FACES OF FAITH: PIECES OF GLASS, PICTURE OF FAITH

Wilma Stratton knows it often is hard for people to find new ways of expressing their faith.

She has struggled with it herself but has found a creative way to do it.

She doesn't sing in the choir at West Side Church of God or teach a Sunday school class. Instead, she creates images in stained glass.

"It's one way for me to express my faith," she said of her craft. "It's hard for me to put it into words, but with pictures it comes out."

For 22 years her secular and spiritual designs have been commissioned to adorn windows throughout the region -- even the world. Her windows have been shipped to nearly every state and some foreign countries.

The Star of David, praying hands centered over an open Bible, a cross surrounded by lilies, and images of Jesus Christ -- Stratton has created them all from pieces of cut glass.

Word travels fast around Cape Girardeau County when Stratton finishes a project. Some of her windows can be seen at area churches like Bethany Baptist Church, First Christian Church in Sikeston and Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna. Others are used in businesses like the Fishermen's Net restaurant in Sikeston and Ford and Sons Funeral Home.

Each window takes on a life of sorts as Stratton works to perfect the drawings and cut each piece of glass. Just as the Scripture talks of man being created in God's image, Stratton tries to achieve the perfect form with her windows.

Depending on the size of a window, it can take several weeks or even a month to complete the design and cutting portions of a project because of the intricate work.

Stratton takes care to draw the delicate window designs by hand before trying to piece together the glass. When she is finished she often calls the person who commissioned the work for approval.

"You study it and ask for opinions of what they think," she said. "You work until you get it to where you think it looks right."

Even after 22 years, drawing facial features is still the most difficult part of drawing a window, Stratton said. "Sometimes you can sit and look at it for several days and then change the lines."

She still isn't quite happy with a drawing of Jesus standing with his arms outstretched amidst a bed of clouds. But that window has been put on hold for now, so she'll have more time to think about it. It was commissioned by a Sunday school group at her church.

Sometimes the window designs change after they have been drawn to scale. While doing a window for Bethany Baptist Church a group from the church kept offering suggestions for adding things to the picture.

The window was originally going to be an image of Jesus walking alone down a path, Stratton said. Then the group talked about maybe adding little children, and then another wanted a dove and an olive branch.

"It got so big that my husband had to build me a new table to work on," she said. The finished window was 5-by-7 feet.

After Stratton draws the designs by freehand or enlarges them from a sample of wallpaper or a photo that fits a window measurement she must then transfer the image onto carbon paper. She uses a heavier weight of paper to cut out the pattern pieces. The shears she uses leave just enough gap to account for the soldering material.

Stratton numbers each pattern piece so she knows how much glass to cut. She then cuts out the glass and grinds the edges before laying it on the pattern. She has a wall of built-in shelving to store the glass pieces and display the selection of colors that can be used in a window.

The cutting job can be frustrating if there are a lot of pieces, Stratton said. "Sometimes you get a lot of cuts on your fingers."

Each piece of glass has to be cleaned with a common household cleanser and then wrapped in the copper foil tape for soldering. Stratton tries to make each window practical as well as pretty. Each window is weatherproof and doesn't require any special care.

Stratton didn't start making stained glass windows thinking she would end up with a business. She wanted to do a few windows for her house as it was being built.

Now stained glass images, whether in windows, light fixtures or a miniature village beside the fireplace, adorn her home. And there are bird feeders and stepping stones in her garden and flower beds.

"I just shock myself with some things," she said.

Stratton didn't know the first thing about making stained glass when she began her hobby. Now she's nearly an expert.

"I just started out working on them, and now it comes easy."

Her first projects were small windows and objects for the house. "I did the mirror and soon I had a house full of it. I started giving it away and then it turned into full time."

Art was never her forte as a school-age child, but stained glass is now her passion.

She has learned some tricks the hard way -- by trial and error. But she also has learned some shortcuts. She now knows that all the soldering for a window must be completed on the same day. It took one mistake for her to realize that.

"If you don't do it at the same time, then the patina won't stay," she said. The heat from the soldering iron turns the material from a coppery color to a steel look. She adds the patina when a design is completed before the soldering material has a chance to oxidize. She then adds copper or brass to the edges of the finished window.

After standing on her feet for entire days while soldering windows, she learned that a lightweight soldering iron is best. "It can get a little tiring," she said. "On those days my husband knows he's got to carry-in dinner."

Yet, it is the bigger projects that bring her the most satisfaction. "They are special because it's for a church," she said.

Maybe the windows will inspire another to express their faith, and that would make the effort worthwhile, Stratton said.

ABOUT WILMA STRATTON

Family: Husband, Earl, and two adult sons.

Occupation: Creates stained glass window designs.

Church membership: She has been attending West Side Church of God since 1956.

Hobbies: While creating stained glass windows is not only a business, it serves as a hobby for Stratton as well. She also has a green thumb and has enormous plants growing in her home. She tends both the everyday houseplant variety and exotic plants.