Laura Paycer was outshined by the rest of her artistic family as a child, but now the sun shines through her own stained glass art work.
Paycer grew up in Chicago surrounded by her family, who were all very artistic. Her mother was a potter; her father, a drawer; and her sister did beautiful work knitting and crocheting.
"I was the untalented one in my family. My sister had so much talent. She knit her first sweater at 8 years old," Paycer said.
When she was about 30, Paycer discovered her own artistic abilities in quilting and gardening. But it wasn't until six years ago, when she was 46, that she discovered glass.
Her love of glass was not a new one, but instead of just admiring different pieces she learned to make her own.
"I've always loved glass. My grandma had crystal from Poland, and my mother had beautiful crystal," she said. So Paycer took her love of glass and became a stained glass artist.
Paycer does not keep her artistic talent for creating beautiful stained glass pieces to herself, however. Even though she works full time as a social worker for Crow Wing County, Paycer, along with her husband, Al, has taught Community Education classes in stained glass through numerous school districts for four years.
Laura said her coworkers encouraged her to teach classes after she brought in some of her pieces.
Laura and Al have taught classes through Community Education in Pequot Lakes and Brainerd and soon will teach classes in Aitkin as well.
Laura said she couldn't teach without her husband. "I couldn't do this without him, and he wouldn't do it without me," she said.
After she had taught many people the art of stained glass, she was inspired to open a shop of her own called Wind & Water Stained Glass Studio, where stained glass artists can come and buy their own glass.
"The shop was born out of the need we created by teaching. No one else in the area carries all the right supplies," she said.
Now that Laura can both create and teach others the art of stained glass, she is expanding her horizons to encompass another type of glass work: glass fusing.
Glass fusing is where different colors and types of glass are melted together. She received a grant from the Five Wings Arts Council to help her learn glass fusing so she can teach it in the community.
Even though Laura enjoys teaching, she said she is an artist first.
After her talented older sister said she wanted Laura to teach her how to make stained glass art, Laura didn't feel like the untalented one anymore.
