People are like stained glass windows: they sparkle and shine when
the sun’s out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is
revealed only if there is light within.
-Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, M.D.
In the small church of Santa Inez in Terlingua’s ghost town, something beautiful is happening: local artists are restoring the church’s stained glass windows. Like the long-gone miners who once worshiped here, the stained glass windows are gone too, lost to the ages. Yet soon they will be replaced and once again the beauty will shine from within.
In 2004 Cynta de Narvaez organized the first La Historia reunion that brought together former Terlingua residents who resided in the area during the mining boom before the industry collapsed in the late 1940’s with current residents. During a Sunday Mass celebration at that first reunion, church congregants suggested ways they might help restore the old church and several members struck on the idea of replacing the old stained glass windows. Several in the audience agreed; what a great gesture, the former residents and their families (now far more successful and affluent than in their days of toiling in the mercury mines) would raise money and begin restoring the church to its former glory. De Narvaez began organizing the restoration of the stained glass.
Over a year later local artist and photographer Crystal Albright was approached by de Narvaez to design the stained glass. [See sidebar.] With de Narvaez coordinating, and Albright on board for the stained glass design, what was needed was a stained glass artisan, someone who could take the project from the drawing board to the next step.
All the little church of Santa Inez needed was an artisan who could bring the 1,000-year-old craft of stained glass art back to Terlingua. Someone who could work off the vidimis, accurately measure each panel of glass, order the glass, study the structural integrity of the window frame and literally put it all together. Where on earth would de Narvaez find such an artisan?
Enter Kaci Fullwood, a winter resident from Nome, Alaska a former National Park Service employee from the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve who was ready to trade dark winters with musk ox and polar bears for bright winters with coyotes and cougars. Fullwood is also proprietor of Alleluia Glass Art – just the stained glass artisan needed for the project.
An Oregon native, Fullwood has roots in the area; her father was born in Crane, Texas and her grandfather proposed to her grandmother at the mouth of Santa Elena Canyon.
When Fullwood arrived in Terlingua she said the similarity of the treeless arctic tundra and the vastness of the desert was familiar. “Being from Nome without trees, I felt right at home with the barren landscape of the desert.”
“When she said she had done stained glass,” said de Narvaez, “had worked with museums and done churches and [when I] looked at her work, I said bingo! She loves the community, she loves the church and the Ghost Town. We didn’t want a stranger.”
The stained glass project has been perfect for Fullwood, who has sought a time of peace and quiet. Her studio is located in the church, which has enhanced both her creativity and spirituality, says Fullwood. “This is a time of revitalization and spiritual renewal and to have the studio located in the church I feel refreshed in so much love and joy.”
Currently Fullwood is taking the stained glass from two Pacific Northwest stained glass manufactures, Spectrum Glass and Uroboros Glass, and creating the panels.
First the sheets of glass need to be cut, then the edges need to be smoothed, the “grozing process” in glass-speak.Then Fullwood uses the copper foil method of stained glass making in which the pieces of cut and smooth glass are wrapped in copper foil. The glass is ready to be soldered then placed in a zinc frame or cames and washed and cleaned. The final touch includes adding a black patina, washing, cleaning, waxing and polishing the glass.
While assessing the condition of the old church’s wood window frames, Fullwood and de Narvaez determined the wood would need replacement and called upon Terlingua resident Gregg Hunnicutt for the task. The duo also commissioned Davy Jones of Terlingua to manufacture the heavy metal frames that will hold the glass.
The windows will resemble the old stained glass of Snata Inez; the upper portion of the window will hold the stained glass and the lower main portion will be claro, just as Juan Miranda remembered them from his youth.
In 2004 de Narvaez told the participants at the first La Historia reunion she would oversee the project and hopes the windows will be installed by Easter. When the former residents and their families return for the third La Historia in October of this year, once again the windows of Santa Inez will sparkle and shine. Again, the congregants of Santa Inez will be the beauty within.
It you would like to help with the restoration of the church, mail your to Terlingua Foundation, P. O. Box 295, Terlingua, TX 79852.
Above: The chalice window design made by Terlingua artist Crystal Albright. “We wanted to combine traditions of the church with its current functions in the community," said the artist of her several designs for the new stained glass windows.
