The Purest Form of Color
Colleen Webb has been working with stained glass for over ten years. Her passion for glass initially took off after taking a class after her kids went away to college. Working out of her garage, she began making piece after piece, and giving them away as gifts to family and friends. After awhile, she realized she could only give away so many pieces, and the transition from a passion project to an official business became underway.
Colleen’s background is in design. Her undergraduate degree is in fashion design, and after graduating college, she became a furniture buyer. After having children, she realized this wasn’t the ideal industry for her to be in, and she went back to school to ultimately become a nurse practitioner. Working with glass became a way to decompress and balance all the other areas of her life.
Last year, Colleen’s friend, Suzanne Rende (who is also a merchant at The York Merchant) had a booth at a local market, and suggested to Colleen to put a couple of her pieces up for sale at Suzanne’s booth. To Colleen’s surprise, the pieces sold right away. She knew then and there that she was ready to start her own business, and in March of 2020, The Glass Turtle Studio was born.
The Glass Turtle Studio is named in reverence of Colleen’s mom, who collected turtles her whole life. Her mom passed in 2018, and Colleen knew without a doubt that she wanted to honor her mother in her business. The Glass Turtle Studio is a way for Colleen to use glass as a medium for creating art. In her own words, she, “enjoys mixing colors and textures, and the problem solving of a new piece of a different design.” Stained glass has since progressed into fused glass, which is made in a kiln, and provides an additional way to express herself through her art.
Colleen discovered The York Merchant while she was showing her product at another maker’s market. After doing research, she decided this would be a great opportunity to expand her business and showcase her work. You can find her pieces surrounded by light in a corner unit at The York Merchant. Colleen values light so much because according to her, “Light is the purest form of color, because color is a direct reflection of light.”
Colleen is inspired by design and color theory. What she loves about glass is that it changes so much from one time of day to the next, because it’s so dependent on the light that it gets. What something looks like at 5am in the morning is vastly different than what it looks like at 5pm at night.
Aside from her own projects, Colleen also does commissions for people. She loves to discuss projects in full detail with her customers, because she understands most people don’t have a clear idea of what they want, what it costs, or what affects the cost. She also works with people to figure out something that is within their budget. While Colleen works with all kinds of stained glass, most pieces she makes are considered Tiffany style. Her husband is not officially an employee, but he has been incredibly supportive of her business, and is very active and helpful in any and every way he can be. Colleen says she may be the face of The Glass Turtle Studio, but it is truly a team effort between the both of them.
To learn more about The Glass Turtle Studio and see more of Colleen’s work, please visit www.theglassturtlestudio.com