The Vinery Stained Glass Studio has been around since 1984. It originated from Madison and in 2021, the owners came down to Whitewater.
Josh Krogman is currently in charge of the wonderful studio. He took his first class 18 years ago, not realizing that he’d be taking over in the future, but that is something that he is more than okay with. He quit his job as a tattoo artist to come into this position without regrets.
“Stuck by the beauty of glass, sometimes,” Krogman said. “You’re in awe. I remember growing up as a kid, going to church and looking at these beautiful windows. And it’s a test of patience. Glass demands you to be very focused and precise at times and I think that I like how it makes you be very aware and present.”
He offers a wealth of options when it comes to working with glass pieces. He does restoration and repair work, which includes taking old glass that is no longer wanted or normally usable. There is custom work that can be ordered or simply created by customers in the rented seats and tables offered for personal use.
“There’s so much you can do with it! We can make stained glass, we can melt it in the kiln, we can do bead making, ornaments and sculptures. You name it,” Krogman said. “It’s one of those crazy mediums that you can use so many different ways.”
All of the ways to create using glass are available to learn. The Vinery offers weekly classes where Krogman helps you acquire the skills necessary to create something from glass. There are many options for those who would like to walk-in without appointment. They have molds to put glass pieces or frit into, creating something to be popped out a week later. A class is also held every Wednesday for five weeks to create a stained glass panel.
Many of the people who have done the weekly classes end up continuing on their own, using the space in the back for their art. They get to try new techniques and get to see exactly what they are capable of. It can be very surprising. At the Vinery, “you can make just about anything possible.”
However, if creating something with glass is not someone’s interest and just something they want to learn, Josh has that handled, too. He can explain how they made glass art in the Middle Ages, which involved a Lead H Channel to put the panels inside to be painted on.
Then came someone named Louis Comfort Tiffany, who created the copper foil technique, which is when you wrap copper foil around the edge of the glass and solder over the top to adhere all the pieces together. This opened up more doors for people’s creativity and craftsmanship, seeing as it didn’t all need to be fit into channeling.
They are starting to make more fused glass windows. This is essentially where they are fusing pieces of glass, melting them into some kind of pattern, and then soldering them to stay in place. This makes your own glass for your own specific project. This was used for the largest stained glass window, which is placed in Kansas City. He can go over even more than that when it comes to knowing his history about this old style of art and creativity.
Which makes sense considering his favorite piece at the Vinery. It comes from the Morris Pratt Institute, which, before it was demolished in the ‘60s, was the world’s first School of Spiritualism. Someone had sold him the piece, saying their father had taken it out of the building before it was torn down. It is a beautifully beveled window.
Every day Josh is behind the vision that is the Vinery Stained Glass Studio is another exciting day for him. He is constantly impressed with how the artistry that comes with glass continues to grow. And the building with all of this creativity oozing out of it is right down the street.
