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Sera Petras Photography

Zekiah Glass

by

ARTS & CULTURE

It took a glassblower to get Barney Harris into working with stained glass. She’d grown up as that kid who always had a pencil in her hand, drawing. In high school, she took double art classes and once she graduated, moved on to night classes at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. Her intention was to figure out what medium spoke to her, so she went in many directions, never settling on any one art form.

Enter Bob Harris, a glassblower for NASA’s Research & Development in 1973, who eventually became her husband. As a scientific glassblower, his job was to create objects in a nonreactive material like glass for use in testing in a vacuum such as space. As NASA lost funding, he taught himself artistic glassblowing and was tasked with creating glass pieces that NASA could gift to dignitaries.

Because he was a glassblower with a new girlfriend, he got Barney into glass as an art form. After taking a class in stained glass, she was hooked. “I wasn’t talented enough to be a glassblower, which is way hard,” she says. “But from 1983 on, I did stained glass as a hobby.”

In 1989, the couple established Zekiah Glass in La Plata, Maryland, where they then lived. The name was a tribute to the Zekiah Swamp, adjacent to their property, which honored a local indigenous tribe. Barney began teaching stained glass classes in 1997 after a decade spent honing her skills.

When Bob decided he wanted to escape the increasing development of southern Maryland, he suggested a move to the Northern Neck, or, as Barney saw it, “the end of the world.” Her only condition was that she could continue teaching classes, but now as a weekend getaway, offering her home’s guest bedrooms as part of a B&B package.

It took losing her job at Kitchen Bazaar corporate headquarters to give her the nudge she needed to make the B&B and stained glass classes her main vocation. “I was afraid to start from nothing, but I liked baking and stained glass,” she admits with a laugh. “And making anything looked better than a zero paycheck.”

Chestnut Cove B&B became the accommodation for guests coming for Barney’s two-day stained glass classes. There are two suites, the Rivah Suite and the Starry Night Suite, and classes are limited to two people so Barney can provide plenty of individual attention. “I’ve never done any advertising, it’s all been word of mouth,” she says. “People find it’s a good getaway destination.”

Guests have been couples, friends, sisters and coworkers who come to have fun with glass. Barney sees a big part of the appeal as the stress-free nature of the getaway. “When they come here, there are no kids, no laundry or cooking and for women, sometimes that’s a unique experience,” she says. Because she has a dog and a cat, she lets potential guests know ahead of time in case pets are an issue. “My goal is to exceed their expectations.”

Barney put her love of baking to use when hosting guests. She plans menus ahead of time after determining if guests have allergies or preferences. For breakfast, she’ll make waffles, pancakes, crepes, omelets or frittatas. Lunch might include quiche, salads and tempting desserts such as peach cobbler. While she made the meals, Bob would entertain the guests. When he died in 2019, Barney had to learn to cook and entertain simultaneously. “I was making a Dutch pancake one time, and I forgot to add the baking powder, so it turned out a little flat” she says. “That’s what used to happen when I was talking too much.”

Dinner is up to the guests, who can take one of Barney’s suggestions, such as The Oaks, Relish, Old Rapp Taphouse or any number of places in Kilmarnock. Often, guests are more tired than they anticipated after a full day of stained glass making. “I sit at one of the stools at the counter and sip wine,” Barney says. “I’m here to make people feel more comfortable.”

In a two-day class, a guest can make a stained glass panel of up to 20 pieces of glass. On the first day, Barney shows guests around the studio and begins talking about design possibilities. She gives a tutorial on how to score and break glass, using scrap glass to practice on. “People assume it’s going to be really hard to cut glass,” she says. “But muscle memory kicks in after a few times and they get it.”

Some guests arrive with no idea of the design they want to create, while others have a clear vision of what they want. Working together and using the guest’s input, Barney draws a pattern to bring their ideas to fruition, stressing the importance of staying fluid. “I tell them to keep an open mind because the glass will tell you what it wants,” she says. “Sometimes once you get into making a piece, you make changes and that’s fine.”

One couple arrived knowing what they wanted their design to be. They’d honeymooned in Costa Rica and had fond memories of their mountain view. “They said that even if no one else knew what it was, they did,” Barney says. “And that’s what matters.”

Every design Barney creates, whether for her own projects or her guests, is filed away and kept. Sometimes she’ll use an element from one for a new project. “Or people will come back and want to do a matching piece,” she says. “And if a repair is needed, I’ll have the pattern.”

Guests get to choose the various pieces of glass from Barney’s extensive selection grouped by color. But it’s not just color, it’s also whether the glass is transparent or opaque. “I tell them to pull out every piece you’re considering because you have to choose which side of the glass you want facing out because the two sides are very different,” she says. “Laying a piece of glass on the table, it’s lifeless. But look at it with the sun behind it, that’s the thrill.”

The magic of stained glass making is how many things you can accomplish with color. Barney says often men aren’t as comfortable as women making artistic choices. “But then they choose colors I wouldn’t, and they look good,” she says, adding that she gives whatever assistance they want but makes sure they’re making all the creative decisions. “So many people think they’re not creative, but everyone is creative in some way. It just needs to be encouraged and nurtured, so I offer a comfortable space in which to explore possibilities.”

Next comes the process of building the panel piece by piece. With any luck, by lunchtime, guests will have arranged three pieces, and the goal is ten pieces by dinnertime. One key point she stresses is that if a piece of glass breaks, it’s a good thing because it’s an opportunity for design improvement. “Next they cut out the pieces and fit them together like a jigsaw puzzle,” Barney explains. “I show them how to apply the copper foil and solder them together.”

The final steps on the second day include making a mitered metal frame, applying a patina and polishing the panel for a professional look. “I want them to go home with something they love,” Barney says. “Something that will make them happy when they look at it.”

When Zekiah Glass began in Farnham 26 years ago, Barney’s clientele was predominantly an older demographic, people who were retired and looking for a hobby. But like so many other things, that changed with COVID. “Now I get more younger people in their 30s and 40s who are looking for a unique experience and I love to encourage that,” she says. “It’s great that people want to do something different and get interested in new things as adults.”

One thing Barney knows for sure is that she loves to teach. When husband Bob used to ask her if she’d grown tired of it yet, the answer was always an emphatic no. She continues to fine-tune her teaching methods to better help guests of all artistic bents better understand the stained glass process and have the best possible experience. “I’m always coming up with new ways to present things and different ways to explain them,” she says. “Working with different people all the time I’m forever surprised at just how different people are. I also want to keep it fresh for me.”

Despite decades teaching and creating stained glass pieces, Barney is still working because of how much she enjoys it. She accepts guests for classes any days of the week, not just on weekends, and works in the studio on her own pieces in between. “I have a few days to myself to work on my projects, then I begin preparing for the next group and then people are coming again,” she says. “I get the nicest, most interesting people and some of them come back from time to time with an idea for another project. I’ve never had anyone who couldn’t do stained glass.”

A Raleigh woman originally visited Zekiah Glass 20 years ago for a class but returned three times to make additional pieces. As a volunteer at a wildlife preserve, she assisted in building tiger habitats. “She’d drawn a lovely design, and I worked with her to create a 6-foot transom for her house in Florida,” Barney says. 

Her own preference is to produce larger pieces, and over the years she’s created seascapes, nautical themes, animals, abstracts and just about anything a customer wants through commissions and consignments. She and Bob collaborated on Sacred Heart Catholic Church in La Plata and New Hope Church in White Plains. She’s gone on to do pieces for Morattico Baptist Church, Kilmarnock Methodist Church and Church of the Visitation in Topping.

When the original Trick Dog Café opened in Irvington, she created a green lamp at their request. It’s now installed on her deck. When the restaurant was sold, the second owners wanted a three-dimensional doghouse, a project that originally challenged the Harrises but ultimately worked out after a cardboard model was created as a prototype. It still sits in Barney’s studio.

Guests to Barney’s home are met with a striking entrance, the front door framing an eagle in flight, complete with a fish in its talons. The adjacent panels use textured glass to suggest the movement of water. If a visitor needed any assurance about the talent of their instructor-to-be, it’s right there at the front door.

Throughout the house, her work is likely to stop guests in their tracks. A stained glass carousel lion hangs from the kitchen ceiling, overseeing guests as they cook. The Starry Night Suite features a vividly colored starry night panel, while a more subdued, but just as stunning, mirror hangs in the Rivah Suite. Her own bedroom boasts abstract transoms that add color to the waterview beyond.

When the couple designed the house, they had the living room windows placed lower than usual so that her stained glass transoms could be installed over them for a framed view of Morattico Creek. “I think I’ve just about run out of places to put more pieces,” Barney says with a smile. “Once I make something, it’s out of my system.”

Sometimes she’ll work on a piece for a month, refusing to leave it unfinished. She credits Bob for always letting her do her own thing but supporting her when she needed it. “Without him, I’d never have gotten into anything. I taught him to cut glass and he taught me the structural elements, how to use power tools and soldering,” she says. “He was lavish with praise but if he didn’t like something, he didn’t mince words. So, I grew a thicker skin, and he became more diplomatic.”

The way Barney sees it, Bob’s death cut her loose to teach, to create and to honor the partner who helped her find her artistic passion. “It’s satisfying when I can show others that stained glass is fun,” she says. “I’m really happy my thing was glass.”

Zekiah Glass  I  511 Oakley Lane, Farnham  I  804-394-3142  I  zekiahglass.com