Fred Baze sees the world through rose colored glass

By Jan Castle Renander

            Fred Baze of Clarinda indulged his creative side a few years ago when he took a class in making stained glass art.

Fred Baze of Clarinda measures and marks glass for his next project.

          “I always wanted to do this,” he recalls. “I had a little touch of it in high school art but that was it. I always wanted to do more. Dorothy Almquist was the high school art teacher here in Clarinda and I got in her last class. That was in 1986. I was the only man in the class, of course, and it snowballed from there.”

            From there, Fred formed a home-based business to help offset the costs of his new hobby. The Glass Shoppe or the Stained Glass Shoppe as it is known provides Fred with an outlet for his glass art, although he smiles as he points out that he gives away as much glass as he sells. He also has taught adult education classes in glass and now gives private lessons in his home workshop.

            Fred and his wife, Fern, both grew up in Chariton. They moved to Greenfield when Fred began working for what was then Iowa Electric. The family moved to Clarinda in 1971, liked the community and stayed.

            “We bought this house in 1975 and we’ve been remodeling ever since,” Fred smiles. “It was a fixer-upper.”

            Fred’s talents also extend to woodworking. He converted a storage shed into his workshop. So when he’s not in his glass workshop, he’s in the woodshop.

Several of Fred's creations are hanging in the window behind him.

           “Between the two of them I keep busy,” he explains.

            Once Fred began working with glass, he was hooked.

            “You keep finding something else you want to make and people start coming in and asking, ‘Can you make this?’ ”

            Creating with glass requires a steady hand, a good eye for color and design and “a lot of patience.”

            “I always told my students, the only difference between a little sun catcher and a big window is the time,” Fred explains. “The big one takes a lot more time.”

            To create with glass you begin with a vision and then a pattern. Then you cut and grind the edges.

            “Grinding makes them fit together better,” Fred explains.

            Each glass piece is outlined or wrapped in copper foil. This helps the pieces fit together and gives you something to hold the pieces together. You cannot solder glass to glass, Fred explains.

            “Every place you put this foil will become lead eventually,” Fred says.

            Once all the pieces are put together, Fred solders around the entire piece for a smooth edge. He stresses that stained glass art is not difficult.

            “It just takes a lot of time.”

Fred custom-built shelves in his glass workshop so he store a wide variety of glass colors and textures.

            Perhaps the hardest part is selecting a design and colors to start with. Fred explains that glass comes in a variety of textures and colors.

            “There are so many colors and shades it’s like buying paint,” he explains. “You can buy any shade, any texture and they combine differently for a project.”

            Locating supplies was one of Fred’s first challenges. You can’t buy then in southwest Iowa. Today, he buys glass from suppliers in New York and Colorado.  The amount of time involved and the price of materials make stained glass an expensive hobby, Fred notes.

            “The prices have really gone up since I started this,” he says. “A lot of my glass has quadrupled in price. And any metals, lead and copper, anything like that has gone up.”

            Fred makes a variety of projects, including small glass angels and numerous designs in sun-catchers. His work is popular in windows and his most extensive project was renovation of the stained glass skylight in the Marengo public library.  He spent nearly six months finding glass that was close to the original.

            “Glass varies from one batch to the next,” he explains. “When they melt it together, it comes out a little different.”

            The project utilized Fred’s woodworking skills as well and turned out beautifully.

            “Light is actually what makes stained glass look so good,” he notes. “Sunlight is the best for showing off stained glass.”

            Fred retired from Iowa Electric (now Alliant Energy) in 1992. He spends his time now with his glass and wood working, flowers, hunting and fishing and keeping up with his family.  He and Fern have four children and nine grandchildren. Daughter Pam Honken lives in LaVista, NE. Patty Miles lives in Marengo, Derek lives in Kansas City and Jenny Bickel lives in Omaha. Grandchildren range in age from 19 to 1.

            “We enjoy them,” Fred emphasizes.

            Fred and Fern spend a good deal of time watching sports, too, as they follow their granddaughters. Fred also enjoys hunting and fishing, although he notes that his hunting days are fewer since his long-time hunting companion, a 17-year-old Brittany spaniel, passed away.

            “We hunted a lot of pheasants together,” he says.

            His next project in glass will be to learn to fuse glass, which is using heat to put different pieces together.

            “It’s a whole different concept to making things with glass, but you can make some beautiful things.”

            As for his busy lifestyle, Fred likes it that way. Keeping busy is what keeps you going, he says.

            “You get old if you sit around,” he says. “You’ve got to keep moving.”

Do you know of a couple or individual for Jan’s Corner? If so, contact Jan at renanderjc@aol.com