A young woman smiling and holding a red cow decoration at an outdoor craft fair booth. The booth displays various stained glass art pieces, including a landscape with a red Mt. Fuji, and several animal designs hanging on a rack.
Cartoon illustration of an orange chestnut smiling with a toothy grin on a blue grid background.

Thanks for visiting!

Hi there! My name is Nola, and I am a stained glass artist based in Nashville, Tennesse.

I created Kuri Glasswork in 2023, drawing inspiration from Japanese aesthetics and Taisho Era designs. The name “Kuri,” comes from the Japanese word for “chestnut,” which is one of my favorite foods.

The Story of Kuri Glasswork

My stained glass journey began in 2022, when I returned home to the United States after several years of teaching English in Japan. I started learning the basics with my dad, who is an artist and a restoration sculptor by trade. After some practice in my dad’s studio, I set up my own beginner studio in the basement of my home and started experimenting with original designs on the weekends.

Towards the end of 2023, I decided to start taking my glass craft more seriously and began taking simple commissions from family and friends. Not long after, I created Kuri Glasswork and started selling my work at local craft markets in the Nashville area.

Colorful geometric stained glass pieces arranged on a light table with a printed art pattern visible in the background.

 FAQs

  • Traditionally, stained glass is made with solder that is composed of a combination of lead and tin. However, lead is only harmful if it is consumed or ingested. Simply displaying stained glass artwork in your home will not put you at risk for lead poisoning (unless you are licking the piece or shaving off parts of the metal and swallowing it!).

    Still, we do recommend that you keep your stained glass pieces away from children and pets, and that you wash your hands with soap and water after handling.

  • Despite the word “stained” in the name, stained glass is not made by applying color to clear glass. Most stained glass artists begin by selecting colors for their designs from larger, existing sheets of colored glass.

    These colored glass sheets are created by glass manufacturers, who fuse sand, potash, and lime with various metal oxides at high temperatures to create large sheets of colored glass. For example, blue glass is made by firing glass components with cobalt, green glass can be made with copper or iron oxide, and pink glass is made with gold.

    For more information, check out the “process” page HERE.

  • There are currently no scheduled workshops.

    If you’d like to be the first to know when I am offering a class or workshop, feel free to sign up for email updates at the bottom of this page.

  • I do accept commissions on a very limited basis throughout the year depending on my production schedule. If you are interested in a commission, please shoot me a message at info@kuriglass.com