About Us

Welcome to The Vinery, a stained glass studio that not only creates custom stained glass pieces, but also teaches glass crafts to hobbyists. We carry a full line of tools and glass to compliment our wide variety of classes. Over the past ten years, we have expanded our efforts into fusing, bead work and mosaics.

The Vinery was established in 1976 in Pekin, Illinois. In its earliest beginnings, the focus was that of a retail plant and flower shop--hence the name The Vinery. In the past thirty years we have continued to grow and expand. We are now located in Madison, Wisconsin and currently have a staff of twenty artists and craftspeople.

For those of you who are able to visit our showroom I would like to extend a warm invitation to come by and visit. To those who are too far to visit, feel free to communicate with us via email or phone.

Meet the Artists

Denny Berkery

Denny is the owner of The Vinery. He first got into glass while in college. His friend was repairing a stained glass window and when Denny saw it, it sparked his interest. Months later, he quit school and began to travel. Along the way, he stopped in Columbus, Ohio where the Franklin Art Glass Studio is located. It was here he bought his first book and set of tools. He learned while traveling, teaching himself and often being quite frustrated. That was 32 years ago. Today he still finds glass interesting and enjoys the variety that owning a studio provides, with every day bringing new challenges. He has no favorite glass, he loves it all. A project he plans to do in the future is a flat panel lampshade with a curved edge. Another is a mission style lampshade for above his dining room table.

Joshua Langer

In 2001, after months of traveling the country, Josh returned to the Midwest looking for work (and money). He started at the Vinery and found more than he bargained for: a career and a wife (Josh and Elissa married a year and a half ago). He began with the basics, and now many of the pieces built here come from his hands. He enjoys building leaded panels, almost as much as he dislikes foiling. His favorite glass includes Rivuletta and Uroburos Granite. Although he has no plans to dive into a new stained glass project for himself, he does love the beautiful 1916-style Art Nouveau piece he built in the front window.

April Belshaw

It all started with a coupon in the mail. April was in college when she decided to take a stained glass class. That was in 2000. She has since learned fused glass, bead making and mosaics. While she continues to work in all forms of glass technique, she finds mosaics her favorite (except for cleaning up the mess). She began working at the Vinery in 2002. Her favorite glass is a purple iridized fusible glass BE1234-31. A project she plans to create is a series of mosaics using her grandmother's old storm windows.

Elissa Langer

One thing leads to the next for Elissa. She knew April from a previous job and when a part-time position opened at the Vinery, Elissa saw it as the perfect opportunity to research stained glass for a book she was writing. She started here in 2003. Although she never published her book, she did write a new chapter in her own life, marrying Josh in 2005. She has learned a lot about glass since beginning here, and currently keeps the Vinery up-to-date in the lampworking area as well as teaching stained glass class. Her favorite piece is a beautiful panel by CR Macintosh. Her favorite glass is anything from the Youghiogheny glass company. She has a lot of projects on her mind. Near the top of the list is a stained glass panel of two women which was inspired by the wood graining in a door.

Carol Giffin

In 1998, a friend brought Carol to our beginning stained glass class as "art therapy". She dug right in, designing her own pattern (a brown thrush on sumac) and doing it all in copper. Her project took 10 weeks, two classes and lots of visits with Denny, but she was hooked. She started working at the Vinery in 2004 teaching PMC clay classes which led to fusing which led to the Morton System. Her favorite piece is a stained glass parrot she designed and built while going through cancer treatment. (It earned lots of money for a charity raffle). She enjoys combining many techniques in each piece to create new, original art. She does get a bit grouchy on bookkeeping day. A project she plans to do are some panels for the doors of her bookcase which are currently sitting empty at home.

Katie McGrath

Sibling rivalry motivated Katie's entry into glass. Her sister had made a great panel as a Christmas gift. Katie was jealous that her sister had such a great gift to give, so she decided to take a class and make one too. That was twenty five years ago, back when the Vinery was located on Atwood Avenue. She has been working at the Vinery on and off for the past 10 years. Today, Katie is making beautiful works of art both as gifts and as commissions. Her current focus is designing fused tableware and light fixtures. She enjoys mixing techniques incorporating fused and painted glass in stained glass. Her favorite glasses are Freemont and Barriole, as well as the glass she makes on her own. A project she plans to do is to finish her own kitchen cabinet doors.

Leslie Zeller

Leslie began working at the Vinery about 5 years ago. He took a stained glass class and made a cat as his first project. He doesn't get to do as much stained glass as he'd like (true for many of us). He enjoys teaching others how to putty and will still pitch in when a big project comes into the studio. Most of his time now is spent cutting down glass, pricing and stocking it for the store. One of his favorite pieces is the round celtic cross in the front window. Someday he hopes to make a studio space in his home.

Tate Garner

Tate started taking stained glass classes with his mom in 2003. About six months later, he began to work at the Vinery. He spends a lot of time in the puttying room and enjoys puttying the leaded windows especially the older ones that come in for repair. He also enjoys hanging the glass in the front window but could skip the store inventory counts. Tate loves passing by the windows of the Monroe Street Pharmacy and remembering all the puttying he did on them while they were in the studio for repair. Currently, he is making a candle lantern with a wrought iron base, hopefully using his favorite brown, wood-grain glass from spectrum.

Kassia Millar

Six years ago Kassia was in a high stress job and decided she needed some fun. She saw the Vinery and signed up for a class. She loved working with glass and two years later in 2002, she began working at the Vinery teaching the stained glass workshop, the snowflake class and mosaic classes. Kassia enjoys the leaded panels and is willing to use any glass since she loves it all, especially the kind that keeps her from having to grind (if you find that glass, let us know!). Someday she plans to build panels for her cupboard doors, do her front door in glass and create a fish pond out of mosaics. Knowing Kassia, she'll have those built soon.

Margaret Greene-Mejicano

Margaret wanted a new hobby and had always been interested in glass, so in 1997, she took her first stained glass class. Since then, she has learned beadmaking, fusing and mosaics. She likes the variety of all the ways one can work with glass, so she never gets bored. She began working at the Vinery one year ago. While she doesn't have one favorite glass, she likes strong colors mixed with clear textured glass. Currently, she is enjoying fusing larger pieces and the challenge of learning her kiln. Someday she plans to create fused landscape panel lights.

Cheryl Crane

Cheryl was looking for something to do with her father, so she bought him a gift certificate and they began stained glass classes in 2001. She would never have guessed then that she would be teaching the class five years later, but that's what she's doing every Monday evening. She began working here at the Vinery one year ago. Her skill with glass has expanded over the years to include fusing and bead making. She likes the copper foil method of stained glass and now really enjoys combining it with fused glass. One of her favorite glasses is the ring mottled glass, although she doesn't use it much. She plans to do all the cabinet fronts in her adventure home in Colorado (maybe even incorporating some ring mottled glass). Her dad continues to do some stained glass in his home workshop.

Reid Barnes

Reid became interested in stained glass techniques at the age of 10, when her mother brought home a piece that she had made. Reid finally got her own chance in 2003 (she won't say how many years later that was, but it was quite a few) when her mom gave her a gift certificate for a class at The Vinery (yes, it was a Thursday night class). So far she has loved everything she has tried, except applying putty to came. She is still a growing artist, loves all the glass ("except mauve, yuck"), and wants to learn everything. For now, you will mostly see her "art" on the website, as she is our developer-in-residence.

Charlene Stevenson

Charlene started as a student at the Vinery taking the almost-famous Thursday evening stained glass class. She became interested and then addicted to fusing, and now she teaches most of the fused glass classes here at the Vinery. She has a large following of students, though we're not sure if they love her for her teaching methods or her incredible sense of humor (maybe both). As far as we can tell, she's never met any glass she could not incorporate into a piece somewhere. Her favorite glass is anything she can melt.

Cynthia Hurtenbach

Cynthia used to live a few blocks away from a prior Vinery incarnation on the East Side. Intrigued by what she saw in the windows when she walked by, she took her first class in 1984. For a couple of years, stained glass was strictly a hobby; then the inevitable took place. First, she started working part time at the Vinery. Then she decided to take a one year "science break" from her day job and started working full time at the shop. Over four years later, she finally went back to her science job. She still teaches the Thursday evening class with Melinda (and has for several years). This seems to be the class where we get most of our future employees, perhaps because many of them go out after class (ask us about the Bloody Mary group!) Her favorite projects are those that she has created out of photos of a favorite place or animal as a personal project for someone. She is partial to Youghiogheny Stipple and Chicago Art Glass, and balances Reid by liking mauve!

Dave Fehr

Dave's plunge into stained glass was motivated by money. He wanted a window that was too expensive, so he took a class and made it himself. That evolved into a hobby that has lasted many years. He started working at the Vinery in 1999, when he called Denny on a whim. One thing led to the next and he's been working here ever since. He loves working on the torch and is happiest near a flame. You won't often find him in the putty room, though, as that is the worst part of stained glass to him. His favorite piece so far is a six foot panel of a sandhill crane. He plans to complete five cabinet doors with a scene of the Splitrock Lighthouse and shoreline as seen from the lake. (Gotta get on that one soon, sounds beautiful!)

Diane Wollin

About two years ago, Dianne and her husband started a mosaic business (DW Designs) and began incorporating glass into some of the designs. She found the Vinery through classes and we found her there also. She started teaching and working here in August of 2006. Since then she has been learning about all the different ways glass can be used to create art, and is working at trying them all. One of her favorite pieces is the light fixture done by the Vinery for the Bank of Oregon. She has big plans to create a tuscan-style tiled kitchen in her home and a mosaic nightstand for her neice.

Cindy Parmer

It is no surprise that it was through helping out a friend that Cindy discovered flameworking. She acted as a student while her friend worked on her teaching skills and she was immediately hooked. That was five years ago and now she is the teacher helping others love flameworking as much as she does. She has been teaching here at the Vinery for two years and working in the shop since November of 2006. She also works in mosaics and stained glass. If she could find someone else to solder, she'd make a lot more stained glass panels! She would also take someone willing to make large bead blanks that she could then do the artistic embellishments on. Keep dreaming!! When she finds the time, she'll be making large sculptural blown glass pieces (watch out Chihuly).

Margaret "Maggs" Kailhofer

Beads, Beads, Beads! Maggs has been making jewelry for over 13 years, and it has been a full time job for the last three. She started taking classes here to create fused pieces for her jewelry, and many classes later, was asked to teach her wire-wrapping techniques to the Vinery students. She loves the instant gratification of lampworking and so it makes sense that she stays away from the stained glass process and its required patience. Her favorite artist is Sharon Peters who makes truly fun bead critters. Her "someday" project is to blow glass to create large sculptural pieces (Maggs and Cindy will be giving Chihuly a run for his money!!).

Julie Lukosaitis

Mandy Buckner

Dawn Johnson

Christine Carlson

Wren George

Christy Rector

Kristin Turner

Vicki Ash

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Stained Glass Studio

4317 West Beltline Highway
Madison, WI 53711
On the frontage road
between Verona Rd. and Seminole Hwy.
[Directions]
Phone:
608-271-2490
608-271-2127-fax
Hours:
Monday -- Friday: 9:30 - 7:00
Saturday: 9:00 - 4:00
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The Vinery Stained Glass Studio