Who we are | We are a relatively small, family-run art glass design and fabrication studio. Duncan Tooley began the business in 1983 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where the primary fabrication is still performed under the direction of his daughter, Diana Tooley. Duncan does design work and operates a smaller studio in Palos Verdes, California. |  |
What we do | We do one-of-a-kind custom stained, beveled, etched, laminated or fused glass art windows, doors, panels or objects. We do our own design, or a customer design, or contract fabrication for other artists. We do projects all over continental USA. |  |
Why we do it | We do it because we love it! The thrill of seeing sunlight broken up into its many component colors coming through a newly finished panel is always amazing! We enjoy creating beautiful objects for others to enjoy; it is a wonderful occupation! |  |
Artistic Vision | The sun was created as our source of life-giving energy and light. That light is composed of a spectrum of colors that blend together to appear as white. Our role as co-creators of our world is to separate that light back into its spectrum of colors through our glass, thereby creating beautiful and inspiring light combinations that never existed before.
We understand that the passion that we put into designing and fabricating our works gets somehow locked into the glass. This locked-in passion can then evoke powerful emotions in subsequent viewers. We believe that this passion is essential to making each work a masterpiece. We hope that each client's experience with sunlight whose colors are separated by our glass will help them discover the beauty, mystery, and power of the sacred all around us! Our goal is to develop that unique design to fit the architecture, taste, and budget of each client, a design that we can fabricate with passion and make into their spectacular masterpiece.
We make the sun DAZZLE through our GLASS, hence we named our Louisiana limited liability company, DAZZLE GLAZZ, LLC.
We design in the style that the customer desires. Nevertheless, we have been influenced by the works of Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Comfort Tiffany, and Pablo Picasso. We acknowledge and rejoice in that heritage. |  |
Green Vision | We operate our business to be as environment-friendly as we possibly can. In order to do that, we took the "green criteria" and applied it to our studio practices:
Elimination of virgin material requirements
Every batch of glass contains some portion of cullet (recycled glass), depending on availability and color desired. Glass is one of the few materials that can be recycled forever.
Use of bio-based products
Sand is the primary raw ingredient of glass, composing over 75% of the finished glass. It is one of the most abundant and inert substances on earth. Several other naturally-occurring minerals are used, depending on the type of glass. No bio-based products are used, only inert minerals.
Use of recovered materials
Glass manufacturers (our suppliers) typically reuse the cullet produced from breakage or scrap in the manufacturing process by adding this back into a subsequent glass batch.
We use the scrap glass from our larger custom projects in our mosaic projects that use much smaller pieces of glass.
When we remove or replace stained glass, we disassemble the windows and place glass pieces into our inventory for use on another project. For example, we removed and disassembled the colored glass from a decommissioned Baptist church and then incorporated that glass into the design for its new sanctuary.
Reuse of product
Stained glass is traditionally 100% reused or repurposed. Windows removed from churches are reused in new churches or in residences. Panels removed from buildings being dismantled are salvaged and become independent (non-architectural) decorative panels or inserts into doors. We repair and resize many dozens of panels for this purpose every year.
We reuse the incoming crates (sheet glass from our vendors) for shipping crates of our finished product to our customers.
Low life-cycle cost
Life cycle costs are very low because stained glass lasts for centuries. Stained glass typically exceeds the life of the building and is removed to be repurposed at the end of building life-cycle. Because stained glass is composed of many small pieces of glass in a lead matrix, it is easily repaired if damaged. A typical stained glass cathedral window may have to be re-leaded approximately every 100-150 years.
Ability to be recycled
See reuse above. If part of a stained glass window cannot be reused (repurposed or repaired), the panel is disassembled into the glass and lead components. The glass is salvaged as recovered material (see above) and the lead is recycled through a specialized metals recycler.
Use of environmentally preferable products
We encourage our customers to build green. We recommend encapsulation of our stained glass and consideration of low-e glazing. Encapsulation (triple glazing) minimizes thermal gain or loss through the window and thereby reduces the carbon footprint of the building or home.
Waste prevention (including toxicity reduction or elimination)
Because lead is considered a toxic substance, we take care to minimize the amount of lead scrap. Shorter pieces of lead came resulting from larger projects are used in our geometric and speculative projects. We take care to exclude lead from the general waste disposal system.
Ultimate disposal
Because of the repurposing, reuse and recycling of stained glass, there is rarely any ultimate disposal. Hence stained (beveled, etched) glass is the ultimate in "GREEN" because it never goes into the waste system.
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Residential | We make (design and fabricate) glass panels for entrance doors, back doors, pantry and bathroom doors. We make windows for bathrooms, kitchens, or any other room. We make transoms and sidelights. We repair, refurbish, and resize salvaged stained glass, converting it for use in doors, windows or hanging decorative panels. and cabinet glass. We have even made light fixtures.
We make the sun dazzle in your home through our glazz!
We make wall decorations of glass mosaic and original aqua media on paper. |  |
Liturgical | We make church windows from simple to elaborate for all faiths including non-denominational.
Our goal is that these windows both PRAISE (by their very existence) and PROCLAIM (the faith of the congregation that they surround). |  |
Decorative Accessories | We make mosaic crosses, mandalas and other objects, large and small, for wall decoration. |  |
Commercial & Contract | We fabricate the designs of other artists. We have completed several New York train stations and Louisiana churches under this contracted fabrication arrangement. Since our artisans are artists in their own right, they think and work like artists, cooperatively working for the best possible outcome. Design by Marjorie Blake. |  |
Where we ship | We ship anywhere in continental USA. Our works are installed in Washington, California, Florida, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Long Island, Wisconsin, Chicago, to name but a few. How to reach us
Phone: 800-821-9576
Fax: 424-772-6979
Web: www.TooleyGlass.com
Email: info@tooleyglass.com |  |
