch

Carolyn is a wonderful artist who paints on paddles and metal saw blades and does fabulous caricatures, so her branch design is compelling. The end product was just lovely and the piece is a perfect example of setting a design into an old frame. I taught a lot of people glass when we lived in Tweed and our kids were little. Carolyn Gray and Karen Finlayson used to come over and we’d do glass while the kids played outside.

CAROLYN GRAY - Before 1994 while we lived in Tweed

Nancy was my neighbor in Tweed. As a person who is very enthusiastic about life, her joie de vivre has spilled over into her lovely stained glass pieces. Never one to dally, she launched into her work and completed several projects, even taking on a few orders. She is also a great cook, gardener, horsewoman, house-cleaner, mom, grandma and garlic grower!!! These photos were taken when I visited her in 1996.

 

 

WALTER GOSK - 2007

KARIS and FORBES Burkowski - 2007

Karis and Forbes came via a dream auction event and made the usual hearts. Then for a second piece they made some snowflakes.

LEE CARTER HORTON -2008A

Lee's second piece was a very large Dove and came back twice to complete the project. Doesn't she look thrilled!!!

JESSICA BAYNE - 2008 and 2009

 Jessica's second piece was a colourful modern waterlily with some gorgeous pink glass in the centre. 

The following year Jessica came again via another silent auction session and we worked out the complexities of this rather large Luna Moth. We loved the lime green and pinks. Our minister Jessica Purple Rodela came as well but I did not get photos of her work. 

SCOTT and KATRINA HELM - 2009

Scott and Katrina made hearts and then worked on this geometric design together, each person doing half of the project. 

DEANA and JANET - 2010

My Massage lady Deanna came with her friend Janet one day to learn stained glass. We had fun making hearts but ended up finishing off the day with a glass of wine instead of a second piece.

 SELA ZINABOU - 2011

Sela wanted to learn stained glass in order to complete a project for her mixed media assignment. We covered a lot in a day and in the end we managed to create a simple nude from her original drawing. She was pretty pleased and did well on the assignment.

PAT JOHNSTON - 2012

Pat purchased my offering of a free stained glass day as a donation to the Elmira Curling club. We started with the usual heart to learn some of the techniques and then she made a fairly complicated geometric design.

 STEPHANIE NELLIS and CURTIS DUECK - 2012

Stephanie and Curtis came for a dream auction course in February. We made the usual hearts to learn the process followed by original projects. Steph chose the cardinal piece and Curtis who works as a software engineer designed a floppy disk piece which was very unique.

 

JEAN and DAVID JENNISON - 2013

Jean Jennison and her son David came for a stained glass lesson when David was visiting from Fort Hardie. We made the usual hearts to learn the process and work with curves. They made snowflake pieces as a second project so learned the challenges of straight lines.

Jean was convinced that she would not have the skills to learn but ended up with two very nice pieces. David was thrilled with the process and showed very good hand eye co-ordination skills. He was quite proud of his perfectly symmetrical snow flake and carefully chosen globs.

 

RUTH GILBERT - 2014 

Ruth Gilbert purchased a dream auction lesson and came for two sessions to complete this project. The dove is quite stunning in the iridescent glass. 

  

JUDY KOLESZAT and JAMIE WILSON - 2014

Judy and Jamie came for a dream auction course in the winter of 2014. We made the usual hearts to learn the process. Jamie made a fairly challenging geometric circular piece. Judy made a funky daisy. The heart below is made with spirit glass.

 

CAIT WILSON - 2015

Cait Wilson came for a dream auction course in the winter of 2015. We made the usual hearts to learn the process. She decided to make a colourful geometric star with globs in it as her second project.

CAITLIN CONNOLLY - 2012 and 2015

Our niece Caitlin learned to do stained glass when she visited us as a young teen ager. She wanted to revisit this hobby this year and was thrilled with her finished product. She had the design idea of a fairy on the edge of water with stars and a moon. I found the fairy design online and we simplified it and adapted her design ideas into a circle. She chose the background glass herself and did a lot of the work.

Our niece Caitlin learned to do stained glass when she visited us as a young teen ager. She wanted to revisit this hobby this year and was thrilled with her finished product. She had the design idea of a fairy on the edge of water with stars and a moon. I found the fairy design online and we simplified it and adapted her design ideas into a circle. She chose the background glass herself and did a lot of the work.

Caitlin came back in the winter of 2015 and made the wild geometric with baroque black swirly glass in the background. After that she tacked the hummingbird on the flower below. It was a much tougher piece. I think she now has a more mature outlook and better sense of the skills needed to make stained glass. She has lots of patience and stuck with these pieces like a trooper.

DONNA CAMPBELL and SUSAN SIMPSON - 2016

Donna and Susan purchased a stained glass workshop at a 3 Smiles fundraiser for the mental health program at Grand River hospital in 2016. They made the usual hearts. I did not get photos of their second piece but Donna was interested in making patio stones.

ELIZABETH FORD and JANET DOUMA - 2017

Elizabeth and Janet came via a dream auction event and made the usual hearts. Their second pieces are shown below.

It is quite a challenge for a new person to make a circular piece and retain the shape. Elizabeth persevered with the project and was happy with the piece she took home at the end of the day.

Janet is a well known potter and has a great eye for colour. Cutting glass came easy to her. Starting with the green blue body piece we were able to find matching glass and textures that made this piece a success.

PAMELA ROJAS and ANDREA DEERING NAGY - 2019 

Pamela and Andrea came via a dream auction event and made the usual hearts. Their second pieces are shown below.

Pamela holding the butterfly that she made for her mother.

Pamela and Andrea are both artists in their own life. Pamela paints in colourful oil and acrylic while Andrea has a graphic design business. They were pretty excited to be taking the class and both of them took on projects more challenging than my students usually do in their first class so they had to come back another day to complete their projects. 

Over the Christmas of 2022 Andrea's children managed to break her stained glass, so I kindly rebuilt it for her (see photo on the right). The 4 pieces across the top had to be replaced.

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