Lightwing Designs – Shawn and Ann Lester

In 1975, Shawn and Ann Lester began experimenting with ways to combine his metalsmithing skills with hers in stained glass. Three years later, they succeeded in creating an original art form, stained glass jewelry with sterling silver pictorial overlay.

Using Ann’s drawings as a guide, Shawn meticulously hand cuts and constructs each complex silver overlay, creating an intricate pictorial encasement for Ann’s translucent glass.  Many pieces are reversible.  A few are also miniature wearable kaleidoscopes.

Lightwing Designs have received numerous honors including exhibition at the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery, first as part of the “Vermont Show”, and then as one of only 27 craftspeople from across the U.S. invited to the Renwick’s “Encore Show”.  Recently, New York City’s Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum added to their permanent collection one of Shawn and Ann’s sterling and glass kaleidoscopes.