WONDERFUL WORLD OF GLASS

Fifteen years ago there wasn't much to distinguish the town of Scottsdale. There was even less to mark its Fifth Avenue. If you were in doubt about the exact location you might pass by the thoroughfare and be none the wiser. And why not? The proverbial "shop-on-the-corner" was there. People referred to it as "the glass shop," or "the shop where they make glass." But the crafts center aura and the emporiums that are now so tourist-celebrated were yet to come. In their place, yawning in every direction, was the desert. Occasionally the scene was relieved by a barbed-wire fence, an irrigation ditch, or a fallow field. Still, the common impression held that anyone moving so far onto the sand had to be one of two things: a sunmad hermit or a misguided uranium prospector. One would hardly deem the location receptive to a craft that celebrated its “golden age” about the time King John met his barons at Runnymede and set his seal to the Magna Carta. Yet wondrous things do happen under Arizona's red-iron sky. The evolution of that cor-ner enterprise from a sprawling adobe affair to one of the world's most advanced stained glass studios is proof.

Today, Arizona's Glassart Studio, a large, impressively handsome building, is situated farther up the avenue in a leafy eucalyptus patio of strolling-lanes and shops. With one exception, any hint of its rustic beginning is vacant.

The Studio is an ultra-modern, almost futuristic manufactory, where stained glass masterworks are created echoing with memory of medieval artistry.

Arizona seems an unlikely candidate to foster this pursuit.

Canterbury, Rheims, Augsburg, Milan, Toledo, Zurich, Vannes and Audincourt are the usually-associated names.

Wonderful World of

Stained glass suggests ancient houses straddling equally ancient streets, ecclesiastical iso-lation and spiritual retreat; while nomenclature of the craft reads like a rosary of liturgical science. As in all great art, the quality of mystery persists.

In popular concept, then, stained glass speaks of the past; it can be called “The Lost Art” with supportable excuse. But the very word “lost” implies that something can be found again and this, basically, is what Glassart is all about.

The story of how such a studio found its way to Central Arizona is rooted in a traditional pattern. Glass-makers in ancient times were wanderers, and forgotten trade-routes have been rediscovered by the investigation of glass antiquities. So, in a larger sense, it is not so astonishing as it first appears that Glassart should have spouted where it did.

However, there are facets to this unique establishment which are astonishing in an age not overly noted for altruism in business practice. In the words of Glassart's president, Joseph C. Lincoln: “The primary goal of the Studio is achievement, not money.” Through the ages man has been persistently fascinated by glass. Depending on how semiprecious the form, the amorphous substance, the product of melted sand, has exerted a strong appeal on the vanity of acquisition.

Of course, long before the advent of staining, the world of glass enjoyed a frolicking existence: perfume vials, ornamental medallions, effigies of immortals, vases and flasks, jewelry, ewers, buckets, beakers. Glass-making was a flourishing pursuit in Egypt fifteen centuries before Christ. Among the known customers of those early artisans the legendary Nefertiti, who had a fondness for the exquisitely wrought handicraft.

Quoting Charles Schumacher, vice-president and manager of Glassart, a man whose responsibility it is to develop and supervise much of what transpires at the Studio: “I imagine we would have to credit Northern Europe with evolving the stained glass win-dows. Climate had a great deal to do with it, in the beginning. There had to be some method of keeping out the cold, but allowing for visibility, and artists are always looking for new ways to enrich functional materials. That's how it began. The Arabs actually developed the technique, while the Crusaders brought back an appreciation for the craft.” Venice may have been a center of glass industry as early as the 10th century.

The first recorded reference to stained glass is found in a French manuscript recording the fact that the bishop of Rheims from 969 to 988, Adalberon, rebuilt his cathedral after centuries before Christ. Among the known customers of those early artisans was the legendary

Glassart's President JOSEPH COLVILLE LINCOLN

Joseph Colville Lincoln is a Diamond C pilot and former vice president of The Soaring Society of America. He has competed in National Soaring Contests at Elmira, New York, Grand Prairie and Odessa, Texas, Bishop, California, and McCook, Nebraska. He has flown extensively from Prescott, Arizona, and in 1960 won the Barringer Trophy for the longest soaring flight made in the United States that year: 455.5 miles, from Prescott to Variadero, New Mexico. The following year he was elected to the Helms Soaring Hall of Fame.

With his four children he lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he is president of The Glassart Stained Glass Studio and publisher and editor of PHOENIX POINT WEST magazine.

He is still active in Arizona soaring, and is currently working on an anthology of the sports classic tales.

Some destruction, redecorating it with windows that depicted "stories."

To be generally accurate, "stained glass" refers to glass windows that have been colored by such methods as the fusion of metallic oxides into the glass, the burning of pigment into the surface of white glass, or the joining of white with colored pieces.

A stained glass window emerges as a translucent mosaic held together by lead or other means. But the lead is far more than a connecting or anchoring link. It forms part of the design.

Designer GLIDDEN PARKER

"An artist who fashions his works on a grand scale might well be expected to be dwarfed by his works, to be diminished in stature, relatively at least by the magnitude of concept and execution of heroic endeavor.

To portray in stained glass windows the entire history of Christianity, from the cosmic creation through the ecumenical movement, is an endeavor which can readily be assigned the term heroic.

Yet, Glidden Parker, currently chipping away, piece by glittering piece, the magnitude of precisely this enormous challenge is an artist neither dwarfed nor even relatively diminished by the dimensions of his designs. Rather he seems more to be amplified by them, as if translation of the abstract concepts into visual images has caused him to grow spiritually. Or, perhaps as is the case with a chosen few artists, they have freed him to expand to ordained stature.

Since clerics had considerable influence in the medieval period it is not surprising that art came under their supervision. Obvious enough. Many were skilled artists, draftsmen, and illuminators. Stained glass was a natural medium to engage their attention. As a result, the churches and cathedrals of Europe were blessed with windows depicting biblical scenes with both a mosaicand a jewellike radiance. (Medieval conjecture was content to compare stained glass to precious stone.) The technique was not overly complicated. A fullsize cartoon, the pattern or sketch for the window, was placed under the glass. A fiery-hot iron roughed out the desired shapes. The glass was painted in detail. Stained glass paint, basically a pulverized glass with metallic oxides added, did service in this regard. Gum was added as an adhesive agent. Fine points were etched through with the aid of a sharply pointed stick.

When this process was completed the glass was fired in a pan which was filled with alternating layers of glass and whiting. After the cooling process had set in, the glass sections were removed and rearranged on a table. Leading, strips of lead, was cut to size, placed between the glass pieces and soldered together at points of union.

The window was then weather-proofed by forcing cement under cames, H-formed strips of lead. The leading was turned down with wooden tools to seal cement tightly against the glass. Burnishing came next to insure a glossy, lustrous effect. By this time the window was ready for placement. Attached to an iron saddle, it was placed in the masonry.

From the 12th to the 15th centuries the technique of stained glass making remained constant. In the Glassart Studio of the 20th Century the method is mirrored. Electrical kilns have replaced the firing pan, otherwise the process is basically the same. Glassart's trademark, in keeping with the spirit of the craft, is the alchemist's symbol for glass: a "V" cutting into an inverted "V."

The decline of the stained glass art can be credited to more than one source. The Black Death, sweeping over Europe like a vicious angel, broke up many of the art communities that prospered in the 14th century. The pestilence was the first of many blows that would all but destroy the continuance of the stained glass industry in its purest form. Oddly enough, the Renaissance added to the demise by delivering most of the craft into the hands of the academician, who seldom treated glass as anything more than a canvas without an easel.

Glazing, the process of assembling a leaded glass window, ceased to be of primary concern. Instead, glass was shaped to large patterns, then painted in full color on white glass and in perspective in violation of the medieval formula. What resulted was not a stained glass window at all. Only a representation, on glass, of an oil painting.

Economic factors played a major role as well. Faster and cheaper methods of production were fostered and, finally, scientific discovery of expedient materials joined in the smothering.

Sadly, by the 17th century most of the older techniques were gone and the art of glass was all but dead.

"For a glass-artist to have tried anything different during the last 400 years would have been futile," states Lincoln. "The media lost its real character when the art was dominated by painters. They merely copied popular paintings Christ With The Lamb, Christ In The Garden, that sort of thing. "It would take a great deal of sophistication to distinguish between the stained glass of the Renaissance, and the stained glass made up to the early part of this century."

The existence of the Glassart Studio is not enough to explain away its oddity of location. The saga of the Glassart Studio begins in 1950 in the Flemish village of St. Niklaas, south of Antwerp. Lincoln, not yet out of his twenties, visited the spot on holiday with his wife and became acquainted with Jos Maes, a glazenier. There is no exact English word to correspond with "glazenier." In Flemish it means simply: artist in stained glass, one who works with glass.installed the phone rang at the Studio. It was the lost commission speaking, "Uh, do you repair stained glass windows?"

The outlook was dire through Glassart's gestation period. If the Studio wasn't exactly an antique in search of a period, it could have passed nicely for an anachronism. True enough that all things run their courses. Fortune, at last, succumbed to a smile. A small commission arrived amounting to a few hundred dollars.

The priest who commissioned the work was then Father Green, now bishop of Tucson, who wanted a stained glass window for the baptistery of Sts. Peter and Paul, in Tucson. Says Lincoln, "The first thing we did was get busy on locating the source of the kind of glass we wanted. We searched from West Virginia to Indiana. We got lead knives and glass-cutting pliers from Belgium and lead casting molds from Germany. It wasn't the amount of that commission that was important. The fact that someone had faith in the local product was."

When the shop eventually moved from the garage to the corner on Fifth Avenue, the future was not without promising aspects. After all, if one commission arrived it stood to reason others would follow. But reason is often fickle. 1953 was, in Lincoln's words, "a bad year." No commissions. To keep the doors open, the glass-works turned to molded ashtrays, plates, and dishes. "We rapidly starved to death."

Lincoln is an uncommon man, quiet and personable. Publisher, sportsman, editor. The fact that Glassart exists is testimony to his liberal imagination. Yet, unless such a quality can be translated into effective measures it's likely to end in evasions and hesitations.

"After our early high hopes we stood somewhere between a craft and a business, for it was obvious if commissions weren't coming in we were going to go after them and get them or give up the dream. That's when I decided to put a portfolio under my arm. I went everywhere I could to interest people: artchitects, builders, decorators. It was slow work, often discouraging."

The drumming was a project in education as much as salesmanship. Stained glass occupied a special niche. People found it difficult to conceive of such material in terms of modern architectural design.

Perhaps it was a change in viewpoint that turned the trick; a mood challenging the time-honored fallacy that the imported product is invariably superior to the domestic. Here, Glassart's education campaign surely enacted a cardinal role.

"You rarely find people who associate stained glass windows with anything except churches. (Schumacher speaking.) Oh, it's perfectly true that religious institutions are the prime buying-source, but people are slowly beginning to see other possibilities for stained glass windows."

Stained glass in concrete employs glass one inch thick. This is cut to design with a diamond saw, an instrument the medieval artisan would have endorsed, or by hand chisel. The pieces are faceted by hand chipping on one side. Next comes casting into a special formula of concrete reinforced with steel. Even under poor luminary conditions stained glass in concrete gives a brilliance by gathering and refracting what light there is. The result is like a steady flash of sparkling jewels.

With the lamination process Glassart has added cause for pride. A few years ago Schumacher developed a new technique for lamination as it applies to the stained glass craft. Lamination, in rough terms, is a process that involves the fusion of various layers of material into a single unit.

The technique is to base the design on a sheet of clear glass, press over still another sheet of clear glass, and fire the material in an enormous kiln to the point of fusion. Schumacher's contribution is a method which, when employed with glass, overcomes variations in coefficients of expansion once the individual panels are fired in the kiln and then allowed to cool. The process eliminates a great deal of doubt regarding the finished product as well as offering protection to the glass itself.

Stained glass in mosaic embeds the antique glass pieces in a cement mixture applied to a permanent support background, or cast into frames for use as wall panels, tables, counter fronts, and murals.

Faceted Glass Medium Offers Unlimited Challenge To Creative Artists

In the half-dozen rooms that comprise Glassart, a staff of eight designs, cuts, and assembles. Many learn their craft as apprentices. The rooms are bursting with the paraphernalia of creation and interpretation. Cartoons, pencils, brushes, crayons, paints, ladders, putty, enamels - and color. The cutting-rooms are stacked with slabs of thick glass: greyblue, pure blue, medium blue, citron yellow, greyishpurple, russet shades of Royal Flemish, amber, light ruby, dark ruby. Antique glass is available in several thousand colors. (The folklore of stained glass claims that certain reds can be obtained only by the artisan's donating a drop of his blood. Glassart has never tried it.) The psychology of color plays a vital role with any Glassart creation. Since glass transmits colored light and colored light, in turn, creates a response, an "experience" is enjoyed. Or, in Schumacher's words, "Color responds to the nature of man; and man, in return, reacts to color." Few people consider the fact that 99 percent of their visual experience is gained by reflected light - reflected sunlight by day, and at night reflected artificial light. Stained glass is seen by transmitted light. "It is this (Lincoln), combined with the extraordinary beauty of sheet antique glass itself, that gives welldesigned stained glass windows the feeling of luminosity and makes easel-painting seem frigid and lifeless by comparison."

The completed window has exceptional strength. About the only thing that might cause injury would be a missile hurled with considerable force.

Today, in other parts of the United States as well as in Arizona, banks, restaurants, hospitals, resorts, schools, public buildings, financial centers, private homes, high-rise structures, and religious institutions have included the Studio's glass in their functional design. Not only included it, but accepted it. The truth of the matter is simple enough. The stained glass craft never died. It migrated.From a simple baptistery window in Southern Arizona to the sweeping majesty of St. Ambrose Church in Salt Lake City, where some twelve mammoth windows depict man's place in God's cosmos, Glassart Studio represents a dedication to craftsmanship in a time when comparative mediocrity is too often a criterion. In the final analysis, Glassart speaks with a timeless virtue.

El Paso's Chapel of the Holy Family, located in Nazareth Hall, a home for retired Sisters of Loretto, makes that virtue apparent: "All colors are here, streaming through a forty-foot high cathedral glass window. On dark days colors break in the same amazing diffusion as they do on bright ones. This window is symbolic of flowing grace . . . Love has most thoughtfully spoken."

CANYON ECHO

I shot a song into the air. I knew it fell to earth somewhere, For from a rugged cliff I heard My song repeated, word for word! -S. Omar Barker

EARLY GUEST

Mr. Winter arrived too early He came in a hurry last night Displayed his terrible manners Signed his signature in white. The morning broke gray and dormant The scene was crystals and lace And I begged Mr. Winter's pardon Seeing beauty in his face. -Mildren Cook Solury

RARE WINTER IN ARIZONA

The evergreen wears snow the best, In epaulet and ermine vest; For fantasy, in filigree, There is the palo verde tree; While ancient stalks, that yuccas hoard, Again burn candles to the Lord; But all who've seen the cactus know It makes a story-book of snow. -Reeve Spencer Kelley

RELEASED

Warm breath of life is stirring everywhereNo clutching cold, but soft inviting air. The daffodils have left their winter bed To greet the sun, their lighted yellow spread On fragrant new-green grass. Gay flash of wing Reveals old friends come back to build and singAnd I, released from foolish fear's alarms, Must run to meet the day with outstretched arms! -Emily Sargent Councilman

PALETTE

The desert dawn is a palette Daubed with every hue, Made ready by the painter Crimson, cadmium, blue, Streaks and pools of color In rainbow-bright array With which the master Artist Will paint the coming day. -Ethel Jacobson

THE CEREUS BLOOMS FOREVER

It is midnight and the cereus blooms; Its pale petals raise their fragile forms Up through the dark to grace its gloom. Somewhere behind their beauty is the breath Of Life on the Desert; of all I've searched for, Waited for, hoped for, prayed for - And now tonight it blooms and dies again! Sadness mixes abundantly with its caress Upon the hidden portions of one's soul. The moon lends light; there is peace over all. Is this the flower of life? To bloom but once And die before the day? But the cereus blooms foreverOnly to humans is its flower disguised, Its crooked, ungainly stalk bedecked with thorns. David F. Brinegar

ROSS SANTEE:

I was shocked and saddened to read of the death of Ross Santee. I have long been an admirer of his work, although I was not aware that he was a writer as well as an artist. All I have ever seen were his sketches, which "spoke" so much of the people and the country. Can you give me a list of his books and/ or the name of his publisher?

TALES OF THE LITTLE COLORADO:

Thank you for bringing us "Tales of the Little Colorado" by Jo Jeffers in your September issue. I was one of the many who wrote you how much I liked her "Ranch Wife" which you published a few years ago. I said then you had a real find in Mrs. Jeffers. Now after reading "Tales" I am convinced she is one of the best. I sincerely hope some enterprising publisher will prevail upon her to expand her article into a book as Doubleday did with "Ranch Wife."

LOWER GORGE:

Your Little Colorado issue was outstanding-both in picture content and articles -especially J. H. Butchart's exciting description of his Lower Gorge explorations. Nothing demonstrates better than Dr. Butchart's fascinating account of his explorations into this little known region that Arizona

YOURS SINCERELY

provides unlimited opportunity for adventure and discovery. I for one hope to see more by and about Dr. Butchart in future issues of ARIZONA HIGHWAYS.

IN ETHIOPIA:

... I received ARIZONA HIGHWAYS through your courtesy and that of the Southern Arizona Peace Corps Service Organization. I have always appreciated your wonderful magazine, and doubly so over here because it certainly helps us to know we have backing at home, and secondly, I am sponsoring a reading club here, and some 500 boys are enjoying the magazines with me. Truly a treasure, here where they have so little to read.

IN ENGLAND:

I opened my eyes cautiously, to be more certain that I was not fleetingly dreaming ... No. It was a reality, indeed. For on the adjoining table, in the lounge of our London hotel, my wife and I spotted the July, 1965, issue of our favorite magazine the inimitable ARIZONA HIGHWAYS! Although it was the very recent issue, the pages of this periodical were pretty much rumpled from thumbing; which goes to show that, "The Secret Enchantment of Cibecue Creek" and the awe-inspiring Rainbow Bridge, shall be as well-known to some of the Britishers as to our own admirers and lovers of natural wonders. We were ineffably pleased to be able to feast our eyes on the magnificence of the hidden treasures in those shadowed foreststhe dancing waters of Cibecue Creek, and, of the rock formations of Rainbow Bridge, which only God's own architectural hands could edify.

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