Sagawa Stained Glass
York, PA

I started working with stained glass in the late 1970s and am mostly self-taught or learned through experimentation. I believe that my creativity has benefited from not being taught what “couldn’t” be done with glass. My skills and direction have changed and evolved over time. I started with traditional two-dimensional leaded panels and then created my own “tree of life” panel using copper foil in a most nontraditional fashion.

I create the tree panels by drawing the design on the stained glass and then cutting out each piece, wrapping them with copper foil, and applying additional copper foil, which I then sculpt and solder to resemble tree bark. My unique double trees create a shadow effect by joining two panels together. I make the stars using glass that is left from making the tree panels.