Steve Thompson Stained Glass | 214-328-4587 | Dallas | Texas | Design | Restoration | Stained Glass

Steve Thompson has been creating custom stained and leaded glass designs for more the 30 years. The mostly self-taught artist was fascinated with stained glass from an early age. “I used to sit in church as a child and admire the stained glass, and it was always in the back of my mind to learn how to do it,” he says. After high school, Thompson began hanging around Dallas’ few stained glass makers, including Roger MacIntosh. Eventually, when he wouldn’t leave, a few of them let him do some repair work. It wasn’t long before he was doing restorations and new jobs for them. His company specializes in European-style designs, utilizing old-world techniques that were first developed in the guilds around Europe. “We use antique-style leads, and we hand-paint everything and fire it in our kiln right here in the studio,” he says. Thompson does all the work himself, bringing in a small staff for only the largest projects, and he makes sure clients get exactly what they want by doing a series of sketches expressing their ideas. Once a design is chosen, Thompson does a life-sized color cartoon to show clients exactly what the finished product will look like. Not that the intricate drawing just goes to waste, though. “We cut the glass and the leading right on top of the cartoon, just like they used to do,” Thompson says.