Stained Glass Designs w. Bob Marotta

As of 2021 I am celebrating 50 years working with stained glass, hard to believe. I feel so fortunate to be doing what I love and meeting all the wonderful people that my glass has brought to us.

I started with a small stained glass lamp kit in the early 70s right after I had left military service and opened a business in Rochester restoring antique glass for the preservation district,displayed in annual craft shows and several local galleries. Not enjoying the starving artist lifestyle,I cut my hair, got a real job and spent the next 35 years in technology sales finally retiring 7 years ago as Sr. Systems Engineer supporting the DOD. But, for all those years I was never without a glass cutter in hand and table to cut and assembly stained glass works on.

Ironically, I never really planned to be a full time artist it just happened. Thinking of retirement as an opportunity to really ‘play’ with stained glass I took a more dedicated interest in my craft you know just for fun. Well, I guess 35 years of taking products to market took over and we started doing juried shows and soon we had a steady flow of customers.

Today we create what I call ‘functional art’ and provide expert restoration services. To me functional art is stained glass that provides great accent yet also enhances one’s privacy. All our works are original in design and we work closely with our customers, they love picking out their own glass. Our restoration services include glass panels going back to 1895 and we were honored with the restoration of 6 original design Frank Lloyd Wright windows from Millikin Place in Decatur, Il.