Editorial
Front Page - Friday, October 2, 2009
ZAKAS Glassworks puts new spin on traditional stained glass
Samara Litvack
When Bob Zakas started experimenting with stained glass in the 1980s, he considered it a hobby. After working in the studio a couple years, he “went back and got a real job.” Then, 12 years ago, he reopened his studio and picked up right where he left off.
Then, developer Ken Crisp commissioned Zakas to restore all the stained glass in the First Congregational Church on M.L. King Boulevard in Chattanooga. The Lyndhurst Foundation, River City Company and Cornerstones provided financing for the massive project, and Zakas knew he couldn’t complete it alone.
“I was just looking for somebody to help me do some of the basic grunt work,” he says. That’s when he came upon Alayna Kyle, a local graphic design student with a keen eye for all things artistic.
“The scheduling was perfect because I just needed somebody to do stuff and there’s no set time here,” he says. “She could come in at night, clean the panels, clean stuff and have it ready for me to assemble in the morning.”
The pair worked well together and, after the project was complete, Zakas was all set to retire.
“I was one and done after that project,” he says. “I had made my circle. That took a year and it was something you could finally put your stamp on and say, ‘I did that. I made my circle.’ But heck, what are you going to do? Go sit on the porch?”
Zakas returned to the studio with Kyle in tow and the two began collaborating on one-of-a-kind custom stained glass pieces. Together, they formed ZAKAS Glassworks (which stands for Zakas and Kyle Art Studio). As time passed, more work started coming in and the longer they’ve worked together, the more creative they’ve become.
Zakas points to an unassembled stained glass eagle on the worktable that will soon be hung at the American Eagle Inn in Monteagle. Beside it sits another piece bearing the name of the inn, which is the perfect example of the unique variety of things Zakas and Kyle do with stained glass.
“What’s so neat is the painting on the glass,” Zakas says. “This is traditionally painted and fired, just like it would be on any church window you saw.”
But after the traditional work, Kyle comes back with a different type of paint and adds letters, designs or anything else a customer wants – and it’s all done in house. This allows ZAKAS to create special dedications on church windows, customized wall hangings and anything else someone might imagine with stained glass.
The pair has even found a way to incorporate all the waste that comes from cutting glass “the right way,” along the grain, says Zakas. “Frit,” or busted up glass, is added to pieces after they’ve been fired in the kiln. Then pieces are refired, coming out textured with a variety of colors.
“I have a frit piston,” says Kyle. “I crush up the glass and that waste is incorporated in a new way to that panel. So I guess that’s our green statement.
“I’ll throw anything in the kiln just to see what it does and this is the way our pieces start to form.”
That attitude led to another unique spin on stained glass when Kyle took some of the waste pieces and tried her hand in jewelry
making.
“She took it to another level,” says Zakas. “It was just a great accident.”
Kyle also puts bottles, pieces of fish tank and any other glass she can get her hands on in the kiln, just to see how they turn out and how they could be used in future projects.
“In the stained glass industry, there’s a term called COE,” says Zakas. “There’s a number, the coefficient of expansion. What it means is different glasses expand and contract at different rates.”
Kyle spends a lot of her free time experimenting with different types of glass, from things she picks up at dollar stores to liquor bottles, taking note of how they melt, how they cool and how they look when brought out of the kiln. While glass is the medium at ZAKAS Glassworks, the possibilities are really endless.
“We have all this craft paper here that we use for our patterns and a lot of times I’ll stick paper up on the wall and draw whatever in pastels or just random sketches and sometimes they turn into glass,” says Kyle.
Zakas then retrieves a gorgeous example, a semi-abstract half of a woman’s face, her hair flowing across the panel.
“That’s where everything starts,” he says. “I came in one morning and saw it and I said, ‘That’s got to be made.’”
The pair is currently working to complete the vision of Kyle’s sketch – four panels, each mirroring the others, phasing lighter, clearer and with more paint as they transition. They’re also considering incorporating another recent accident, in which a certain type of glass busted in the kiln and melted back down, producing a new, interesting texture.
“My vision and my dream for here is to have stained glass, something new and exciting,” says Kyle. “It’s not your grandmother’s front door anymore.”
Learn more about
Zakas Glassworks at www.zakasglassworks.com or www.stainedglasswindows4u.com.
To see Zakas Glassworks stained glass jewelry in person, visit the upcoming, first ever Red Bank Market, hosted by the Red Bank Neighborhood Pride Association on October 10 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The market will be held at the Red Bank City Park, across from Bi-Lo on Dayton Boulevard. The event will showcase local vendors and growers and will offer live music, from Irish folk bands to bluegrass.
Also included in the event is a “live flower swap,” where attendees are encouraged to bring unwanted perennials, such as hostas and monkey grass, to trade out with other attendees.
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