Lisa Jenkins crafts a window for St. Thomas

There is a mystery in the properties of glass. Sand that’s transformed by fire — a cooled liquid that can capture the light and glow from within.
And stained glass can beam a mystical glow from the heavens.
Perhaps that’s why the great churches and cathedrals of history have tinted their naves and transepts through colored glass. An ethereal glow through a stained glass window can do more than illustrate religious icons, it can also illuminate and inspire an atmosphere of wonder.
Local graphic artist Lisa Jenkins has been commissioned to craft a very special stained glass window for the St. Thomas Catholic Church of International Falls. A project of the Catholic Daughters, the north-side window will stand behind the altar at the recently renovated 95-year-old community landmark. Installment is planned at Christmas time.
Jenkins, owner of a new business called Riverside Glassworks, is crafting the 4-feet by 10-feet arched creation at her studio in Ericsburg.
Jenkins delivers her talent in several mediums and is the creative director at North Star Publishing. This is not her first art glass commission. Among other projects, Jenkins notably designed the impressive 400-square-foot stained montages symbolizing the Jewish High Holy Days at the B'nai Israel Synagogue in St. Petersburg, Fla., where she was a resident for two decades.

The artist, the art
Jenkins, whose father Bill was a U.S. Navy commander at the Pentagon, calls herself a “Navy brat” who lived the uprooted military childhood in several places, including Japan. Her talent surfaced as a youngster and Jenkins remembers scrutinizing older artists in her formative years.
Mentor for the designer was Victor Berthelsdorf of Kaleidoscope Studio in St. Petersburg with whom Jenkins became acquainted in 1985, and for whom she once worked. Jenkins does both colored and etched glass work.
Many years later, on this day in her Ericsburg studio, Jenkins is accompanied by Bill Krall, craftsman from the Iron Range, who has come to assist her, and artist-friend Julie Larson as well as pet pigeon “Fuzzer.”
Birds are prominent in the artist’s life. While Jenkins works, chickens and roosters squawk noisily in Carribean-colored coops outside. Inside her home, dogs whimper to come outside and a cage of cockatiels fills a small room. The fate of all animals is close to Jenkins’ heart. And while the residence is accessorized with her bold and bright artistry and Larson’s rusted-iron sculptures, Jenkins’ demeanor is soft-hued and gentle.
The technique for creating a stained glass window hasn’t changed much in over 900 years. In 1100 AD, instructions by the monk Theophilus to glass craftsmen differed little from today’s methods.
An art glass window has to support its own weight and survive the elements including proper ventilation for the intense heat of the sun. Historically, stained glass has withstood an astounding test of time; some of the most remarkable examples date from the later Middle Ages.
Catholic Daughters Shirley Ettestad and Norena Guerard told Jenkins that the design should be in harmony with the church’s esteemed original windows. Incorporated into Jenkins’ non-figurative design is a round glass segment depicting a dove, a remnant from the original entry at St. Thomas. In addition, Jenkins’ design echoes the abstract crosses found in the church’s old windows.
Jenkins paints a watercolor of her vision and draws what the craft calls a “cartoon.” Then it is projected onto kraft paper, delineating each piece for its pattern.
“They have to be fairly precise,” said Jenkins, who uses a special scissors that adds the width of a soldered seam to each cut. Cutting the glass itself is done with a hand tool that features an oiled blade.
She explained that the detail in stained glass is achieved by a reverse-image technique in which special black pigment is applied (trace lines) and then gradually removed with a variety of stippling brushes. This is labor intensive because flesh tones, lips, and eye or hair color must each done separately, and each requires as many as five 1,500-degree firings. Jenkins does this in her personal kiln.
On a large table, flat nails secure the exterior shape of the window. Within that framework, the glass shapes fit together like a puzzle, waiting to be fitted with lead joints. Jenkins is using a device that stretches the leading before design shapes are soldered. Although repairs on broken segments may be made on site, pre-stretching prevents glass pieces from loosening after the final installment of the window, she explained.

A colorful history
A catholic parish has existed in Borderland since 1905. It united an ethnic mix of early settlers in a tiny wooden building that now stands on Seventh Street in the Falls. In 1913, the present church was constructed of blue-gray granite rock from the Rainy River dam construction site, hauled over by horses.
St. Thomas’ 100th anniversary in 2005 saw the completion of major renovations in the church. But the structure’s stained glass windows, each sponsored and marked in memory of parishioners, are still integral to its identity.
Pastoral Associate Pat Bjorum does walking tours of St. Thomas’ stained glass windows, and talked about them with The Daily Journal. She explained that each of the windows depicts a message about the saints.
Early stained glass provided illustrations for the largely illiterate population of the medieval era; the pictorials were even referred to as the “Poor Man’s Bible.”
Bjorum said the iconic image of each of the church’s stained glass windows was originally chosen because it held a special meaning for the families who sponsored them. For example, she noted that the Bzdok and LePage families selected the patron saint of France: Joan of Arc. The late Eva LaFave, pioneer parishioner of St. Thomas and mother the late Millie Savard, donated money to help restore the church’s stained glass and is also honored with a window.
“The windows honor members so far back,” said Bjorum. “When I look at those, it really touches me that this was a lasting way to keep their presence.”
Bjorum said new angles created in the 2005 renovation required adding lights to some windows to make them glow. Jenkins’ design will be fitted inside a preexisting window of plain, occluded glass.

Reviving the craft
Before history was recorded, man learned to make glass and to color it by adding metallics and oxides. Cloisonne jewelry and ancient mosaics likely evolved to larger glass abstracts. Changes in leading and painting would evolve the craft in churches throughout centuries of architectural styles.
John LaFarge copyrighted opalescent class in 1879, and Louis Comfort Tiffany’s name would become synonymous with the American glass movement. Tiffany’s wealthy lamp customers included the Vanderbilts and the Astors. American architect Frank Lloyd Wright incorporated his own stained glass designs into many of his institutional and residential schemes.
An explosion of interest in the last 30 years has produced new and imaginative forms of the art which are now commonly used in businesses and residences.
Jenkins, with a degree in art history, also paints in watercolor, oil and acrylics. She is a devotee of the great masters such as Rembrandt whose paintings reflect a single light source.
“That’s why I love stained glass,” she said, and added that her tastes lean toward the abstract. Jenkins said she loves creating the elements of symbolism, like the temple windows as well as a rose window that she did in St. Petersburg.
She has always been interested in religion, and has witnessed the different energies of several different churches, Jenkins said. “When I think of all those who will see this window, and experience it, I get goose bumps,” she added.
And though she looks forward to taking orders for a variety of uses for her glass work, she expressed that creating such an important window for St. Thomas is an honor of which she will always be proud.

Riverside Glassworks may be contacted at 377-4348.