Karen Christie Design Stained Glass Studio and Artist Spotlight: Claire Isham

A collage of stained glass pieces made by Claire Isham. Flowers and nature can be seen as heavy influences in her art. (Photo courtesy of Claire Isham. Collage made by Abigail Crawford)

NoRa, a popular coffee shop in Raleigh, often holds art displays by art studios or to raise money for important causes. In the past, NoRa has displayed sketch drawings, photography, and other art.

Most recently NoRa showcased a stained glass exhibit in the front side window of the lobby, named “Stained Glass: Dances with Colors,” made by students from Karen Christie Design Studio. 

The art consisted of small and large pieces available to purchase or kept as personal pieces. 

The designs included rainbows, coffee cups, dragonflies, pets, large nature pieces, geometric shapes, and hanging panels. Many pieces were for sale from $50 to up to $500 based on the size, time to make, and complexity.

A poster describing  Karen Christie’s art display at NoRa.

Claire Isham, a student and glass artist at Karen Christie’s studio, created one of these pieces. Isham moved from Asheville to study Math and Statistics at UNC Chapel Hill.

Isham commented, “It’s kind of nice to have a creative outlet with having so much math all the time.”

Isham commented, “It’s kind of nice to have a creative outlet with having so much math all the time.”

At NoRa, Isham presents several beautiful stained glass pieces including a triangle corner honeycomb, flowers, and small dragonfly keys. 

It takes Isham hours to make her pieces; the bigger the piece and the more difficult cuts needed really determines how long a piece will take. 

Isham explained, “The honeycomb I made took me like six hours… I feel like patterns that have really small pieces or a lot of pieces take me a long time or anything that has really difficult cuts because I break the glass… The dragonflies I made took me like an hour and a half each, but I have some that I’ve been working on for about 20 hours plus.”

Isham first discovered glass-making at age seven when she heated glass to make beads. Although, Isham said she ultimately was inspired to take up glass making because of her Mom, “She made the most beautiful lamp ever and I always admired it so much… sometime last year I was really looking for a new artistic outlet… I always thought about that lamp and I would love to be able to make something like that one day.” 

Claire Isham’s “Honeycomb” as seen on display at NoRa Cafe. 

Isham commented about the different inspirations that influence her work, such as nature, and the beautiful sights from her home, “Asheville is a really good place and inspired a lot of my creativity. It’s so beautiful and there is so much art there,” said Isham. 

Additionally, Isham becomes inspired by colors and the different textures of glass. 

With additional help from Isham, Christie showed me how to make a stained glass piece and welcomed me into her studio. 

Christie explained how to break the glass using a glass cutter with the pliers, then how to grind the edges so you don’t get cut on sharp edges. Then you apply copper foil to the outside edges and apply a yellowish clear liquid called flux to the foil. Finally soldering using a soldier, a long hot wand, and different metal types to connect the gaps within different glass pieces and make the edges nice and pretty. 

In the end, they had to assist me a little with different aspects and finally, I cleaned and buffed my strip of glass piece. Christie graciously gave me all the items needed to hang my glass in my window. 

It was such a unique experience being welcomed into a space that is dedicated to the making of such beautiful art and able to not only appreciate it but also try to make my own stained glass. 

Additionally, I was able to watch Claire Isham make a large piece that was a commission and put it together step by step. It truly was an honor to be able to see all the inner workings that happen from the table to the artist and teacher and then see the products in NoRa for sale. 

 

Karen Christie’s business card for any further inquiries. 

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