Stained glass class turns broken bits into beauty

Kelly Inman of Poplar Bluff fell in love with taking broken pieces of glass and making them beautiful when she was homeschooling her three children.

While her children are adults, her love for creating art with broken glass continues to grow and develop.

Inman has studied the art of designing stained glass locally and in St. Louis.

“I love art and have always been interested and tried everything,” Inman said.

Today, Inman enjoys sharing her craft with others. She teaches glasses at Black River Technical School in Arkansas at Paragould, Pocahontas and North Arkansas College in Harrison. When she can, she offers classes in Poplar Bluff.

She recently conducted sessions at the Margaret Harwell Art Museum. She may offer classes at the The Dirt Shack on April 3 and 5 for the business’ Spring Open House. She is thinking about having her students make sun catchers and stained glass plant stakes.

Along with teaching stained glass, Inman said, “I’ve been involved in prison ministry for about 13 years. I ran across a verse in Joel 2:25 about God restoring the broken in us. It fits perfectly with prison ministry as well as our own personal lives.”

The verse which Inman shared says, “God can restore what is broken and change it into something amazing. All you need it faith.”

She is waiting for the paperwork for her nonprofit organization, Beautifully Broken, Inc., to be approved.

Inman offers classes on stained glass for groups and individuals. Students will cut out a pattern in glass, solder their own glass, and the finished product can be given away as a beautiful handmade gift, or remain a keepsake for the artist.

“I want to offer classes which are affordable and short,” Inman said. “I do love what I do. It is so rewarding to make such beautiful art.”

She keeps her projects simple. While she presently is teaching the copper foil technique of wrapping the glass, Inman wants to help students learn lead cane as well as decorative soldering techniques.