ARTIST SPOTLIGHT // The Apprentice

The Apprentice


Stained glass artisan Ellen Sherry walks an ancient path, with modern values

by Heather Shayne Blakeslee

EXCERPT //

The lore of glass making is rich—I’d been told by my neighbor and Philadelphia glass artist Ellen Sherry, 30, that glass-making techniques were at times so closely guarded that artisans who wanted to leave their domicile were blinded to prevent them from striking out on their own and competing against their masters. 

“I’ve genuinely heard that people would lose their fingers, their hands, or their eyesight,” so as not to share what they saw, says Sherry. While it may be apocryphal, it drives home the basic point: Sometimes teachers don’t want their students taking their craft too far outside of their tutelage. 

Not so for Sherry. Even at her young age, she’s developed an ethos around teaching: Make your students as independent as you can, as soon as you can. Occasionally, she says, she’s experienced that even some of her best teachers would hold back on techniques that are important to, for instance, installation. But you need to know the whole process. “That’s the thing that helps people have a career,” she says. //

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