Stained glass has been around for centuries as an art form. There’s a lot of work that goes into the colorful pieces. Artists grind down sharp sheets of glass and put them together like jigsaw puzzles.
There’s a large garage next to Thom Berg’s home. Inside is an escape from reality.
The 70 year old artist is the owner of Northern Lights Stained Glass Studio. He spent most of his life working in a hospital lab and later as a computer mechanic.
Berg says when he and his wife bought their house, she suggested they add leaded glass fronts to the kitchen cabinets. The two got a quote on the pieces and found out stained glass was really expensive.
“I looked at it and the old ego too over and it’s just one of those ‘oh I can do that’ So I got some glass and some led and so forth. Probably cost three times what it would had to have somebody make it for me. But I found out I could do it and I really enjoyed it.”
Berg says his wife was pleased with his work and the cabinets are still up today.
He says that project 30 years ago got him hooked on stained glass.
“I was still working it was kind of a relaxation thing for me. And now that I’m retired I can look forward to coming out to the studio to do something I want to rather than ‘aw rats, it’s time to get ready for work.”
Berg says the art form isn’t that difficult to learn but can be costly and time consuming. He says once he started making a more items, news of his hobby traveled and people started commissioning their own pieces. Now, clients from South Dakota and surrounding areas order all types of work from Berg.
“They’ll find an old window in their house or something or it’s cracked or they need it releaded. They want to keep something of Grandma’s or Grandpa’s. But I've been doing a lot of windows just for people figuring out they want something different for their new house or if their remodeling or whatever.”
He says business is booming at a surprising rate for Aberdeen. Most of what he earns go to keeping his studio fully supplied. Stained glass is an intricate art and requires a lot of tools to get the details just right.
“It’s kind of like building a jigsaw puzzle only you have to draw all the jigsaw puzzle pieces and you have to cut them all out and put them together.”
Berg draws out his clients ideas on paper before he starts each piece. They pick the glass together then Berg cuts the pieces to size with with razors and plier like tools creating a loud…
His fingers are covered in small cuts from the materials sharp edges. Berg gives the pieces their final shape using a machine called a grinder.
“Every piece of glass that I cut that doesn’t cut me I try to smooth the edges of it. This is a little wheel that has industrial diamonds inserted on it that essentially grind away or cut away the rough edges.”
Berg covers each individual piece of glass in copper foil and lays them over his paper image. The glass pieces are close but don’t touch. Then, he heats up the soldering iron and melts pieces of lead in the cracks to fuse the glass together.
He says fixtures with a lot of small pieces and curves are more time consuming because it’s harder to get the glass to size. But, he says with a little practice, most things are doable.
“You can do almost anything you want. A picture of your dog or your yard or whatever. It’s just how intricate you want to get.”
Berg says since he’s self taught, he learns something with every piece. He says getting a positive reaction makes his day because he’s nervous to the very minute a client sees his work.
“If you want to call it a hobby, fine. If you want to call it a business, fine. I’m just having a good time. It’s worth is when you show a panel to a customer even though they’ve been working on it through the whole process and they look at it they just kind of [say] ‘wow, that's exactly what I wanted.’”
Berg says stained glass art isn’t as popular as it used to be. He encourages anyone who’s interested to give it a try because you never know when you’ll be hooked.