Overview of Art Workshop Series – Stained Glass

Emerald Hills Institute hosted a nine-week workshop teaching participants Vitray, or Turkish Stained Glass.

This workshop, made possible by a grant from the Utah Division of Art and Museums, guided attendees through the history, design, and techniques of a centuries-old tradition. Stained glass for Western audiences usually means churches and pictures of saints or Bible stories, and most Westerners are unfamiliar with the presence of stained glass in more Eastern parts of the world.

Due to its ideal location at the crossroads of East and West – Istanbul is the only National Capital built on two continents – Turkey is amazingly fertile for artists and craftspeople in all media. This unique environment brings all sorts of historical traditions and techniques together, creating new hybrids as different people “cross-pollinate” their ideas.

Emerald Hills Institute Program Manager, Zeynep Kariparduc, worked with Emerald Hills Institute Artist in Residence, Andrew Kosorok, to develop a series of workshop sessions as an introduction to Vitray or Turkish Stained Glass through design and the construction of multiple projects. With the guidance of Jean Irwin, Arts Education Manager for the Utah Division of Art and Museums, Emerald Hills Institute also ensured each teacher attending qualified for USBE continuing education credits.

The Vitray projects built included a 3D mosaic lamp having its roots in mosque lamps used throughout historical Turkey, as well as a stained glass window using traditional Vitray floral design.

In addition, we learned traditional Turkish floral and geometric design and tessellation, the modern “language of flowers”  and its roots in Turkish floriography and Ottoman court intrigue, traditional use of color, historical and traditional contexts for Ottoman design, the history of Turkish glass making, and techniques of both traditional and contemporary Vitray construction.

We cut glass, ground glass, glued mosaic glass and grouted, foiled, soldered, and applied patina to our windows to give them the finishing touch. These beautiful projects which will be used and loved for years to come.