Glass Artist Creates Prisms of Color and Light

(Story from Jan. 11, 2003 issue of Sioux City's Weekender, written by Jan Dehner)

    In a 100-year-old bank building in this town of 900 people, Nick Bogenrief has spent 30 years cutting out a name for himself in the art world.
    Using a palette of colored and textured glass, and a canvas of light, B&B Art Glass in Hinton specializes in creating custom stained glass designs that are displayed in homes, churches and businesses around the world.
    Bogenrief's stained glass creations adorn buildings in locales as far away as Kuwait, Japan and Honduras, and aren't limited to windows. From the smallest suncatchers to lampshades, tabletops, doors and room dividers, Bogenrief prides himself on not turning away commissions, no matter how small. "There are so many things that can be done with glass," Bogenrief said.
    With a cheerful smile and gentle nature, the middle-aged man with the salt-and-peppers veard welcomes visitors into his shop and proudly displays some of his work. A pair of exquisite doors with centers of clear, beveled glass surrounded by a frame of whimsical pink and green tulips stand proudly in his understated workshop. Another large, round window with rose-colored flowers decorates the front display window. And an intricate lampshade casts a rainbow of hues on the surrounding walls.
    Locals who want to learn the art have plenty of opportunities this month as three classes are being offered at the Sioux City Art Center and WIT.
    For Bogenrief, the artistry of his vocation was merely an offshoot of growing up with parents who ran an antique business. As his father salvaged pieces of leaded glass from buildings on the wrecking block, Bogenrief learned to repair and restore the windows and lampshades to saleable condition.
    "You take an old window apart and see how it's constructed. You start matching the glass, which was the hard part," Bogenrief said. In the design process, Bogenrief uses just a handful of tools in the centuries-old craft. "Techniques really haven't changed over the years. Maybe some of the tools have been improved," Bogenrief said.
Age Old Art
    The art of making stained glass dates to the Middle Ages and was closely affiliated with the building of churches. Often, the windows were used as a means to tell a Biblical story. In the 1400s, traditional methods to produce stained glass were replaced by the use of colored enamels painted on colorless glass. Once fired, the technique produced a quality nearly equaling stained glass. Thus, by the 1600s, the art of making stained glass was almost forgotten.
    But a revival in traditional stained glass methods took place in teh 1800s, and new uses for the artwork began to appear. By the turn of the century, Louis C. Tiffany popularized the use of stained glass in decorative lampshades in what was known as the art nouveau period.
Hand Crafting Still the Means
    Bogenrief still hand grinds many of the beveled pieces that go into his projects, something that is rarely done in this age of high tech, assembly line cutters and imported beveled glass pieces. He uses antique cast iron steel, stone, cork and felt wheels, salvaged from Hansen Paint and Glass in Sioux City, complete with seasoned, three-phase motors. "You can see works that use imported beveled glass and glass clusters because they will be the same all over the country," said Bogenrief, referring tot eh pre-fag stained glass kits available on the market.
    Each individual piece of colored glass is hand-cut, then placed back into the pattern before being soldered together between strips of flexible lead "came." Glazing and grouting of the completed pattern is the final step before a window is ready to be displayed. Bogenrief refrains from the use of commercial products for glazing, and prefers to mix his own. installing the weighty piece of artwork is often the most difficult part of the process.
    For Bogenrief, the most challenging aspect of creating a unique piece of stained glass art is that he and his customers are both happy with the end result. "People have so many different tastes. You're hoping that they're pleased with it," he said. Bogenrief says that his compensation for the labor-intensive method lies in repeat business and the gratification of the customers. "Once it is installed, they have a piece of art that changes all day long with the amount of sunlight that hits it."