Ascherl’s years of craftsmanship displayed in bicentennial stained glass

by Chris Studor

While exploring all the nooks and crannies inside Ascherls Studio, guests are taken on a 97 year-old journey of a grandfather, father and son whose skills led to the founding of one of the two remaining stained glass studios in the greater Cleveland area. There, three generations of Ascherls built a legend of craftsmanship with father, John, and son, Jim, establishing roots in Hinckley. 

One of Jim Ascherl’s most recent pieces is marking the upcoming Hinckley bicentennial, which will be celebrated in July. Ascherl is making a 6 ½ by 8-inch stained glass panel featuring Brongers cabin with the iconic buzzard flying overhead. Hinckley resident Mark Staron Jr., designed the panel.

Most people in Hinckley are familiar with Ascherl’s Studio, located in the bright yellow building near the corner of state Route 303 and Ridge Road. What you may not know is that Ascherl was baptized in the building, which also once served as the township’s police department before the new police station was built in 2000. Perhaps there is a bit of fate in the baptismal location since Ascherl is employed as a full-time Hinckley police officer.

“At one point the building was a temporary home for the pastor of Our Lady of Grace Church while the church was being built and masses were said at the old Hinckley Elementary School,” said Ascherl. Since the school was only open to the church on Sunday, I was brought to the pastor’s home (now my studio) on a Saturday to be baptized.” 

In addition to the many major stained-glass pieces one can view throughout the various rooms, there are examples of countless personal small pieces the Ascherls made for customers over the years. Those pieces acknowledge First Communions, graduations and weddings. One unusual one is a small stained-glass plaque given to anyone who made a hole-in-one at the former Skyland Golf Course.

The small pieces are in stark contrast to detailed large pieces created for churches, businesses and homes. Ascherl’s work was part of Cleveland’s annual Home and Garden show for 16 years.

“Being a part of the Home and Garden Show was a major undertaking as it involved weeks of preparation, then setting up at the show and then bringing it back to the studio,” commented Ascherl. 

Ascherl admits one of his most beloved pieces in the studio isn’t a stained-glass piece at all. Rather, it’s an antique glass maker’s rack called a “kraxze” which belonged to his grandfather. The wooden rack was carried by Jim’s grandfather when he worked as a journeyman glazier in 1904 serving his apprenticeship in Wolfratshausen, a small town in southern Germany.

“When my parents got married, they went to the town of Wolfratshausen and knocked on the door of the two-story building which had the former glass business where my grandfather worked on the lower floor, said Ascherl. “The business wasn’t there any longer, but my parents struck up a conversation with a woman living in the above apartment who had ties to the former business. She gave my father my grandfather’s “Kraze.”  I keep my grandfather’s picture on the ”kraxze.”

Ascherl said his grandfather’s history as a glassmaker started when his grandfather was 13 years old. 

“Back then, when you turned 13, you were done with school and told to go get a job,” said Ascherl. “My grandfather started working in a commercial glass studio. While glass has been around since medieval times, most people of my grandfather’s time didn’t have a lot of glass windows in their home. That was for the nobles. What people did do was collect scraps of glass from commercial glass studios and join them together with lead to make a small window for their door – hence leaded glass became the norm.”

When Ascherl’s grandfather first came to this country, he worked for about five years as a baker in New York. He later came to Cleveland then moved to Lorain. The family moved to Hinckley so that the business could be halfway between Akron and Cleveland. It wasn’t until the 60’s that Ascherl’s father, John, took on the stained glass business also becoming involved in Hinckley Township.

In addition to making stained glass pieces, Ascherl gets numerous requests to repair glass petal lamps given by banks to customers in the 1920s. Just as the name says, the glass lampshade is made from pieces of colored glass shaped like flower petals.

“It can be hard to find glass to match some of these lamps,” said Ascherl. “When I tell people that banks typically gave these lamps away when a customer opened a checking account, they are very surprised. Replacing the glass petals is a different process which requires me to make a cast from sand and cement.”

When it comes to making authentic stained-glass pieces, Ascherl said he uses a complex process requiring many special and sometimes costly materials, a great deal of skill and plenty of patience.

The process begins with a special glass which has more brilliance than traditional glass, said Ascherl. He said his father believed in efficiency and built many of the tools which he still uses, including jigs which hold the glass pieces in place while the leaded borders are applied.  For some works involving a picture, an actual photo negative is made. This film is adhered to a screen and then the colors are applied, much like a silk-screening process, one color at a time.”

“Most people don’t realize that the paints used are derived from minerals and the paint color may start out as one color as a powder then turn into another as it is prepared as a liquid paint,” Ascherl said. “These minerals, copper, borate, zinc, etc. can be very expensive. This large container [about the size of a gallon of milk] holding black ink powder runs $400.”

The final steps in making a stained-glass piece include soldering all the pieces together and then firing the piece in a kiln. While most artists used a stained-glass kiln, Ascherl said his father always used a pottery kiln, which he continues to use as it allows him to fire more than one piece at a time.

Ascherl said his young son, Michael, has made some simple pieces. Thus far, Ascherl has been able to keep up with sales and said the Bicentennial panels, and orders, will be offered by the Hinckley Historical Society, which his wife Monique is a member, at Buzzard Day this March.

Those purchasing the bicentennial stained glass pieces will be owning a handmade piece of stained class, made by a master craftsman, with a love for the Hinckley community.Bicentennial glass panels can also be ordered by going to the Hinckley Historical Society website at: hinckleyohiohistoricalsociety.com. Brick pavers, which will be placed around a standing bicentennial  clock to be placed at the Historical Society, with the brick purchaser’s name, can also be purchased from this site.

photo caption: Jim Ascherl is making stained glass panels, featuring Brongers Cabin with a buzzard flying over, which will be sold in recognition of Hinckley’s Bicentennial to be held this summer. Photo by Chris Studor