Debora Coombs Legacy

Dear Friends,

I am building my legacy in stained glass. Why?

I can imagine a future where artists in all media—including glassblowers, ceramicists, and mosaic and stained glass makers—will be able to paint easily onto any vitreous surface that may be kiln-fired. I imagine artists worldwide, including those without privilege, glasspainting with ease and fluency, inexpensively and joyfully, without technical restraint or frustration. So I am working to place my teaching methods undiluted into the hands of those who will continue to share them generously.

I have a ramshackle collection of videos online that I would like to organize and improve, ideally in collaboration with someone who has studied them. I want to develop a suite of freely available instructional videos for anyone who wants to learn my method on their own. Here's a much-watched favorite.

I plan to work closely with two or three people from the stained glass community and transfer to them, as best I possibly can, my life-learned skills and experience in stained glass. This will include the many things that I have learned, discovered and created, my teaching curriculum, and my proprietary recipe and methods of glasspainting.

I have identified my first protégé and am ready to begin mentoring him. Will you please consider helping me pay for the cost of doing this?

The reality

Glasspainting is unstable until it has been kiln-fired into the surface of the glass. It scratches off. The glasspainting mixture itself is also unstable. It changes in composition and viscosity throughout the day. And it behaves differently in different climates. There are dozens of subtle ways that this shows up, including clotting and drying too fast.

Poorly mixed paint can do the opposite. It can take too long to dry. It can also bleed, smear and refuse to stay put. Overloaded brushes can inadvertantly mimic the effect of changes in viscosity. These are just a few of the many variables that make glasspainting confusing for a novice.

I have learned how to teach glasspainting using a combination of focused instruction, one-to-one observation and diligent review. I teach strategies for identifying when and why the paint isn’t doing what it might, how to fix these problems, and how to fine-tune the mixture as you work. Drawing a student’s attention to small details can make a world of difference in how easily they express themself.

For me, teaching is very much about building personal relationships. It fulfills my deep need to nurture the artist in another—to coax, encourage and build confidence.

This is the gift I have to offer, and I do it well in the classroom. However, I find it less satisfying to teach online, where the screen creates a barrier between myself and my students. Below, the first workshop I taught in the USA, in 2003, on my proprietary reipe and techniques.

Craftsmanship and online teaching

Craftsmanship, including glasspainting, is a full mind-body experience, like playing a musical instrument. It’s a type of meditation, a way to dwell easily in the present moment and enjoy the relationship between your inner self and the world outside. It’s a conversation. Your tools and technique become comfortable extensions of your physical body.

The best way to learn craftsmanship is side-by-side with an experienced maker and by practicing in their presence. But not everyone can do this. Presenting instructional material online helps democratize the process of learning new skills.

My next step

A few months ago an artist called me from Argentina to ask if he might teach the Coombs Method online. I appreciated the respect shown to me, and for my work.

After conversations, Zoom calls and consultation with colleagues, I invited this artist, Luis Gianera, to become my first legacy recipient. Luis is known and respected by the international stained glass community, the American Glass Guild and the Stained Glass Association of America. These two professional organizations have supported me generously over the past 15 years by awarding tuition scholarships to my students.

Luis can paint glass brilliantly, including portraits, in any style. His natural talent is remarkable, as are his patience and determination. Luis taught himself the Coombs Method by watching my videos over and over again, painstakingly observing every detail.

Like many artists, Luis has a day job. He teaches linguistics and grammar, mostly online, at three different Teacher Training Programs in Buenos Aires City. Now Luis is offering to help me further my goal of demystifying and democratizing stained glass painting by teaching the Coombs Method online.

The cost of my first step

I have offered Luis the opportunity to shadow my teaching for the week of September 19th and stay the following week as a student. Bringing Luis to Vermont and paying one week's tuition comes to $3,260. Here’s a breakdown of these expenses:

$1,270 round-trip flight to JFK from Buenos Aires

$65 round-trip airport shuttle

$55 round-trip train fare on MetroNorth from Grand Central Station to NY

$860 workshop tuition

$760 14 days self-catering accommodations at Heartwell House

$250 cash stipend for groceries.

If donations exceed $3,260, I will use the extra to pay for the creation of more free online instructional videos.

Invitations and acknowledgments

This campaign is about more than money. It is an opportunity for me to build community. To connect and reconnect with the many people whose lives have become interwoven with my own, and to thank you all.

Donations of any amount, no matter how modest, will be deeply appreciated and go directly toward establishing my legacy in stained glass.

Open studio and stars: I have cut dozens of mirrored glass stars to give away on Saturday September 3rd during a special Open Studio event to honor early supporters. All are welcome, from 10am until dusk.

Pastries and painted glass: My husband Richard and I cordially invite you to a potluck dinner on Thursday September 29th at 6pm to enjoy homemade bread and pastries. My studio will be open from 4pm on. You may to try your hand at glasspainting, meet Luis, and take away a tile of painted glass. I will also ship these upon request.

2023 tuition discount: I am offering a $100 tuition discount to anyone who donates any amount to this fundraiser and signs up to take a 2023 stained glass workshop with me in Vermont.

Here's my 2023 schedule. I will be offering an introduction to the Coombs Method in May and September 2023. If you're interested please read this workshop description and general information about hours, class size, scholarships, traveling to Vermont and more. Read about student accommodations here. Feel free to contact me if you have questions.

Showered with kindness

People have supported me generously since I was a teenager. My supporters have included strangers, teachers, friends of friends, and family I didn’t know existed. At times, their generosity has been life-changing.

I arrived in Scotland alone in 1974 to start a new life at art school. I had very little money and few belongings. When I got off the bus in Edinburgh, a stranger approached me with an outstretched hand. He said, “You must be Alan’s daughter. You don’t know me, but I’m your cousin Fred. We have breakfast waiting for you.” Fred Murray had met every single bus that had arrived from London during the previous four days because he hadn’t known which one I’d be on.

That night I slept in a beautiful little bedroom that my Great Aunt Winnie had made up specially. The next day I got a job. In a few weeks I found a flat.

The Murrays used to call me the “wee emotional waif.” I was alone and tough, or so I thought, never asking anyone for anything. And I was uncomfortable with generosity.

Now it’s 2022, and I have finally learned how to ask.

Why ask?

Last year, in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, I flew to Edinburgh to stay with Sandra, Fred’s sister, for a few days before Fred’s 90th Birthday. I had not seen Sandra or Fred for almost 40 years, and had not done a good job of staying in touch. I regretted my neglect and disconnection and felt compelled to make this journey at a difficult time. I also planned to visit elderly and dying relatives in the south of England.

I arrived in Edinburgh early on the morning of November 19th 2021. Again, there was breakfast waiting for me. I climbed Corstorphine hill with Fred, and had a marvelous day with Sandra. It was as if we’d never been apart. The Murrays live near the zoo, and that night I heard lions roaring lustily as I settled down to sleep.

The next morning I had a stroke.

In the months that followed, while my brain was rewiring itself, I began to think about my legacy. Family and relationships matter most. Art-making is precious. Experience is a gift to be shared broadly.

In 1974 I felt alone. Today I feel like the skipper of a small boat with a dedicated crew. And in my mind’s eye, I see a flotilla of little boats all around, with people waving encouragement. If you’re one of them please email me, or follow this campaign.

If, like me, you care about the future of stained glass and the preservation of craftsmanship, please consider making a small donation.

Thankyou everyone,

Debora

If you'd like to dig deeper...

Read the story of how I developed the Coombs method.

Check out my September 2022 schedule of stained glass workshops. Places are still available in two workshops where I will teach the Coombs Method. Sept 19-23, 2022, and September 26-30, 2022. I am so pleased to have artists of all types, plus some complete beginners signed up this year. I would love you to join us. You can read the workshop description here. Six students maximum. 5-day residential in the beautiful Green Mountain National Forest in southern Vermont. Accommodations provided.

Apply for a scholarship from the American Glass Guild. The deadline is Feb 28th 2023. Past students have also received scholarships from the Stained Glass Association of America.

More about me

Listen to this 56 min podcast interview with Shawn Waggoner where she unpacks my life's work in stained glass and helps me understand how I got to where I am today. Above, photos of my Menfolk series, exhibited at Ely Cathedral in England and the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Below, a 13 minute video showing the entire process of making one of these exhibition panels 'Sir Edmund Hillary' in 2019.

About Luis

If you're local to Buenos Aires you may know the places that Luis currently teaches