BY RYAN O’CONNOR

When Donna Edwards discovered the art of stained-glass making, so did her family and friends.

“I accidentally stumbled onto it one day when I was watching a craft show on TV and saw this woman doing a mosaic design behind her bathroom sink. I thought to myself, ‘I can do that.’ So I got a book, picked out a project, and it’s been full steam ahead ever since,” said Edwards.

“For the first three years I inundated my children and my grandchildren with stained glass, and I think they finally ran out of spaces to put it.”

At the suggestion of a friend, Edwards began selling it on her own roughly a year-and-a-half ago.

Currently, Edwards belongs to the Contoocook Artisans. She marketed and sold many of her creations at a December craft fair, sponsored by the group, and now looks forward to offering some of her more advanced work at the Circle of Art Fair in Dunbarton and Goffstown, from May 4 to 6, and 12 to 13.

There, she will set up at two of the three locations taking part in the fair, the Dunbarton Arts and Gardens Festival in town center on Route 13, and at the Artisan-A-Faire at 66 Long Pond Road.

“It’s getting harder and harder to find people that make real good stained-glass,” said Patricia Murphy, who owns Dunbarton Arts and Gardens. “It’s very labor-intensive, so I appreciate the dedication and hard work artists like Donna Edwards put into their craft.”

For Edwards part, making stained-glass creations is often challenging, but always enjoyable.

“It’s fun to work with and I like the the end result, which is always very nice. I’m always trying something new,” she said. “I like color coordinating and working with lots of colors and different textures of glass.”

Included in her various creations are vases, small boxes, window hangings, mirrors, picture frames, garden stones and table tops, among many other items.

The most difficult projects, so far, have been making lampshades.

“Cutting curves is pretty challenging,” she said.

The next step in her progression as an artist, said Edwards, is working with more whimsical creations.
“I want to get into using bottles with my glass, dishes and old silverware,” she said. “I’m always

so busy doing the standard things that I never get a chance to work on whimsical stuff, so after the show I think I’m going to take a little break and try something new.”

Before picking up the art of stained-glass making, Edwards focused her artistic talents on creating greeting cards.

“I just did it for fun. I still have a lot of my supplies, but right now most of it is just sitting there right now,” Edwards said.

Edwards purchases her supplies from, attends classes and works one day a week at Detailed Stained Glass on Main Street in Concord.