A light touch

Stained-glass artist turns windows into showpieces

When Lisa Katchur earned a four-year nursing degree, she dreamed of helping deliver babies or doing in-home patient care.

A bad back turned her from a healer into a creator. Now an accomplished stained-glass artist, she gives birth to works of art from a studio in her home.

"Sometimes, they're like your children," she said.

Her stained-glass windows grace places as diverse as Bethany Lutheran Church in Bigfork and million-dollar homes around the Flathead.

Katchur prays their new caretakers cherish her creations and appreciate the time, blood, sweat and tears that she poured into their evolution. She describes the tips of her fingers as "like leather" from a thousand little cuts.

"I've probably changed my fingerprints," she said.

Since she moved to Lakeside with her husband, Michael, and their two children in 2000, Katchur has established herself as an artist-in-demand by combining her creative gift with an obsession with perfection.

She returns any glass that arrives with even the tiniest scratch or blemish. Katchur invests in high-quality glass imported from Europe and Canada as well as pieces hand-beveled in America.

"What gets put in is what comes out," she said. "It either makes or breaks the window."

Katchur applies the same tough judgment to her own work, tearing apart any portion of a window that doesn't pass her critical eye. She said that's one line that divides a professional from a hobbyist.

As an example, she said a design in a window in a cabinet door needs to end in exactly the right spot to look right in the frame. While a homeowner might not notice, Katchur does.

"I'm my own worst critic," she admits.

Katchur began her journey in stained glass in 1994, the same year she graduated with a bachelor's degree from Beth-El College of Nursing in Colorado Springs, Colo. She and her husband had bought a home with a rather ugly window.

She always loved the look of stained glass so she made inquiries about having a window created to replace the eyesore. Confronted by a $400 price tag, Katchur asked about taking classes to make her own.

"I was always crafty as a kid," she said. "When we carved pumpkins, I carved the best pumpkin and won the prize."

Katchur took a series of classes then continued with books and further instruction.

As Colorado Springs grew, Katchur's family, including her mother, and her sister and brother-in-law, decided to make a move to the Flathead Valley.

"My whole family moved here in a big convoy with three moving vans," she said.

By 2000, she and her husband settled in a house on a hill in Lakeside. Katchur's bad back became a big issue, eventually leading to three surgeries, and the end of nursing.

"I had to figure out what I was going to do," she said.

Her mother encouraged her with a gift of $500 to buy equipment and other materials to produce glass work. Katchur purchased a band saw to cut very detailed pieces of glass.

At first, she produced stepping stones with stained-glass designs to sell in flea markets. She also made jewelry but those sales didn't prove lucrative.

Katchur and her husband then decided to open a retail store with stained-glass materials in a small space near Southside Consignment on U.S. 93 south. They offered a wide variety of glass in different sizes as well as classes.

"That's where the commissions started," she said.

She produced custom work for an adjacent window company as well as a piece for the owner of Southside Consignment. Katchur got her first large job from Doug Adams, who built the large Victorian home on the corner of Columbia and Third in Whitefish.

"That must have been 20 some windows plus restorations," she said. "His house put me on the map."

As word of her talent spread, Katchur closed the store to concentrate on producing custom pieces. She loves to incorporate other artisans, such as metal craftsman or potters, into her commission pieces.

For example, she used pottery leaves from Marcie and Tom Briney of Mountain Brook Studios.

"They're fantastic pottery people," she said.

Katchur tapped metal craftsmen talents along with woodworkers in creating front and garage doors, such as those she made for Hollywood executive producer Gerald Molen and his wife, Patricia. Then she made custom transoms above all the doors.

"Jobs like that tend to go on and on," she said.

Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson allowed Katchur to spread her creative wings, creating stained glass windows of all shapes and sizes.

She particularly enjoyed working with Jackson to create windows based on his nine championship rings, the triangle offense he used to capture those victories with the Bulls and the Lakers, and his interest in American Indian spirituality.

Her most visible work holds a sacred place in a church.

In 2005, Katchur picked up where another local artist left off creating windows for the Bethany Lutheran Church in Bigfork. Three windows on one wall now feature her work.

Inspired by the Bible verse Matthew 3:13-17, she designed and created a depiction of the baptism of Jesus by John. Another represents Moses receiving the Ten Commandments.

"Moses is my favorite," she said.

The latest church window, "Feeding the 5,000," is spread in hundreds of intricate pieces across a large assembly table in her studio.

Katchur pieces together the window atop a large pattern and leads and solders the pieces. She then painstakingly covers each piece of glass then applies a secret-recipe cement to reinforce, weatherize and patina the lead and solder.

Her work schedule follows her artistic flow.

"I create based on how I feel," she said. "It could be 2 or 3 or 4 in the morning and I'll be working in the studio."

But even in her sleep, her creativity continues as she dreams of new pieces, like a huge table comprised of two tree stumps with a top of starfire clear glass, deeply and intricately carved with her newest technique of sandblasting.

She does her work on substantial pieces in a walk-in blasting cabinet built by her husband. Katchur jokes that she looks like she works for the Centers for Disease Control in her protective gear, but the results justify donning a space suit.

"I love it," she said. "I like to make things that have dimension."

With about a year and a half of work slated, Katchur has the luxury of choosing her commissions carefully. Even when she needed work, she said she never pushed herself on anyone.

Katchur lets the quality and beauty of her work speak for itself. When it comes to clients, she enjoys those who come with a concept rather than a drawing.

"There are some people who say 'I don't know - just do something,'" she said with a smile. "Those are the people I want."

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.