Denise Feeney in front of “Kaleidoscape 2008” a community art project she helped create for The Colony.

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    “I wasn’t fulfilled,“ she says of those first career musings. “And I learned a lot about what I didn’t want to do.“

Then in 1975, low on cash at Christmastime, she and a friend made stained glass Christmas gifts, which, Feeney admits, “looked awful. We were doing everything wrong.” But despite their appearance, her friends raved enough about the gifts to make her try again. She took a beginner’s stained glass class, learned the right process, and was overcome with inspiration.

“It was like an obsession,” she says. “There was always a challenge, and there was always a reward at the end.“

It wasn’t long before she set up a little studio in Illinois, but she soon relocated to the Lone Star State to be with her parents. She established Stained Glass Unlimited in 1983, and two years later managed to buy commercial property in The Colony with the money she saved delivering phone books and cleaning construction sites on the side. The purchase proved to be a wise one. Through the years, the buildings on the property have allowed her the freedom to use as much or as little space as she needs to accommodate her business and supplies.

Though Feeney still loves to design, she doesn’t have the opportunity to do as much as she would like. The growth of the business and an increased interest in her commercial and public works projects has forced her to handle more administrative tasks, such as selling, bidding and organizing materials.

Not that Feeney is complaining. In the end, she knows that putting together a business, like piecing together a stained glass creation, is often worth the effort.

Turning toward one of her larger pieces, she motions to a scene of a sun-brightened horizon captured in glass.

“You can struggle through this,” Feeney says. “But in the end, when you’re looking at it, all you went through kind of disappears. In the end, it’s just “wow.”

Stained Glass Unlimited offers commercial custom art glass creations and stained glass classes and supplies. –mjm