"Man Sees Beautiful Possibilities in Stained Glass"

There is a story behind how Beglar Merlich got into stained glass.  Back around 1980, his wife had been admiring some stained glass for her kitchen, but upon inquiring as to the price of the ornament, they were shocked to discover it was more than a little out of their price range.  Beglar remembers saying, "at that price, I'll make it myself..."

This turned out to be no idle boast, and Beglar, a 43 year veteran with El Paso Electric, began to collect all kinds of books on stained glass.  Soon afterward, armed with a pair of pliers and a 59 cent glass cutter, after a few trial pieces, he presented his wife with a stained glass window for her kitchen.  It was a large scale fruit bowl, using different textures and colors for the different fruits. 

 After much experimenting he has settled on what is called the copper foil method for his stained glass.  This is an old method that dates from the time of Louis Tiffany, the great stained glass artist.  This technique requires that each piece of glass be wrapped along its edges entirely with thin copper foil.  This give the solder something to bond with (lead solder will not adhere to glass).  Then after soldering one side of the piece, Beglar must turn it over and do the same to the other side.  This increases the structural support for the glass which gets heavier as more pieces are added.  

Beglar adds that most folks working in stained glass use lead came, which stretches over time, causing, in extreme cases, the pieces of glass to fall out.  The lead came is applied as a border to the glass, in the same way as the copper, and the solder is bonded directly it.  A window done with this process can be mass produced in 2 or 3 days. 

 Beglar says that lead came is an easier and faster process, but that doesn't interest him.  It can take him months to complete a piece.  He sees himself as a painted whose medium is glass.  As he grows in experience, he depends less on the craft and more on inspiration.  When he drives home from work, for instance, he'll remember how the sky looks at dusk, and file that image away for later.  Afterwards he may come across a piece of glass whose texture and color reminds him of that particular sky. 

 As a painter in glass, Beglar must have access to hundreds of kinds and colors of the stuff.  He estimates that he has two hundred and fifty kind of glass in stock.  In addition, he has a 'catalog' of glass samples on the windows of his workshop. This consists of the hundreds of the 1" X 1" samples glass companies give out to those who order from them.  If he needs a particular hue that he doesn't have, he looks up the sample number and order it. 
 

He also needs to ensure that he has enough glass to finish the job.  Especially when using the more esoteric colors, which are achieved through blending of two different colors of glass, consistency becomes a crucial issue.  Two sheets of the same glass may not be close at all in color, because of the many variables that affect the manufacture of glass. 

 For many years Beglar worked with a southwest theme.  It is something that is close to his heart.  He has done much research, and tries to make his glassworks as authentic and accurate as he can.  He is attracted to the southwest mainly because the cultural heritage is so varied and naturally colorful.  He says that he does not have to exaggerate colors in his glass, that these colors are found throughout the history of the southwest.  He says, "these may look gaudy to you, but I can show you exactly these colors..." in historical reference material. 

But as crucial to him as color is texture.  "Texture is very important to me now..." he says.  Texture is what realizes the detail in the stained glass.  It makes depth of field effects possible, it gives clues to the viewer as to what exactly they are looking at, in short texture is what raises the work from just a piece of glass, to a piece of art.  Glass can be bought in varying textures, or can be distressed in several ways to create texture.  Beglar is constantly experimenting to create new textures for his glass. 

 Since 1985, Beglar has undertaken, as a labor of faith, to replace the windows in his church with stained glass.  He has finished nine windows at the Our Lord of Mercy Catholic Church, including a stained glass Lady of Guadalupe.  He hopes to start another in the fall.  All this work has been donated to the church. 

 Before the stained glass is finished, each piece of glass must be polished and cleaned of all flux residue.  This is a long and arduous process.  Beglar uses those dental plaque removers, sheathed in a cloth, to gently scrape away the residues left on the glass.  Some of Beglar's pieces contain up to 900 bits of glass, all of which must be individually tended to. 

After the cleaning is done (a 30-40 hour job), the final details are added.  He adds some touches with paint, or fixes three dimensional metal stamps to the glass.  Beglar points out that he tries to do as little painting as possible, using it only to bring out some hidden detail. 

 Beglar is always thinking of new ways to alter the way people think about stained glass.  He is constantly pushing himself to try things in glass that he has never seen before.  This experimental bent led him to his Buckskin series, which is very striking. 

 The main part of the piece is done with opaque glass, in a color that suggests an animal hide.  Within the hide is a colorful design of an Indian woman weaving before her teepee.  The hide is supported by a clear glass border, crossed by real leather bindings. 

 This arrangement, at any but the closest distance, creates the illusion that the glass is suspended in the air by the leather.  It is an effect that Beglar Merlich is particularly proud of, and it is quite a long way from that 59 cent glass cutter he began with fifteen year ago.