Seeing stained glass in more modern settings has given Tiffany Stained Glass more avenues to explore how they can preserve and bring the craft into the contemporary space
We live in interesting times: Technological innovation is faster than ever yet in perfect counterpoint, we also feel a strong pull towards the past. Trends from earlier eras find a resurgence, as styles in fashion, makeup, and even interior design from decades ago are revived, enjoying prominence once again.
But the charm of vintage pieces and designs goes beyond nostalgia. The appeal lies in the assumed assurance of timelessness. By enduring the passage of time, the vintage item proves its longevity.
In interior design, we’re seeing a detraction from contemporary “minimalism” in favor of spaces and pieces that have a more human touch. Artisan-made pieces are preferred for their unique character, sometimes for the perfectly imperfect wabi-sabi quality of the handcrafted pieces. Some call this adding a “patina” for spaces, a touch of time that makes it more lived-in. To achieve this, many also revive or restore vintage design pieces or elements, from textiles to light fixtures.
Among the artisan crafts enjoying renewed interest in recent years is stained glass. Traditionally and more popularly known for its majestic imagery and the color it adds to the world’s most revered venues, stained glass is having its moment in a new niche.
Renowned architect and designer Frank Lloyd Wright recognized this, saying, in an essay, “The magnificent window-painting and plating of the windows of the religious edifice is quite another matter. There the window becomes primarily a gorgeous painting–painting with light itself–enough light being diffused to flood the interior dimly. This is an art in itself that reached its height in the Middle Ages.”
It is his fascination with this age-old art that pushed him to make prominent use of stained glass in his buildings and houses, thus ushering in a new era for stained glass. But it was a few decades earlier that another prominent name in the world of stained glass started his studio in New York. Louis Comfort Tiffany established the Tiffany Studio in the mid-1880s, specializing in glasswork. The company later grew to be known for its glass lamps, named Tiffany lamps.
While the tradition and history of glasswork notably trace back to the West, the Philippines is also a quiet player in the field. Named after the history of New York’s Tiffany lamps, a small, nearly 25-year-old local glasswork company is crafting the grandest windows, domes, and lamps, bridging the craft’s ecclesiastic tradition and finding modern applications, too.
Looking beyond windows
Labor and time-intensive, it requires skill, tools, and creativity to paint with light, more so to make the majestic panels and windows of some of the country’s grandest spiritual spaces. Tiffany Stained Glass (TSG) runs a tight ship. High above ground, on the top floor of an unassuming building along Carlos Palanca St. in Quiapo, Manila, 10 artisans cut, paint, bake, and bind pieces of colored glass to form intricate, delicate paintings.
In a parish in Cainta, stained glass has found a purpose beyond church windows. Their expansive aisle, cutting through the rows of wooden pews, features a long stretch of colorful stained glass crafted by TSG’s artisans. The glass aisle, the first of its kind in the Philippines, if not the world, notes TSG general manager Jhojho Sabarre, highlights iconic ecclesiastical images, like the white dove symbolizing peace, a fish, boat, and a lamb, leading up to the altar, whose tables are also fitted with stained glass images.
In Wisdom Park in Quezon City, a Buddhist meditation room is encased in stained glass images of Buddha, peacefully meditating in the middle of a lush natural landscape. The panels of stained glass, adorned with sprawling fields and blooming flowers, flank the amethyst and citrine-encrusted floors of the room, creating a breathtaking space where one can clear one’s mind and channel peace.
Then at the heart of Bonifacio Global City, hanging by the window-side corner of Kodawari’s latest outpost, is a trapezoid retro cafe lamp, designed by artist Raxenne Maniquiz to feature the brand’s “gyu-dog” mascot running through fields of mushrooms, talbos ng kamote, sakura, and waling-waling, as the sous vide egg sun sets in the background. The charming lamp is just one of TSG’s more modern fittings, and not its first outing with commercial spaces.
It was also the skilled artisans of TSG that created the glass domes at Venice Piazza and the stained glass roof at Casa Buenas in Newport World Resorts. And of course, who can forget the quaint floral lamps at Shakey’s? Those were by the skilled hands of TSG’s craftsmen, too.
On our visit to their Quiapo factory, a curious stained glass piece sat in one corner of their workshop. A prime example of how stained glass in its modern context now knows no limits to its themes, the piece, which was commissioned by a client who restores vintage cars, featured cars at the center of its design.
“It’s interesting, I’ve never seen anything like it,” says Claudine San Diego, TSG’s marketing manager. “People can really play around and customize glass based on their hobbies and interests.”
Painting with and for light
While the painted glass concept is not uncommon, true stained glass remains a niche. “Nagulat nga ‘yong iba kasi akala nila wala sa Philippines na stained glass. Iilan lang kasi kami,” Sabarre says.
“Sa amin, real stained glass… Malalaman mo kung sinong artist by the staining. Kaya ‘pag [pumunta kami sa labas, may nakita kaming stained glass,] nasasabi namin, ‘Atin ‘yan,’” she adds. “Ang difference pati ay ang baking. Sa pag-be-bake. Sa amin talaga baked ‘yong glass. Sa others kasi pine-paint lang nila, then spray, then wala na.” Baking, she says, ensures that the stain lasts longer on the glass.
Of the 10 artisans under TSG, they call two glass artists. Aldrin Pongco, 54, and Arthur “Bong” Reyes, 57, are the two artists responsible for the detailed paintings on each of TSG’s stained glass projects. Other artists work on shading other elements of the stained glass pieces, such as the flowers and leaves.
Many of their artisans started in different mediums, eventually training and learning the craft upon being recommended to TSG. “An artist is always an artist,” Sabarre says smiling. “Kahit anong medium, kaya nilang gawin.”
Pongco has been a glass artist for 30 years, having had an inclination for art since his childhood. He was one of the artists that was referred to learn the craft and was one of the glass artists who has been with TSG since its inception.
Meanwhile, Reyes has been working the craft for a little more than a decade. He first began with glass etching, and later shifted to painting stained glass. When asked how he learned the craft, he remarked that he simply watched how others did it, sheepishly adding it was because he was too shy to ask.
But before Pongco and Reyes can work on detailing the figures on stained glass, the glass pieces go through a tedious process. A design is first sketched out on paper, mapped true-to-size, and marked with the corresponding glass swatches to be used for each part.
The pattern and the glass sheets are then cut by a team of glass cutters, who meticulously trace the patterns and cut out the required pieces. They then go through a process of matting, then shading, and painting. Once the pieces have been painted, they are then turned over to Chona Tapan, who bakes the pieces at 500°C in TSG’s ovens to seal in the colors. It then takes around an hour for the painted glass to bake and cool.
Once cooled, the glass pieces are assembled together with lead, a traditional method also called caming. At TSG, the lead used to bind the glass pieces together are also painted versus simply dusted with finish. This gives TSG’s pieces a more long-lasting quality.
Into a new era
Seeing stained glass in more modern settings has given TSG more avenues to explore how they can further preserve and at the same time bring the craft into the contemporary space. The Kodawari lamp has brought to light the various opportunities they could explore with the craft.
“Since that Kodawari lamp, we’ve been getting more inquiries,” San Diego says. “We’ve been really grateful since that Kodawari lamp, too, because it’s really modernizing the craft and preserving it in some way.”
TSG will soon start collaborating with local artists and brands this November. For these collaborations, they plan to explore creating more table lamps, sun catchers, and various other glass projects. This is the first in TSG’s new direction to showcase the versatility of stained glass.
Soon, they’re also looking into hosting workshops to introduce more people to the art of stained glass crafts. San Diego likens it to the hobbyist circles in the US, and the surging popularity of other handcrafts like pottery and weaving locally. It is her dream, she says, to see more creative minds develop more stained glass creations.
