The Goderich Signal-Star, 1983-09-28, Page 49u
craftsman has
stained glass at.
Van EgmondHouse
One look around Elmore and Margaret Stephenson's
comfortable house in Egmondville, and you know someone
is fond of stained glass. It's used in coached lamps outside
the front door, in a hanging lamp in the front hall, in a
number of planters and smaller items and in decorations
which hang in the large sun room window.
There's even an antique Tiffany -style stained glass
hanging lamp in the dining room. It has been there since
Mrs. Stephenson's father, the late Tom Robinson, moved to
town from the Goshen line many years ago.
That antique lamp is the only stained glass item in the
house that Elmore_ Stephenson hasn't made with his own
hands. The Stephensons' personal collection gives you
some idea of the variety of items, more than 200 in all, that
Mr. Stephenson has made since he took up the hobby seven
years ago.
INTRICATE
For the past year he's had neuritis in his right hand,
which makes it difficult to do the intricate work of cutting
the glass, wrapping it with copper foil and soldering. That's
the Tiffany method; the leaded method, he explains, is a
little simpler as it involves fitting the glass pieces into slots
in lead strips and then soldering the strips where they meet
in the design. While the local craftsman has made a lamp
for his daughter, Grace, in the last year, and his work is on
sale at the Van Egmond house store, The Sitting Room, he
no longer works regularly in his basement workshop.
A lamp like the one in the Stephenson hallway (Elmore
used a soccer ball for the pattern) takes 20 hours or more to
make. A planter in pink and mauve glass is in the bathroom
and he'§ made small jewel boxes. Hanging pieces include a
butterfly which has 80 separate pieces of glass, a cardinal,
other birds, and flowers and an abstract landscape. The sun
porch is also home to, another one of Elmore Stephenson's
collections: over 150 small bells hang from the rafters of the
sloped ceiling.
A self-taught craftsman, `Mr. Stephenson has a pile of
books on stained glass two feet high. The books have been a
source of ideas but he also learns from visits to suppliers,
including a glass factory in Kokamo, Indianna.
SOLDER EXPENSIVE
A visit to Indianna at Christmas time 1975 gave Mr.
Stephenson the idea to try stained glass. The hobby has
become more expensive, with solder now costing more than
the glass.
A STAINED GLASS LAMPSHADE—Elmore and Marg-
aret Stephenson with a Tamp he made a new shade for.
It's really difficult work, but Mr. ' Stephenson has
repaired a few big stained glass church windows, including
one from Varna. He explains that the glass used in
elaborate scenes in church windows starts out clear. It's
then painted with substances and fired. After firing, the
individual pieces of glass take on their different colors. The
trend now, he says, is to make modern church windows with
heavy slabs of colored glass and use cement between the
pieces.
When you're a stained glass craftsman, you look at
church windows with special interest. Mr. Stephenson
points out some complicated and fine examples of European
cathedral windows in one of his books. He hasn't seen those
in person but he does notice stained glass windows here at
home.
'Every church he goes into; he looks them over,' Mrs.
Stephenson says.
Where are the best in this area? He's not committing
himself, but "Walton Church has pretty windows," in
Elmore Stephenson's opinion.