The beauty of glass drew Sheri Burden’s curiosity to explore the art and craft of stained glass 40 years ago. Buying a book and supplies for her new passion gave her the start she needed.
“My inspiration comes from what I see around me,” Burden said. “I see something like the beautiful fall leaves we’ve had this season and made stained glass leaves that have been very popular.”
Burden is a stained glass artisan from the Swan Valley. She was one of several artists who participated in the Tour of the Arts on Oct. 14 and 15.
The Alpine Artisans annual Tour offered gallery tours and exhibits from Swan Valley to Lincoln. Swan Valley artisans presented sculpture, watercolor painting, jewelry, stain glass and copper enameling among other crafts.
Burden said stained glass uses copper edging between the pieces of glass in a design, then the entire work is soldered on the edging with lead solder.
Burden has been careful to include regular blood tests to see what level of lead she may have absorbed, even though she is very careful. She is thankful that nothing indicating lead has shown up in her bloodwork.
With recent price increases for materials, Burden has started doing only custom work, except for the local Alpine Artisans tour and the Frostbite Festival in Condon.
“I like doing the local festivals so I can see everyone,” Burden said. “I have adults come who got my nightlights as a child, to want a nightlight for their children today. That is fun.”
Kathy “Littlebird” Kingsfogel has been an artisan since taking silversmith classes at Colorado Mountain College in 1972-73. Besides jewelry, Kingsfogel has done blacksmithing, metalcrafts and pottery. Continuing education through apprenticeships has led her to make larger multi-media pieces of sculpture and decorative shields of copper and clay.
“I like to seek out other artists because they are encouraging and like to share their skills,” Kingsfogel said.
Besides working full-time at the Grizzly Claw, Kingsfogel currently designs and builds jewelry from beads, pearls and gemstones. Her inspiration comes from nature and the cosmos. She also praised Alpine Artisans mission to give back to the community.
“I have been in Alpine Artisans since the beginning,” Kingsfogel said. “It’s a wonderful organization and does a lot for the community and schools through concerts, scholarships, open book club and more.”
There are no two pieces alike made by Condon residents Jerry and Roger Watson. They have been copper enameling artists since 1977. Their craft takes a pre-shaped piece of copper like a bowl or plate, adds glazing and special touches.
“Jerry is the artist of the outfit,” Roger said. “I’m the assembly line man.”
The typical process is for Roger to first weld edges on the copper pieces. This helps the pieces hold their shape through the following heating processes and frame the finished piece. Using special covering flux powder, he covers the fronts of the pieces the second day. The third day the backs are fluxed.
The fourth day the pieces are individually sprinkled with powdered glass in one or more of 23 colors he has for the enameling and design. While heating in the furnace in the last step, Roger reaches in with a poker and swirls the melting glass to form unique designs.
After each enameling step the pieces are put into a 1,500 degree Fahrenheit kiln for a few minutes to melt the powdered glass. The glass enameling on top not only lends its vibrant colors and luster to the copper surface, but also prevents it from oxidizing and turning green, rendering it more usable and valuable.
The Watson’s sell both retail to galleries nationwide and wholesale internationally to copper and precious metal mines as employee gifts. Currently they supply 42 galleries.
During the Alpine Artisans Tour days a man visited the studio and showed Roger a picture of a trout he had recently caught. During the day Roger was able to recreate that fish in copper enameling for the visitor. Recently, the Watson’s were contacted by a friend who saw an enameled piece of jewelry on ebay.
Roger checked it out and thought it looked familiar. Ordering it and receiving it, Jerry noticed her name on the back. The piece was as good as the day she made it decades ago.
Reader Comments(0)