Since 1973: The History of Don Young Glass Studio —- In 1970 Don Young took a summer job working as an apprentice at Smith Stained Glass Studios in Fort Worth. He was employed there for about three years learning all stages of stained glass fabrication from cartooning to installation. He worked on several large-scale liturgical projects including the largest mosaic tile mural in North America at the First Baptist Church in Huntsville, Alabama. The first shop was in his rented home on Galveston Avenue in south Fort Worth. There he landed several residential, commercial, and an important church commission while sharpening his skills. His first public studio opened in 1973 at the M'ana Workshop on University Drive in Fort Worth. Mana Workshop was one of the first “craft malls” in Texas. (See ad for grand opening below) The studio was known as Spectrum Stained Glass until 1977 when it changed to Don Young Glass Studio. Spectrum was the first retail stained glass store in Fort Worth, selling supplies and teaching classes. (See photo from 1974 below) The studio also created a catalog of stained glass supplies. When a national crafts magazine did a profile on Spectrum in 1975, the catalog was requested from people in all 50 states. Sales of supplies soon began. Beginning and advanced stained glass classes were offered to the public several times a day and were very popular. (See newspaper article below about classes for the deaf.) Over three years, about 3,000 people took classes and purchased supplies from the studio that was now located on Camp Bowie Boulevard in, west Fort Worth. All the while, important commissions continued. In 1978, the studio moved again to Chase Court in south Fort Worth. This was a fruitful period for experimentation. The studio was a pioneer in developing photo-etching techniques using acids and eventually sandblasting. The studio also began sand carving, as it was known, and started to mix the various techniques. Several important autonomous glass panels were completed at this time. In 1980, Don Young co-founded the Texas Glass Artists Association (TGAA). Later that year, TGAA artists held their first public exhibition known as ReThink Glass that traveled to galleries in Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. Don and Debora Young were married in 1983 beginning an ongoing marital, child-rearing, and business partnership as co-owners of the studio. It was during this fertile period in the mid-1980s, that the studio moved back to west Fort Worth and began to flourish. A series of large-scale commissions came in starting with the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library, Children’s Center, in Dallas. This was also the first project using photo-etching and led to projects for the Vail Public Library, the Graham Texas Public Library, the City of Louisville, and finally Bass Performance Hall in 1998. In 2000 the studio moved to the current location in east Fort Worth. In 2007, the studio began work on the Azle, Texas Public Library, the largest project to date. The project involved extensive use of photo-etching on a large scale. In 2011, the studio was selected to create up to 70 stained glass windows for MacGorman Chapel in Fort Worth. As of, 2018, 35 windows have been completed, (see Religious section of Galleries.) The project was the subject of an extensive FW Star-Telegram cover story in 2014. Don Young Glass Studio enlists the help of the best artists, designers, and craftsmen available to design and fabricate our work. The following individuals have been especially important: Debora Young (Co-owner and principal artist/designer) Mickey Duke (deceased) (Mickey was a long-time collaborator on technical aspects of fabrication) Dan (Arlo) Galindo (deceased) (Arlo handled all stained glass fabrication from 1980 - 2011) Jen Schultes (Graphic design/technical consultant, since 2011) Judith Oelfke Smith (Stained glass designer on several religious institutions stained glass projects) Bob Thompson (deceased) Deran Wright (Original artwork for several photo-etched projects and lead figure illustrator for MacGorman Chapel)
