And then we wash it off.”Įdges need to be smooth to better accept the adhesive side of the copper foil tape that completely covers every edge on a cut piece of glass. “Every piece we do gets ground,” Dwyer said. “We grind it to get the edges perfectly smooth. This tracing is then cut, and its shapes stuck to stained glass to act as a template as the glass is cut by hand. Another paper, this one translucent, is then placed over the design sheet so its shapes can be traced. That’s why I haven’t retired.”ĭwyer said the store’s website is an important means for selling new products and publicizing the staff’s skills with stained glass. But technology has not impacted how the jobs are processed. They are, Dwyer said, unchanged from 1981.ĭesigns are drawn by hand on paper.
“I don’t call it ‘going to work,’” said Duell, 67.
We’ve got two years’ worth of work right now in here.” The payroll was reduced after this contract ended, but the Gloversville shop today is working to capacity. They had a contract, from Stickley Furniture, to produce 50 large lamps every week. Until about a dozen years ago, Adirondack Stained Glass Works had 14 people on the payroll. “He’s been a partner ever since.”ĭuell and Dwyer are assisted by three other employees. “We offered Patrick a one-third partnership if he could come up with the money in 24 hours, and he did,” Dwyer said. One of his students, Brenda, later became his wife and now owns a third of the business.Īnother third is owned by Patrick Duell, whose ownership interest came about in the mid-1980s when Dwyer made an offer to buy a Clifton Park stained glass business after its owner had died.
#Blotter art coffee windows
The firm makes products under commission, produces inventory for the retail shop and performs repairs on windows and other vintage items.Ī few years after opening, Dwyer began giving lessons in the rudiments of stained glass. “I showed my neighbor next door what I made, and he asked how much I wanted for it, and I said 35 bucks,” Dwyer said. “Six months later, I opened this business.”Īdirondack Stained Glass Works now occupies two stories in the building. The workshops remain downstairs, and a retail showroom is on the upper level.
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