Colored Glass

One of my mom's interests was stained glass.  I have two of the pieces she made in my kitchen window.

Years ago I rescued three windows from a neighbor's trash.  Two still need a major rehab but one I re-framed and hung in the window to deter bird deaths.  (Not working too well!)

So you could say I have a history with glass.  Well it is so, so minor, compared to Shirley Weeks of The Elegant Attic in Buxton, NC.  PFS needs to thrift so he was exploring the area when he saw some stained glass windows by the side of road.

He stopped in and then took me back the next day.  Here's the shop.

The shop has other antiques.  Lots of glass in a rainbow of colors.

Is this stove gorgeous?

But mostly windows.  Shirley explained that 20 some odd years ago she found a store with a supply of old windows from England.  She brought home some and used them in the kitchen of the house she was building.  Her friends loved them and she took them to the store to buy their own.  Well she sold so many of the windows that the store owner convinced her she had a sales gift. He helped finance her start with his inventory.  She sold out and paid him back in record time.  To resupply Shirley has traveled to England yearly, attending sales and searching for stock.  She connected with a firm of glass artisans who repair, pack and ship her finds.  She ships between 2000 to 2500 each year!

  This door is sold and waiting for pick-up.  Love the 2.

When Shirley moved to Buxton she put her windows beside the road and sat out in a chair.  Lines of traffic formed on the two lane road and the town fathers wanted to shut her down.  Happily a compromise was reached and operations moved back to the house.  When a nearby building was slated for demolition Shirley had it moved, gutted and attached to the front of the house.

 

 

Shirley takes customers to tour her home to show some of the ways she uses windows in her decorating. This is her great room which looks out to the sound ...

and outside on the porch.

She had some other nice touches in her home ... the kitchen counter silverware caddy ...

and this clever display of old shades from overhead light fixtures that she just recently put up by the front door.

Even the storage shed out back has stained glass.  If you are visiting Hatteras Island stop by for a visit with Shirley.  She has customers who come back and buy every year.

So what did we buy?  PFS was quite taken with the idea of hanging a window outside from a tree.  Here's his window but hung on the deck.

These are the windows I got.

Note that there is clear glass and "pebbled" glass along with the colored design.  The pebbled makes sparkles when the sun hits it, the clear will let me still have a view of the yard.

They're English, from the 20's.  The frames were destroyed in removal and the glass guys in England re-framed them.  There were five or six more of the same design.  I primed and painted them my fav gray ... Behr Pewter Mug and hung them in the narrow side windows of the kitchen window pop out.  They reflect  nicely.

Let the birds live!