Human figures are arranged against a lushly-patterned color field in poses of transcendence or anguish, creating imagery that is powerful, provocative, beautiful, and disturbing. The figural scenes are distorted and borderline grotesque; yet they are still beautiful because of the illuminated, colored glass and the richness of detail.

The works are meant to be understood as paintings rather than architectural glass. She uses sandblasting, engraving, and layering of colored glass sheets to create depth, texture, and subtle variation in her color palette, much like a painter mixes pigments. The glass is assembled using a traditional copper foil and soldering techniques and then illuminated in a lightbox.

See fourteen stained-glass light boxes by the award-winning artist on view in Agony and Ecstasy.

Judith Schaechter (American, b. 1961)
Anchoress, 2015
Stained glass in lightbox
Lent by Judith Schaechter and Claire Oliver Gallery, New York
Photograph by Dominic Episcopo

STEP 1

Doodling

Much of Judith Schaechter’s work is improvisational and made without a prior plan. The artist does a lot of doodling. “This distraction frees me to mess up. All my best work seems to result from accidents and mistakes,” she says.

Pencil sketch
cartoon of
the figure in
The Florist

STEP 2

Cutting

Once the artist has an idea, she turns a doodle into a cartoon that shows how to cut and fit together the pieces of glass. Flat sheets of hand-blown “flash” glass (pale or colorless glass with a very thin veneer of intense color on the surface) are cut using a steel wheel-cutter. The shapes are refined using special pliers, and the edges are smoothed by grinding.

STEP 4

Engraving and Filing

Detailed imagery is drawn onto the flash glass with permanent marker. In a subtractive process that removes the thin surface layer of color, the image is engraved into the glass using a series of tools. Diamond hand files are used to create tonal variations within the remaining color of the flash glass. This is the most intensive and time-consuming step in the entire process.

Individual panes of
sandblasted and
engraved red, blue, and
pink flash glass that will
be used for the figure

STEP 5

Painting

Ninety-nine percent of the color in a work is generated by layering engraved and filed flash glass, but a minimal amount of painting is done for select details. Black vitreous paint is applied to the glass and fired in the kiln at 1,250°F. Two to three firings allow for rich, black tonal variation. Crimson enamel or thin washes of silver stain (for a color yellow) may be applied and fired to create additional effects.

STEP 7

Fire Polishing and Varnishing

When decoration is complete, the surface of the glass is polished with heat in the kiln or coated with a thin layer of acrylic varnish.

STEP 9

Assembling

Thin copper foil is wrapped around the edges of each piece of glass, which are then soldered together. On rare occasions, the artist joins the glass pieces with traditional lead cames (grooved strips of lead) instead of copper foil. To make a light box, the work is placed in a zinc frame and fitted with a light source for illumination.

The final figure
assembled from
stacked layers of
engraved flash glass