Never a Dull Moment with Stained Glass Artist Diane Cairns

Diane Cairns was a bit hesitant to start her own stained glass business. The local artist felt uneasy about blurring the lines between her artistic pursuits and her occupation. “I wasn’t sure at first if I would like mixing them together,” Cairns said. “I thought I might get bored with it but I don’t. It’s never boring because we’re doing different things all the time and working with different people.”

Cairns opened Virginia Stained Glass Company in 1994. She had been managing the Stained Glass Center in Falls Church and bought the store after three years. Within six months, Virginia Stained Glass relocated to its current location in Springfield. “I was ready to do my own thing,” she said. “I was tired of working for other people and wanted to be my own boss.”

Virginia Stained Glass specializes in repairs and custom commissions. Cairns and her staff also teach classes. But the stained glass artist also makes time for her own art. She has been selling her work at Artisans United Craft Gallery in Annandale for two years. “It’s been great,” she said of the gallery. “I enjoy talking to the customers and I like to see what the other crafters are making. It’s a lot of fun.”

The Springfield resident grew up in Annandale and feels that there is a strong artist community in both areas. “There’s a lot of people who belong to [the Northern Virginia Handcrafters Guild] that live around this area,” she said. “And [Artisans United] is really fun because you get to interact with people that do completely different things than you yet have kind of the same goals and want it to be the best that it can be.”

Cairns enjoys mixing different aspects of stained glass together. She often uses fused glass for the center of a piece and then puts traditional stained glass around it to frame it. Her signature styles include aquarium scenes, flower gardens and other aspects of nature. She plays with a rich palette. “I love the color,” she said. “It’s the color that attracts me to it.” Pinks, blues and turquoise are common in her work.

Cairns found a way to combine her old hobby turned profession with her new hobby: quilting. The artist creates quilt patterns in her stained glass. “It’s basically the same thing because you start out big, cut it up small and make it big again,” she said. “They are very similar mediums.”

The artist also makes dichroic glass jewelry and teaches glass fusing and lampwork beading at Star’s Beads in Vienna. She said that quilts and jewelry are just something that she makes. “I would rather have my own niche,” she said of pursuing stained glass professionally.

Stained glass has been her focus for many years. When she was a teenager, a craft store opened in Annandale where the Antique Emporium is now. The store had every kind of craft imaginable, including stained glass. Cairns taught herself how to make suncatchers. After she graduated from Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland with a degree in fine arts, she took a class in stained glass and never looked back.

“Diane has over 30 years experience in stained glass, fusing, and mosaics,” said Colleen Bell, one of Cairns’ coworkers at Virginia Stained Glass. “Her background as an art major is most evident in her ability to design custom windows and choose colors that complement those designs. Her projects are always gorgeous!”

Cairns feels motivated to pursue more abstract stained glass in the future. “I really like making unusual pieces,” she said. “I have my core stuff that I make all the time but I’d like to do more abstract things and more outside-of-the-box kind of things.”