While living in Pittsburgh for the summer before freshman year, Kari Richards (12) decided to do a week-long stained glass camp simply because she liked the art form. This was one of many art camps Richards has participated in and it’s where she first learned how to create stained glass artwork.
Going into the camp, Richards felt excited. In just five days, she learned everything she knows about cutting and connecting glass pieces.
“The two counselors taught a teenager how to cut glass safely and not kill herself with hot objects in a week, which I think is momentous,” Richards said.
Now, she has completed several pieces, her most recent being a stained glass portrait of Gus, the school’s facility dog.
This year, Richards is able to use this unique art medium at school during AP Studio Art, a class where students can create art with whatever materials they wish. Since Richards didn’t learn the stained glass process in a class at school, no one in her art class including her art teacher Elise Millard knows how to do it.
“We were trying to problem solve through one of her techniques, and I was lost,” Millard said. “It’s really impressive, because she just figures it out on her own.”
The process to create her art is time consuming. Richards starts with drawing out what she wants to create. Then, she determines what glass she wants to use and where to position each piece. The next step is to break the glass into the desired shape and grind away the excess. Finally, she joins the pieces together by putting copper foil around the edges of the glass and soldering the pieces together.
Solder is metal that acts like cement in a mosaic. She uses a soldering iron to melt pieces of solder, which go around the borders, making the artwork hold together sturdily. Then, sometimes Richards will patina the copper foil, staining it to turn it black or copper instead of silver.
The length of this process depends on the complexity of the stained glass piece. Richards’s portrait of Gus took a few weeks to create because it had many pieces and many different types of glass.
Richards finds inspiration for stained glass artwork everywhere. So far, one of her favorite pieces that she’s made is a Fibonacci spiral with rainbow squares.
She donated her latest piece, Gus’s face, to Student Services. She makes a practice of giving her stained glass pieces to someone when they are completed.
“I already made [the piece], I’ve gotten to enjoy it that entire time, someone else should have a chance to [enjoy it] as well,” Richards said.
Richards views stained glass as a unique art medium, fun and beautiful.
“I don’t think I need more of a motivation [for making stained glass art] than that,” Richards said.
Going forward, Richards plans on continuing to create stained glass in college.
“My life without art is not going to be a very good one,” Richards said.
