Local Artist Creates a Sea of Stained Glass
Many people find themselves in churches over the holidays and may find themselves marveling at the beautiful stained-glass windows that go so well with the music and the stories told from the pulpit.
“The glass looks so fragile and old,” some might think, and wonder if it could even be repaired these days if it broke or was damaged. In an area known for earthquakes, that’s a good question.
But the answer is yes, and in the East Bay, part of that answer is Margaret Pederson and her Sea of Glass studio in San Leandro. She’s repaired, replaced, or restored the stained glass in more than 30 Bay Area churches over her several decades in the business.
She currently has as much work as she can handle, with her business has increased during the pandemic.
Pederson also makes entry doors and other stained-glass pieces for homes but is probably best known for her work at churches. She has one project underway at St. Clement’s Catholic Church in Hayward, next door to Moreau Catholic High School on Mission Boulevard.
An especially challenging project was at Trinity-St. Peter’s Episcopalian Church in San Francisco, which had lost a large window.
“It was the most special project I’ve ever had,” Pederson said. “Every single piece was hand-painted and hand-fired.”
“They gave me a box with pieces of a broken window and told me they trusted me to reconstruct it,” she said. “So, I did.”
Pedersen was in perhaps her finest artistic company when she got to restore the ceiling in the Julia Morgan Chapel at the Chapel of the Chimes mortuary in Oakland, next to the Mountain View Cemetery on Piedmont Avenue.
Morgan, a great early 20th-century architect, is most famous for designing Hearst Castle in San Simeon, but some critics have called the Chapel of the Chimes her real masterpiece.
That project has so far taken Pederson six years and involved replacing the stained glass. It’s by far the biggest project she has undertaken.
Pederson started her stained-glass career as a student at the College of the Sequoias in Visalia. Her art teacher, Mr. Maddox, had her design a stained-glass window for the entry door to the Art Department. She didn’t guess it would lead to a life in the craft at the time.
“I really didn’t like it at first—it was too difficult,” she said. But she stuck with it.
Today if your church or other houses of worship needs to call someone about its stained glass, she very well might be the one they call.