Sage House Glass

Tag: friendship

  • Audiobook Suggestions from a Full-Time Librarian, Part-Time Artist

    Audiobook Suggestions from a Full-Time Librarian, Part-Time Artist

    I’ve seen a lot of artists compile their favorite playlists for the workshop, so I wanted to take a crack at it. This is where my librarian roots really kick in though, because I love to listen to audiobooks! There are so many different steps to stained glass art and each one requires a certain amount of concentration, but grinding and taping is where I clock the most audiobook minutes.

    Grinding glass might be my least favorite part of the stained glass process, and any glass artist that tells you otherwise is a freakin’ liar. Anything that’ll keep me entertained while I’m making pass after pass against a grinding bit is a godsend. So for any patrons or artists who may be interested, below is a list of my absolute favorite thrillers I’ve listened to while making glass art.

    All of these were checked out on the Libby app through my local library system. If you’re paying for audiobooks..why? Borrow them from the library for free and support your community in the process!

    1. Freida McFadden, “The Coworker” – Such a quirky neurodivergent main character, and I LOVED the twist!
    2. Alice Feeney, “Beautiful Ugly” – l loved the narrator’s voice on this one and it kept me guessing. I remember washing plant stakes in the sink and my jaw dropping, I kept scrubbing just to finish the chapter. Those patinas came out great!
    3. Marisa Kashino, “Best Offer Wins” – Women justifying bad choices is probably my favorite modern literary trope.
    4. Virginia Feito, “Victorian Psycho” – Bret Easton Ellis’ Psycho but Victorian, just as the title suggests. Love an extremely unhinged revenge story.
    5. Lucy Foley, “The Guest List” – A big mix of interesting characters and multiple narrators, it was a very fun murder mystery.
    6. Alex Michaelides, “The Fury” – The unreliable narrator on this audiobook was so good, I’ll forever think about his voice! I must’ve cut a hundred more glass leaves than I needed, getting lost in the book.

    I hope this little list is satisfying, and if you ever need a book suggestion from your resident glass artist/librarian, I’m here for you! Just shoot me an e-mail through the contact form and I’ll make you a custom book recommendation list for any hobby.

    Made this pink plant arch while listening to “Hungerstone” by Kat Dunn!

  • Join Us at Art in the Yard: A Local Artist Community Event

    Join Us at Art in the Yard: A Local Artist Community Event

    EDIT: Due to an IVF-related medical emergency, Sage House Glass was not in attendance at the Art in the Yard market advertised below. The artist is okay and resting!

    Springtime means the roses are in bloom, the earth is waking up and Art in the Yard preparations are in full swing!

    I’ve been working on new pieces for the spring markets and I’m really excited to unveil some meditation hearts, butterfly panels and new framed foliage pieces. Though the art production is going slower (re: life is lifing) I hope the amount of time I’m putting into these new pieces will make them even worthier to grace your window ledges this season.

    Art in the Yard is a very special market run by Christina Brown, better known as Moonbird Soulful Living— a local artist who has created a thriving creative community in North Carolina. I’m honored to be one of the artists featured at Christina’s Art in the Yard experience. The space itself is truly magical–the food, the art, the ambiance–come see what I mean, if you’re a local to Greensboro!

    From Moonbird Soulful Living website: “More than two dozen amazing local artists come together for a joyful day of connection, creativity, and community…It’s more than an Art Market—it’s a celebration of local spirit. Come stroll Art in the Yard, meet the artists, visit with friends and feel the joy of buying from people who make things with heart.”

    Shopping local doesn’t get better than that.

    Joining me at our station will be my sis and forever market partner with her mystery photography drops! Visit her website here for more information on her upcoming collection: Dusk Light Photos

    See you at the market!

    • Art in the Yard 2025
    • Art in the Yard 2025
    • Art in the Yard 205
    • Art in the Yard 2025
  • Life Updates: Art as Therapy

    Life Updates: Art as Therapy

    TW: child loss, infertility

    When I started my little stained glass business, I didn’t imagine I’d be leaving my day job anytime soon. Don’t panic– I’m still not. I love being a librarian by day (with some night shifts and weekends) and I wouldn’t want to abandon all this progress in my career. After ten years in the field, I’m in leadership and staff development. I work with a creative group of very unique people I truly consider family. I get to cultivate community and facilitate story times and programs for children, what could be better than that?

    At least, that’s what I thought before we lost our son. It’s harder these days to work with children–don’t get me wrong, I still love it, but every cooing baby and excited toddler reminds me of the struggles we’re facing in our fertility “journey.”

    After another difficult year of hoping for results naturally, we finally decided to try IVF, something I initially balked at in fear. Injections? Hormones? A thousand blood draws and doctor visits? How could we afford the time, let alone the expense, for IVF? But where there’s a will, there’s a way, and I was determined to be a mom.

    We started IVF in late fall 2025. Months of poking, prodding, needles, appointments, and a non-stop rollercoaster of emotions. Along the way, I’d lost the energy to create anything at all. Stained glass took a back seat, along with almost everything else. The effort was all worth it, though–we have one healthy egg! One perfect little embryo ready for transfer. One chance, really…but at least it’s a chance.

    Making art started as a way to cope with grief and loss, but it has become a persistent metaphor for what I’m going through with IVF. All of these disparate pieces of my life are going to come together like a stained glass panel; all these harsh and broken edges will form some sort of picture, eventually. We will put ourselves back together and draw some light back into our home.

    I’m officially slowing down and smelling the roses until this transfer happens. I’m taking my sweet time when I’m designing and creating new stained glass pieces. I’m making less art, but better art. I’m enjoying what it feels like to really breathe alongside what I’m making, back to the origins of meditative creation. Because all of this? All of this is therapy. It’s all a part of the bigger picture that I’m hoping is being soldered together right now as I type this.

    • The roses in my backyard I’m sitting with this spring

  • Gratitude for Sisters, Our Biggest Champions

    Gratitude for Sisters, Our Biggest Champions

    I want the first words that fill this space to be about my sister. Anyone who has a sister will tell you they’re your best friend and most cutting critic, but mine has never been anything less than endlessly supportive and without judgement.

    My sister is a stunningly talented photographer. It’s more than just a business to her; she sees the world through a Kodachrome film. Anything can become a beautiful photograph in her hands, that’s what makes her so gifted. She doesn’t take for granted the way the setting sun hits the tops of buildings in an abandoned alley, or how delicate a flowering weed looks emerging from a crack in the cement. She looks at the shapes of the clouds. She watches for the light diffusing through branches in the trees. My sister is mindful of the beauty all around her, and that’s helped me to see it too.

    She took nearly every picture you’ll see featured on this website and that’s honestly the only reason I have a website at all. The self-esteem she conjured by taking the most amazing product photos of my glass art gave me the gumption to even start my small business. And more than that, she’s my business manager, my go-to market partner, my product stylist, AND she’s got the big car to fit all the tables, chairs, tents and market supplies. She helped me make my first Etsy account, she drew my first logo, she made my first sale when I was too shy to speak.

    She also held my hand through the worst periods of my loss. She encourages me to pursue my art, in whatever form it takes. She’s a constant passenger, along for the ride wherever I may be going. She’s the Anna to my Elsa. I have a lot of sisters I love, but she’s the sister I chose. I’m grateful for all she’s done and for everything she is.

    If you’re reading this and thinking “wow, I’d love to have a photographer in my family to document my life, bolster my self-esteem, and be my greatest cheerleader” then I’m sorry, she’s taken. But if you live in North Carolina, you can still hire her for product sessions, weddings, parties, real estate photography, and practically anything else under the sun— reach out to SavvyBPhotography. She’s a real girl’s girl, so don’t be surprised if you suddenly become best friends and addicted to having her camera along to document every occasion.