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After the joints had been soldered together, Jim Kowalczyke--an artist at Cathedral Crafts in Goodview, Minn.--scrapes off the excess metal. He went around each piece by hand using a pointed wooden tool. (Photo by Elizabeth Jacobs/Winona360)

Bright colors streaked across the cement floor and onto large tables, as light refracted through colored glass in the window. Two men inside the shop bend over their worktables. Piece by piece, they placed the colored glass together and molded the lead around it.

“It’s an art just putting the windows together; it is just like a big jigsaw puzzle,” said Eric Penic, who has worked at Cathedral Crafts in Goodview, Minn., for 18 years.

The image of Jesus printed on a piece of paper watched Ryan Myhre and Don Jason, glazers at Cathedral Crafts, from a nearby table. In another two weeks, the image of Jesus will be watching over a congregation in Rushford, Minn., in the form of a finished stained glass window.

Stained glass windows were first created 900 years ago, according to the Art Glass Association. 

“(Stained glass pieces are) made now pretty much like they were when they first come into existence,” said Jim Kowalczyke, an artist at Cathedral Crafts. “They are cut by hand, painted by hand, put together by hand.”

Myhre and Jason used small glasscutters and pliers to form petite green leaves; they created each piece to fit perfectly next to the surrounding pieces. No loud equipment and no power tools were used to create the delicate pieces for the window. Myhre and Jason put each piece into place by hand.

Once all the pieces are placed in the frame, the joints will be soldered--a fusible metal used to join metallic surfaces--together.

“I like the craft work; putting something together start to finish,” said Jason. “Nice to have to have something to show off at the end of the day.”

In the next room, classical music played as Kowalczyke cleaned two of the completed panels of the stained glass window, which will have 11 panels when finished. His design was slowly coming together.

He scrapped the extra solder from one panel as sawdust soaked up the extra oils on the other. The only tool in Kowalczyke’s hand is a pointed piece of wood. 

“It’s a hands-on process,” said Kowalczyke. “I’ve been doing this for 40 some years and I am still learning.”

At Willet Hauser Architectural Glass in Winona, Minn., the space is bigger but the process is the same.

According to Jim Hauser, co-owner of Willet Hauser Architectural Glass, a stained glass window maker from 500 years ago would be able to come into a shop today and create a window. 

“It has been 40-plus years I’ve been doing this and I get excited about it every day,”  said Hauser. “Everyone who works here is an artist.”