When we moved to Morganton in 2021, I was excited to reestablish the business that I had operated in New Jersey since 2000. I began the process of renovating my store front and have met so many wonderful people in the community over the course of these busy and joyful 3 years. However, one thing I’ve struggled with since we moved here is time. Being the only one to run the shop while making the artwork is tricky. My commissioned work has always been my priority— after all, my business name is Paradise CUSTOM glass— and those custom pieces require more focus. I’m also craving extra time to be outside in nature, soaking up creative inspiration in Nature’s Playground. Balancing time to make art, run the shop, and enjoy life is my goal. That’s why I’ve decided to change my business hours to be by appointment. This will give me time to focus on all the essential elements that bring my glasswork to life for my customers.
Here’s my new plan:
My shop will be open for the Morganton Art Crawl events that happen the third Thursday of every month from 4-7:30 pm.
When I am inside the shop and able to welcome in visitors, you’ll see my new welcome sign (pictures above) out front.
I will gladly schedule a time for you to come in, or for me to come to your home,.to explore commissioned work.
You’ll see a new sign with a QR code on the door so you can easily link to my calendar and schedule an appointment.
.I’m looking forward to this pivot to be able to focus on creating beautiful art for you and living the life I want. Cheers to change!
Installation… “swoon!”
April 4, 2024
If you follow me on social media, you might have seen a post about these windows a few weeks ago. I had taken a photo of them inside my studio after I finished putting all the glass into the steel frames. In one photo, I stood next to them for scale which looked pretty funny since I am 5’2” and they are 8’ tall. On social media, I received a lot of nice comments about them. Shortly after that, the homeowners installed them and sent me this photo and two others with the comment, “Swoon!” That made my day because no matter how much I like something, how nice it looks in my studio, or how many other people like it on social media, the thing that matters most is how my customer thinks it looks in their home. One of the other photos they sent— which you can see on my Facebook or Instagram— was taken at night and the colors look so surreal. I love that they were playing around with lighting and exploring all the different ways they could experience their windows. This photo shows how they appear on a bright, sunny Spring day. One of the things I like the most about glass is how much it changes depending on lighting. If you are enjoying a nice cold beer at Fonta Flora or sitting on the front porch of the Fairfield Inn, take a look at the house across the street and see how the light at that particular moment makes them appear.
Artimus Pyle & the stained glass drum kit
February 1, 2024
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame drummer for Lynyrd Skynyrd, Artimus Pyle, commissioned this miniature glass drum set. When he picked it up in January, he took my hands and told me this is a “legacy piece” and he is hoping to bring it to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to be placed on display there.
Like No Other Bird I’ve Seen
January 16, 2024
When starting on a new stained glass commission, I always begin with drawings. My client wants a few specific images included in the design for his window: Table Rock Mountain, Linville Falls, an eagle, and a blue hydrangea. I was talking with my 24 year old son, Alexander, who uses AI in a number of facets of the business he runs and I mentioned I didn’t have any good reference photos to use for my drawing. He suggested I might want to try an AI bot called MidJourney but he cautioned me that the results are unpredictable. “How so?” I asked. Well, take a look! Initially in my written description, when I prompted it with the word “eagle,” the creature it created was so enormous that it greatly overshadowed all the other elements. So I thought I would swap in the word “bird” and then things started getting really weird. If you look closely at the images above, one has three wings and another has four. Another time I refined the prompt and got a bird with two heads. I played around with it for a few hours and never got anywhere near an image I could use, even as a jumping off point. An illustrator friend said AI is being widely used in her field and she is not happy about it and has heard of artists banding together to reject its use. In the stained glass world, this doesn’t seem to be an issue yet. The design work is terrible and even if I could generate something decent, I’d still have to make the window! But I find it really interesting to have tried it at this point in my career and I’m curious to see how it develops in the near future.
Retro Fused Glass Fish Platter
January 2, 2024
A few months ago, a woman came into my shop and said she was looking for a “fish platter” to give to her friend for a wedding gift. Apparently, in the 70’s, when she and many of her friends were getting married, they were very popular in her circle. The woman said she had gotten one and given a few and one of her friends always felt a little left out since she hadn’t married and, therefore, hadn’t gotten the platter. That friend was now getting married and she thought it would be really special to give her a retro fish platter of her own.
I was unfamiliar with this item so after some extensive internet searching, we found this image which she said was representative of what she was seeking. She liked the bright colors and the kitschy style of this ceramic version. I told her I’d use it as inspiration to make one out of fused glass.
This is what I created for her. She came back in again after giving it and said her friend was thrilled to have a fish platter of her own. It was such fun to be able to help her give a gift that was meaningful to them both and that she couldn’t find anywhere else.
Let There Be Light
December 12, 2023
If it’s true that good things take time, this chandelier that we installed last night at the Burke Arts Council is amazing! Josh Smith of The Metaled Company and I have been working on it for over a year. After we came up with a concept, I created a really crusty cardboard model which Josh in turn enlarged and turned into some rudimentary steel shapes which we balanced on paint cans of different heights in my studio to see how it was developing. Then I made sample hanging glass embellishments in varying sizes, textures, and colors and we just kept playing. The final chandelier has 134 hanging dichroic glass pieces and over 100 feet of LED lights mounted inside the most graceful steel spirals that gently rotate around. It hangs directly inside the main entrance in the Burke Arts Council’s beautifully remodeled historic building, surrounded by so many other lovely artistic pieces. The building itself is a work of art, the former Burke Farm Supply, which now hosts all things art— music, theater, a visual art gallery, class space, and plans for much more. I am thrilled that our sculptural light fixture is there, quietly overseeing all the artistic goodness. This photo above is one I snapped as we worked on the installation, before we lit it. For more images and a video, check out my Instagram and let me know what you think when you visit in person.
Neighbors Helping Neighbors
November 1, 2023
This fireplace screen is on its way to the Blue Ridge Healthcare Foundation’s gala event, “Neighbors Helping Neighbors,” happening Saturday night. We went last year and I donated a small framed piece of fused glass. When we were there, I was inspired by the generosity of the people bidding on the auction items and decided to create something a little more impactful this year. I’ve had the metal portion of this fireplace screen for years, waiting for inspiration to strike to make something to fit into it. I had some bevel clusters and I thought they would look dazzling, offset by blue and amber glass. When it was completed, I brought it upstairs to our apartment so John Payne could photograph it in front of our fireplace. I’ve been a bit tempted to keep it but I know it will do more good at the auction than it will in my living room so off it goes. Looking forward to the event this Saturday and to having this piece go to its new forever home.
Happy “Uterus Friday”
December 2, 2022
(So Many White Men’s) Eyes on My Uterus”
This time of year, the days have descriptors: Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday. I’m calling today “Uterus Friday.” To celebrate, my husband and I are traveling to Wilmington, NC and attending the exhibit opening party for Illumination 2022 at Cameron Art Museum. My barbed wire uterus is one of 36 lighted sculptures in this show and I am proud that she will be there, stirring up good trouble. I’m fairly certain she will be one of the less “pretty” lanterns in the museum but hopefully she will inspire some people to consider the question, “what are those eyeballs doing on that uterus— clearly they don’t belong there!” If you have a uterus, it should be your decision how to celebrate Uterus Friday— your body, your choice!
Our Building is Getting a Face Lift
August 12, 2022
About a year ago, we had the pleasure of working with the Main Street Fellows Program at UNCG. Our town has a relationship with this program which provides design assistance for storefront rehabs in historic buildings across North Carolina. We had such a great time working with the students to develop a plan to bring our building back to a more period appropriate appearance. They shared their research into how the building looked and what it was used for since it was built in 1895. One really interesting fact was that originally there were large transom windows above the front doors. We learned that, since electricity was not always available at the time the building was built, they took advantage of as much natural light as possible. I am working on creating 3 stained glass windows in the style of historic “prismatic lights” that will fit into this space.
The process to renovate the façade has moved very slowly but, if all goes well, we should be under construction in about a month! This rendering, done by the UNCG team, is a close approximation to what will be coming eventually. We are starting with my store front and the entrance to our front apartment (the right side of the building) and hopefully continuing the work on the left side in the future. We would love to remove the stucco and take the building back to its original brick but that is a huge project. So for now, we are taking it one lovely, historic step at a time.
Heller’s Blazing Star
July 15, 2022
Creating custom art is all about translating an idea into reality. My clients came to me with their friend’s cabinet door; they had accidentally broken the glass and wanted me to make something beautiful to replace it. Their friend works at Grandfather Mountain and loves all kinds of nature, animals, and plants. One type of flower, called Heller’s Blazing Star, is really special to her since it grows in just a few places, one of which is on Grandfather Mountain. When they shared a picture of it with me, I fell in love with the spindly purple flowers and green leaves. We talked about how it might look to create the flower portion out of fused glass and then build the rest of the window using a traditional stained glass construction technique. We went back and forth with some designs and settled on one that kept the flower central and used a complementary and equally interesting glass for the outer portion. For harmony, I decided to carry over the same purple of the flower for the squares in the border. I am grateful to have connected with a professional local photographer, Robin Stenson, at 3 am Media, who took this photograph for me. I can’t wait to hear what their friend thinks when she receives this thoughtful gift!
Cha…cha…cha…changes
April 29, 2022
Sometimes we change our minds. After I blogged about this project on March 25, my clients ask if I could redesign these two windows to look like feathers falling through the air. What’s most important to me about a custom piece is that my clients love it and look at it every day and feel glad they commissioned the artwork. So while it took a little more effort to create new designs and get some new glass, I think things are coming together beautifully. My clients really love sparkly things so I had an idea to get this type of glass called “dichroic” which I often use in making jewelry. It has a coating on it that allows light to shift when it passes through so the color changes depending on how you look at it. I had thought I would use a little bit of it in each feather but that didn’t look the way I wanted it to. So last night I created the pieces for the whole feather on the bottom right of this photo. I cut and shaped the dichroic glass and sprinkled some frit (finely ground glass that resembles sand) of various colors to create a feather texture and introduce some additional colors to harmonize with the other feathers. I think that having the entire feather created with dichroic glass gives it an almost magical quality; it’s sparkly with dramatic color shifts. And who doesn’t want a little more magic in their lives!
Excited, nervous, and mostly not injured
April 15, 2022
I first considered trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon in 2010. And even though I made the cut off time in 2011, Boston almost always has more people entering than they accept. They take the fastest entrants and that year mine wasn’t one of them. Fortunately for every 5 years you age, they allow you 5 more minutes to qualify so I was finally able, not only to make the time but also to get in, for 2022. It’s not an exaggeration to say this is a day I have been thinking about for over a dozen years— and it’s happening Monday, April 18. My training cycle this time was one of my most challenging with a stubborn injury that is still with me. I am not as prepared as I planned to be but, regardless, I am looking forward to lining up on this historic course. I will be far behind the Olympians but my feet will cover the same ground. For a new twist for me, I am hoping to just be in the moment, running whatever pace feels right as I plod along. This is the 50 year anniversary of the first woman’s division to run the Boston Marathon in 1972 so that is even more a reason to celebrate. Today is the start of Passover, Sunday is Easter, and Monday is Patriots Day— whatever holiday you connect with, I hope it is filled with love and light!
So Many Choices
March 25, 2022
I’m digging into my next commission— it’s for a couple who just built a gorgeous event space, Firerock Station, in Boone, NC. They are finishing building their home behind that venue and wanted some stained glass for windows that are high up in the peak of their roof line. My clients are creative and adventurous (their home will include round doors reminiscent of the Hobbit!) and we brainstormed a bunch of different ideas before landing on using a wrought iron gate for design inspiration for the stained glass windows. After that came together, we started talking about glass colors; I pulled out a book I had picked up years ago in Barcelona at The Palau de la Musica Catalana. There are many beautiful stained glass windows there and my favorite one features a blend of ambers, browns, and blues— it’s stunning! I shared the book with my clients and they loved it too. The next step was deciding how to use that inspiration to select and arrange their glass choices. I piled my work bench with glass options and grabbed my colored pencils to create some different color layouts with that palate. Once that is determined, I will start to build the windows and will be posting progress photos of them on my Instagram; please feel free to check in there for updates. Commission windows are so much fun because they reflect the personality of the clients for whom they are made; I love helping them turn their visions into reality.
Before and After
November 29, 2021
We finally did it— we opened the studio on Saturday, November 27! On Thursday (which was Thanksgiving), my daughter and I started removing the plastic that had been covering the floor to protect it from the drywall blobs and dust, paint, and construction debris. My husband and son began bringing in the contents of my studio which were still being stored in the Pack Rat behind our building. We scrubbed and cleaned and moved things and arranged it a dozen times. It was a crazy amount of work but we were determined to open our doors to be a part of the community on Small Business Saturday.
The before photo above was actually taken after we had done a fair bit of demolition. You can see the imprints in the carpet showing where the walls that we removed had created small offices. This photo was also taken after we removed the drop ceiling (I blogged about the issues that raised on July 23rd). It has been an adventure! There have been so many people who have helped in this process—Darren Lathan from Nverse Architects, Philip and all the guys are MH Heartwood, Jeff, Jonathan and the rest at J & W Plumbing, Northwest Drywall, Table Rock HVAC, Jeff Mackay painting services, Patriot Flooring, and Chris Franklin of Franklin Electric who was here until the last minute giving us some temporary lights and making sure everything safe. Oak Hill Iron has made a beautiful sign for me that will be installed soon. The local community has been so supportive and encouraging and the process has really been smooth.
I want to shout out my friends and family who came here and spent time with me doing demolition— my good friend, Laura, and my sister and brother-in-law, Gretchen and Brad. And my family who spent their Thanksgiving break working to make this happen— they are the loves of my life— Scott, Alex and Abigail. It has been a labor of love to get to this point and there’s still a long way to go. Please come by to check it out— we’d love to meet you!
Before
July 23, 2021
“There are friends who will help you move. And there are friends who will help you move a body.” I discovered I have a friend who will help me move a body— or at least she will help me move 30 plus contractor bags full of demolition debris that each weigh as much as a body. Before we left New Jersey, I was talking with my friend, Laura, about the demolition project for the space that will become my studio in Morganton, NC. Laura has gone on work trips with Habitat for Humanity and told me she loves demo. And the next thing I knew, she was booking a flight to come down. About two weeks after we moved in, she and I were pulling on our gloves and starting to take down walls. It was a really good thing she was here too since my demolition knowledge was limited! It was physically exhausting, dirty work but we laughed hard and accomplished a lot.
There still is a long way to go before the space will be functional for my business. This morning I had a bit of a setback when meeting with the building inspector; I learned that the ugly drop ceiling that hid the beautiful pressed tin was actually a fire prevention barrier. We are now assessing different options and trying to balance safety, labor, time, and money. The fun never ends! If you want to follow the process of this renovation, I’ll be posting more regular updates on social media (Facebook and Instagram).