Monarch Glass Studio

Kansas City's 18th and Vine district is famous for jazz. Since 2015 it has also been home to a furnace. Tyler Kimball, born and raised in Kansas City, founded Monarch Glass Studio there after working in more than sixty glass studios — through residencies, visiting-artist stints and hired work — and built it into what the studio calls the region's most abundant glassblowing shop: three work stations and a furnace holding 300 pounds of glass, producing thousands of pounds of work each month.

What sets Monarch apart is that one trade feeds the other. The hot shop blows rondels, mouth-blown sheet glass and bullseye panes, the hand-made glass that leaded panels and historic window sashes call for, and the stained glass studio often builds with that same glass, designing, fabricating and installing windows and panels for homes, commercial buildings and sacred spaces. Its stained glass team works in copper foil and lead, paints on glass and draws its cartoons in CAD.

The same furnace feeds large blown-glass installations, indoor and out, made to stand up to weather for decades, as well as awards and corporate gifts made in quantity. Monarch is a professional member of the Stained Glass Association of America, and its gallery is open to the public — for looking, and for commissions.

Written by the Hiram Guild from public information on monarchglassstudio.com. Not yet reviewed by the studio.