Melanie Myron

by Christi Marsico
Tuesday, February 12, 2008 2:49 PM MST

For Melanie Myron, there's always one more question to ask when it comes to creating stained glass and where she plans to go with her future designs.

"I am torn between whether I am an artist or a manufacturer because I have two different lines, and some things I do are very one of a kind and some things I do, while they are still artistic, are more for mass market," Myron said.

She learned the craft of stained glass about 10 years ago as she was remodeling a house on 13th Street, where she installed rock on the outside of it.

After creating glass pieces for several cupboard doors and light fixtures for the house, Myron turned to stained glass work full time.

She has been selling stained glass for seven years and started her business, Casper Glass, www.casperglass.com, five years ago.

"Making a business out of my art, I focus on stained glass, custom glass and specialize in the solder sculpture technique," Myron said.

Defining art in the stained glass world is focused on original designs for Myron, which mostly comes from her photography.

She also enjoys the combination of metal and glass in her pieces, which lends itself to a rich dichotomy in design.

"Both are very rigid materials and very similar and very opposite at the same time. They are similar in texture and sometimes in shine, and one is almost indestructible and the other is totally fragile; it comes down to an act of balance," the artist said.

In her glass-making experimentation, Myron addresses the importance of understanding the stained glass fundamentals before creating your own process.

She acknowledges Kokomo Opalescent Glass, www.kog.com, as being a great resource for her since it is the oldest manufacturer of opalescent and cathedral stained glass in the world, offering more than 22,000 colors, densities and texture combinations.

Myron favors the well-known copper foil technique for putting glass together because it allows more experimentation.

"I am always trying to do something other people aren't doing," Myron said.

While striving to be efficient in manufacturing her products, she multi-tasks her process.

"The thing about glass is you always have to be working on several projects at once because it's more efficient to get many aspects of the process done that way," she noted.

Myron will cut glass all at once and foil pieces in her car while her husband drives, noting she can foil 14 poinsettias in a trip to southern Colorado and back.

When it comes to her favorite part of the stained glass process, she enjoys designing pieces, especially for somebody else. She also favors soldering.

"Soldering really brings all the pieces together, creating one original concept," Myron said.

Negative space is another aspect that Myron favors in her art, allowing the background to not only become a part of the setting, but also enhance it.

She has focused on many avenues of her business, which includes her book, "I Haven't Lost My Marbles."

The book gives instructions on working with marbles and nuggets to create projects, as well as wholesaling her cards, silly stars, wine charms and diamond bevel boxes, which all can be found on her Web site.

Looking to define future projects by focusing on creating unusually large pieces or perfecting her lines, one thing is clear about Myron's passion.

"Glass is magic; the same piece of glass is a different picture in the morning, at noon and at night," she noted.

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