STAINED GLASS: COURSE HELPS SIX LEARN OLD ART FORM

One of the methods to hold smaller pieces of glass together is the copper foil method.

Eddie Bierschwal worked on a window to be installed in a log cabin near Cape Girardeau. Bierschwal has been working with stained glass for 15 years.

Choose man-made products in your favorite colors and textures, cut to desired shapes, fit pieces together and add light -- natural light is advised.

It's a recipe with results both beautiful and unique.

Faces fixed in studied concentration -- there's little time for chit-chat when cutting glass -- six adult students in the second meeting of a five-week stained-glass course tackled their individual projects one evening last week. The class is offered through the Cape Girardeau Area Vocational Technical School and conducted at Parsons' Stained Glass.

As instructor, Robert Parsons showed how to use the glass cutter, an instrument about the size of a large pen and held in a similar manner, he noted that the name glass cutter is a misnomer. "All you do is make a weak spot," called a score or a scratch on the glass, he explained.

In this glass-cutting procedure, a special kind of pliers, called running pliers, is then used to "run the cut" or to break the glass.

The glass "should break with reasonably gentle pressure," he said as he adjusted the pliers and a piece of colored glass 1/8th of an inch thick broke cleaning along the thin scratch left by the carbide steel cutter.

Susan Weston, a schoolteacher and herself a student in the stained-glass class, followed Parsons' instructions, soon exclaiming in surprise, "It's easy," as she made her first successful cut and break.

However, the students learned quickly that the glass sometimes breaks awry.

"When you're learning, you have to make up your mind you're going to break some glass," Parsons consoled. "It's like woodworking, sewing or whatever, you just have to be willing to work with it."

Forrest "Frosty" Brotherton travels to the class each week from his Fredericktown home. He took his first stained-glass class -- a course in making stained-glass steppingstones -- last fall.

"I just fell in love with it, it's a great thing," Brotherton said. "I had no idea that I could ever do anything like this at all."

He's made dozens of stained-glass pieces in his home since his first class.

"There's definitely an art to it -- I suppose -- though I never did anything arty in my life," he said with chuckle.

As with most any hands-on work, some days the work goes smoother than others.

"Some days, it seems like you can't do anything right, some days it all falls into place," chuckled Eddie Bierschwal, a stained-glass hobbyist for some 15 years who also does custom work, much of it in the form of door and cabinet panels and sidelights.

Like Parsons, who began his stained-glass work as a hobbyist some 20 years ago, Bierschwal continues to find fascination with the glass. "It's a real fun thing for me," he said. "I like artwork, I like to deal with colors. It's a real challenge."

The road from pattern to finished project ready to be installed is arduous. The time required for a project often hinges on the size and number of glass pieces needed as well as the intricacy of the design.

But each project sparks new interest. "I get pretty enthused about it," Bierschwal smiled.

"A true glass person," Parsons said, "looks at the glass and imagines the possibilities."

The defining moment, Bierschwal and Parsons each said is the first view of the finished project after it is installed.

"When you see the look on people's faces, it's all worthwhile," Bierschwal said.

Stained glass has amazed for ages.

Stained glass is used to describe any colored flat glass or objects made of such glasses. In simple terms, "Stained glass is buying colored glass in large sheets, cutting it and putting it back together," Parsons explained. Colors are achieved through the addition of metal oxides to the raw materials during the glass-making operation.

Familiar glass coloring agents include cobalt, copper, selenium and gold.

"The only way to get true pink in glass is to use a small amount of gold," Parsons noted. "Pinks, reds, yellows and oranges (glasses) are more expensive because the minerals are more expensive," he explained.

Glass-making technology has expanded the definition of stained glass. The term applied originally to glass painted in pigment and then heated to bond the pigment to the glass surface.

Once reserved primarily for places of worship, stained glass is more popular than ever within homes. "It's catching on. More and more in new homes, somewhere there will be stained glass," Bierschwal said.

Greens, golds and browns are popular in stained-glass work for the home. Flowers or birds are often part of the design.

The two major processes by which stained-glass objects are formed are copper foil and lead. In the copper foil method, the glass pattern pieces are surrounded with foil and soldered together. In the other method, specially designed lead strips are used to fasten the glass pieces together and soldered at the joints.

While stained-glass pieces can be pricey, the cost need not be prohibitive, explained Parsons, who does custom work out of his North Main Street supply and gift shop. The number of pieces involved in the work, as well as the type of glass used, can boost the cost.

"If you choose nice glass and simple designs, you can end up with a nice piece," he assured.

Stained glass may be put to best advantage in natural light. "When light hits it, it really becomes lively," Parsons said. "You've got an ever changing picture, depending on the light."