Meet the artisan
Stephanie Couturier
Stained Glass Maker @lavieenverreglass
How is life seen through happy lenses? To answer this question we met a stained glass maker and had a tour into her home studio in New Brunswick, Canada.
Stephanie is on a mission to bring life and color into people’s life: part-time crafter and part-time nurse, she taught herself the art of stained glass in 2019. Hereby a selection of her works, open doors on her studio, step by step process for making a sun catcher and a few tips for newbies.
Hello Steph, tell us something about you and “La Vie en Verre”. Where does this name come from?
Hello TA-DAAN team, pleasure to meet you. My name is Steph, I’m the creator behind la Vie En Verre, I live in New Brunswick, Canada where I make contemporary mobiles and sun catchers made of stained glass. The name la Vie En Verre is actually inspired by the song “La Vie En Rose” by Edith Piaf. “La Vie En Rose” basically means “life seen through happy lenses”, and it’s basically my mission to bring life and color into people’s lives.
Why have you decided to start stained glass?
I work part-time as a nurse. Obviously working in healthcare can be a really dark place, so when I’m in here, in my studio I’m trying to create light, to create colors that I can give back to people as much as possible because we just all need that! When I started, I really wasn’t very good at cutting glass but my boyfriend tried to help me: it turned out that he was super good at cutting glass! I learned that I just needed to accept sucking at something before I could get good. A reminder to every newbie: there’s no failure, just transformation.
“My work is inspired by social issues, mental health and climate change, which are all topics deserving of a burst of colour and a little light.“
Stephanie Couturier – La Vie en Verre founder
Can you show us how to make a piece of stained glass?
Sure! I can show you how to make my “Sunny Side Ups” sun catcher, and I’ll be taking you with me in every step of the process. Head to the video to see!
What is your favourite part of the process?
Apply copper foil! Copper foil is like a tape made of copper, you apply it around your stained-glass pieces so that when you solder the piece it will actually stick together.
I really enjoy this part of the process because it’s a very relaxing moment, it’s kind of a meditation for me, sometimes I listen to my favorite playlist that I made just for my studio time and if not, I’m usually listening to my favorite podcast which is “the creative pep talk”, I really recommend it, it’s available on Spotify and it’s really good to boost your creativity.
What pieces of advice would you give to people interested in learning stained glass?
It’s really a fun craft to do and there’s endless possibilities. I can suggest the following:
– Look at videos, take notes, dig deeper (there are some resources online)
– Make your own patterns: very important, you’ll get so much out of it from creating your own things from beginning to end
– Start small, if you ever want to start stained glass you’ll be tempted to buy all the glass there is because it is just so beautiful and there are many different patterns, and textures and colors, but start small because it is quite pricey and as you develop your style than you can buy more colors and glass.
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