The first time Norma Geddes successfully cut and shaped a piece of glass, at the age of 69, she was so elated it shocked her. “I was one of five people in a class where we were learning how to make stained-glass panels and everyone was 30 years younger than me,” says the former nurse and healthcare manager. “I became so excited at seeing this moon-shaped piece of glass come to life in my hands that it almost made me feel embarrassed. I didn’t know doing something so simple could be so fulfilling. I knew I had to carry on.”
Geddes had become interested in glass artistry only a few weeks previously, while she was overseeing the renovation of her kitchen in Richmond, Virginia, in 2010. “I told my carpenter I wanted him to build two cabinets with textured glass and he said I needed to go to the glass shop to pick it out,” she says. “I spent five minutes finding some plain, textured glass and when I went to pay I noticed a small note advertising local stained-glass classes. It was so unusual I decided I had to try it out.”
No stranger to creative crafts, Geddes had already tried her hand at wool weaving and home renovation. “I’m a curious person. I’m not afraid of failing,” she says. “I would usually drop these hobbies after a few years, but on this 10-day stained-glass course it felt different. I was thrilled by the act of making a small panel and I immediately wanted to build a workshop of my own afterwards so I wouldn’t have to keep travelling to a studio.”
While working full-time at a hospital in Richmond, Geddes transformed her garage into a glass-cutting studio and bought tools to score, cut, solder and frame pieces to create panels. She found herself spending whole weekends in the new workshop, producing dozens of pieces including her first solo panel, which she still displays in her renovated kitchen. “When I’m cutting glass, time doesn’t exist,” she says. “I’ll be in my studio working and when I look up, it will be 8pm. I love every part of the process.”
As she gradually built her portfolio, in 2012 Geddes decided to submit for the Artisan of Virginia certification, a juried process in which other artists assess your work to determine whether it can be distinguished as among the top crafts in the state. She passed and was soon approached by local galleries asking to display her work.
“I would come across places in Richmond, Charlottesville or Chesapeake and they were all looking for glass artists,” she says. “I began to display work in their spaces and they would all sell out. By 2013, at the age of 71, I decided to retire from my job and I subsequently had work showing in eight different places.”
Now 82, Geddes spends up to eight hours a day, seven days a week working in her studio. She has expanded her practice to encompass not only stained-glass panels but also fused-glass boxes and beaded accessories like bottle stoppers made from stained glass, as well as recycled blown pieces. Her creations can take between two days and a week to finish, and cost between $35 and $500 in the three galleries that display her work.
“I’ve made thousands of pieces and I’ve never experienced anything that captures my imagination and holds my attention this much,” she says. “I just made three glass horse heads last week and I can’t wait to get going on another panel today. Every time I finish a piece it thrills and amazes me.”
Cutting glass can be risky work and while Geddes has never suffered any major injuries, she says she is “always covered with little cuts”. She isn’t deterred though, and is preparing for her biggest show yet at a new exhibition in a gallery in Charlottesville.
“I’ve always been a restless person looking for the next thing that would excite me, and since I’ve been working with glass, I’ve stopped looking,” she says. “I have to produce 50 pieces for this Charlottesville show in October so I’m not slowing down. It might have taken 70 years to find the artist in me but I have an amazing path to follow now.”
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