| |
Bryant Stanton
My first
encounter with stained glass began in high school, when I wrote a
research paper on Gothic architecture and the building of St. Denis and
Abbot Sugar, for a project in Modern European history. Around this same
time, my brother’s friend came by our home with a stained glass he had
just completed for a college art project. It was approximately 36” by
36” panel of random colors. I was so intrigued by this panel. To this
day I remember the dark burnished patina on the wide lead and the
turpentine smell of the fresh waterproofing. My palate had been touched.
I spent the last two years of high
school focusing on art and drafting and how to get out of Texas. My
dream now was to attend Rhode Island School of Design, but the high cost
of out-of-state tuition kept me in Texas, where I attended Texas Tech in
Lubbock as an art major. While in college, I stumbled across a small
stained glass shop near the Texas Tech campus, where I signed up for a
beginning stained glass class. From that first class, I was hooked on
glass. On a trip to Austin, I was told about a glass studio called
Renaissance Glass. In my first visit, I glimpsed what I desired to do
for living. I saw the model for a glass studio in Renaissance Glass.
I ended up in Waco, Texas, and in 1979,
my wife Suzanne and I started Stanton Glass Studio on a shoestring
budget. There were not a lot of teaching materials on the subject of
stained glass back then. I devoured the books and publications I could
get my hands on. Most of my learning of techniques came from observation
of how others did things – etched glass, sand carved, painted, copper
foiled, beveled and leaded, etc.
One of my first commissions was Central
Christian Church in Waco, restoring a handful of windows. I dove into
the project, and began the course of learning by doing. The project
turned out well. From here we created several new projects for other
clients. Once again, every step was a learning process. Looking back at
the early years, we really had no guidelines to follow, just common
sense and the attitude that we had to do better than our best.
My studio has grown over the years. It has
really surprised me as to the quality of the scope of the work Stanton
Glass has achieved over the years, both in new work and in restoration,
for a small studio. Our portfolio includes a stained glass chandelier
for the Badlands Hotel in Lajitas, Texas, several light fixtures for Vic
and Anthony’s Steakhouse in Houston, Texas, and a wide variety of work
for the Driskill Hotel in Austin, Texas, including the famed Driskill
Dome. All of these and more can be see on our website,
www.stantonglass.com.
Click on image for enlargement |
|
