Meet Allison Peterson of Glendale

Today we’d like to introduce you to Allison Peterson.

Hi Allison, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I grew up in a quiet, rural part of central PA and spent a fair amount of my childhood in churches with stained glass windows that were as tall as the ceiling. Those turned out to be extremely formative years because I’ve very much carried a love and reverence for stained glass ever since, admiring and collecting what I could. During Covid, with all my newfound free time, I spent a lot of hours seeing what I could learn about how stained glass was made. I read everything I possibly could and naively thought I was prepared to start making my own creations. My husband must have believed I was ready too because I got an unusually large package under my Christmas tree in 2021, filled with everything I needed to start breaking glass. I’ve spent a lot of hours since then relentlessly trying (and usually failing) to make my ideas a reality, but years later I think I have finally arrived at a place where my practice pays off.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Oh, absolutely not smooth! When I started, literally every necessary step was much harder than I expected and I wasted a lot of time and materials before being able to make things that weren’t ugly. I think if I had to pinpoint my worst struggle, it would be figuring out soldering. I would go back in time and take an in-person beginner class if I could, because there’s infinite nuance to every step, and those things really do not translate through YouTube videos.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I make stained glass! Most people have seen stained glass before but I find myself surprised by how many folks don’t know how it’s made, so here’s a very brief rundown: a custom pattern is designed and drawn, scaled to size, printed, and cut out. Each cut out piece of the pattern gets assigned and glued to the chosen color of glass, and I use a scoring tool to make break points around the edge of each piece. Then, either grozing or running pliers are used to cut all the pieces to the correct shape. Grinding is next, which consists of each piece being essentially sanded down on those sharp, pointy edges so they are safe to handle. The grinded glass is washed, dried, and wrapped in a special adhesive backed copper foil tape, and then soldered to finish! As you can see, it’s a wildly involved process, even in nutshell form.

As I settle into my own personal creative niche, I’m drawn to more complex shapes and tiny, intricate details. I love a challenge and that usually means testing the bounds of what is possible with only basic tools and my two hands. I am probably most proud of either my landscape of Oak Creek Canyon or my take on the Chinese finger trap, if for no other reason than those being my largest and most complicated pieces.

So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
My greatest pursuit in life is creating and helping other people create! Right now I have a few projects in progress that are trades within the local community, and I also have a few volunteer opportunities coming up that will hopefully get some art into public spaces. I would love to collaborate with other glass artists in the future, but the ultimate goal is to get students into my classroom. Anyone with experience in creating/managing non-profit spaces would be a huge asset to me, as I would love to offer classes in a therapeutic setting. I have healed so much through this artform and it would be a dream to make that opportunity accessible to everyone regardless of financial circumstances (if you didn’t know- making stained glass is *expensive*).

Beyond that, the biggest support anyone can give is simply to keep enjoying and sharing stained glass art that resonates with you. The more people know that stained glass is vibrant and alive, the better it is for artists like me and for the world as a whole.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.atthegateglassworks.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/figureatthegate