Create. Connect. Belong.
The Glass Patch is a small stained-glass studio where you can slow down, learn something new, and experience the satisfaction of creating with your own hands.
At The Glass Patch, you don't need to be an artist or arrive knowing what you're doing. You'll find thoughtful instruction, plenty of encouragement, and the space to explore the craft at a pace that works for you.
Whether you're looking for a creative experience, want to explore and master the craft of stained glass, or are searching for a place to continue creating, there's a path for you here.
Find Your Path
There is more than one path through The Patch.
You might want a few hours of creative time with someone you love. You may want to master the craft of stained glass. Or you may already know the craft and simply need the right place, tools, or guidance to keep growing.
The paths below are designed to help you start where you are.
What Makes The Glass Patch Different
Small by design. Personal on purpose.
The Glass Patch isn’t a large classroom or a traditional retail studio.
It’s a working stained-glass studio in my Indianapolis home, intentionally designed for small groups and individual attention.
With no more than four makers around the table, there’s time to ask questions. Time to try again. Time to choose the glass you really love. And time for me to teach the person in front of me rather than simply move everyone through the same steps.
You won’t be expected to keep pace with a room full of people.
We’ll meet you where you are and go from there.
More Than a Finished Project . . .
Of course I want you to leave with a piece of stained glass you’re proud of, but that is only part of what I hope you take away from the experience.
There is something satisfying about learning to make a cut that seemed impossible an hour earlier. About watching separate pieces of glass become something whole. About sitting around a table, talking while you foil, or becoming so focused on what your hands are doing that the rest of the world gets quiet for a while.
What each person carries home will be a little different: confidence, accomplishment, connection, a new skill, a few peaceful hours, or maybe even the beginning of a craft they will love for years. That is the part that matters most.
The real product is what happens while you're creating.
Meet Liz
I’m Liz, the instructor and artist behind The Glass Patch.
I discovered stained glass after years of exploring other creative pursuits, and something about the combination of color, light, precision, and working with my hands simply clicked.
Teaching others the craft felt just as natural.
Before opening The Glass Patch, I spent years as a professor specializing in course design and curriculum development.
Owner. Maker. Instructor.
That background still shapes the way I teach today: break something complicated into understandable steps, explain the why behind what we're doing, and give people enough support to discover that they're capable of more than they thought.
My favorite moment is still the one when someone looks at what they've done and realizes, “I did that.”
Inside The Patch
A place to settle in, create, and feel at home.
The Glass Patch studio occupies the lower level of my Indianapolis home, built in 1900.
It’s a real working studio—glass on the shelves, the tools you need within reach, projects underway, and usually at least one Studio Supervisor keeping an eye on things.
You’re welcome to settle in, enjoy a drink or snack—or bring your own—select your glass, ask questions, make mistakes, and learn something new. Most of all, you’re welcome to make yourself comfortable while you create.
The Studio Supervisors
Quality Control. Crumb Management. Design Advice.
Abbie and JoJo
Poodle mixes who keep watch from the stairs, are delighted when you arrive, and then settle in for a nap beneath the grinder table—unless, of course, you have something to eat that they think you should share.
Gidget and Gizmo
Studio cats with strong opinions about glass placement, an equally strong belief that everything belongs to them, and no hesitation about interrupting your work when they believe it is time to be petted.
Supervisors' Day Off
Prefer your creative experience without four-legged supervision? Just let me know before your visit and they'll happily take the day off.
Your Personal Invitation
Come to the studio and see what you can create.
You do not need to know exactly where this will lead. You just need to be curious enough to start.
Whether that means spending an afternoon trying stained glass for the first time, learning the craft more deeply, or finding a place where you can keep creating, I'd love to welcome you into The Glass Patch.