Stained glass tends to conjure images of historic churches or grandma’s sunroom, but one Fuquay-Varina couple is working to change that.
Bogdan and Nicole Ionescu founded Ordway Glass Company out of their Fuquay-Varina home. After only one year in business, the duo won the North Carolina Chamber’s Coolest Thing Made in NC contest in the small business division.
Ordway Glass Company, shorted to OGC, creates custom stained glass pieces and restores and repairs existing works.
Bogdan, retired from a 27-year career in the Army, and Nicole, a former research scientist, are both lifelong lovers of art in many forms. They began tinkering with stained glass several years before launching the business.
“I was first exposed to stained glass back in high school, because a cousin of mine used to do it as a hobby in his mom’s garage in LA. I remember every window in their house was stained glass,” Bogdan says.
Leaving their established careers allowed couple to pursue a creative project.
Bogdan and Nicole created a workshop in the garage of their Fuquay-Varina home.
“We went into two professions that had absolutely nothing to do with art, so let’s look at doing something that we’re passionate about and that we love,” Bogdan says.
Nicole’s skilled attention to detail, honed during years as a scientist, coupled with a solid art background formed the bedrock to quick mastery of the craft of stained glass.
“We fell in love with the art form and got really good, really fast,” says Bogdan. “Nicole is the foundation; she’s the artist behind it.”
OGC specializes in custom commissions, objects from small suncatchers to decorative panels to full-size windows.
“Whatever we make, we will never duplicate that piece,” Bogdan says. “You are getting a one-of-a-kind custom designed piece.”
One of those custom works is a lamp at the Fuquay-Varina American Legion Post 116.
“You can go into their rec room, where the bar is, and our lamp is hanging above the pool table. That was a pretty neat project because we donated that project to the American Legion and then got lucky and had some private donors come in and help us cover the (cost of the) glass.”
In addition to creating custom showstoppers, OGC repairs older pieces, including family heirlooms and church windows.
“When we launched last summer, we almost immediately broke into the repair and restoration market. We realized there’s almost nobody doing repairs professionally,” Bogdan says.
“In terms of any custom commissions or larger repairs or restorations, we’re running a pretty long wait list,” he explains, citing projects scheduled three or four months in advance.
Ordway Glass Company crafts all of their pieces by hand, using traditional stained glass techniques.
Bodgan admits that many people consider stained glass a dying or outdated art form. Through OGC he and Nicole hope to bring the craft into a contemporary light.
“The craftsmanship hasn’t changed. Technology changes; maybe the tools get a little better. But in terms of the basics of creating stained glass, you’re still going to cut glass; you’re still going to put it together using techniques that have been around for, in some cases, thousands of years. That doesn’t change, but we are trying to bring it into a more contemporary setting through the style and how we showcase it.”
The company’s social media sites — find them on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube — serve as an ever-changing gallery, showcasing the finished designs as well as behind-the-scenes glimpses of work in progress. Utilizing funky music and effects gives their content a modern edge and offers a true reflection of the couple behind the art.
“We’re all about promoting the art form and getting it to where people think, ‘Oh, wow, stained glass is not just churches.’”
The Coolest Thing Made in NC contest became another outlet for the Ionescus to promote stained glass to a statewide audience. Held annually by the NC Chamber, the public-driven contest celebrates products manufactured in North Carolina.
“Looking at the contest, we realized very quickly that we were outsiders, because it’s tied to manufacturing a specific product. We did not have that. Essentially our product was the art,” Bogdan says.
Not to mention, the small business category encompassed companies up to 99 employees — and OGC has two.
Using local connections, including the American Legion and Fuquay-Varina Chamber of Commerce, OGC garnered enough grassroots support to win, something no other first-time contestant has accomplished.
“When we found out we won, we were pretty stoked. I was at work and was jumping off the walls.
“We feel like this is bigger than us — promoting the art form and art in general, and showing that you can be an artist and can compete and win stuff like this. And then getting Fuquay on the map, being able to say that the Coolest Thing Made in NC is made in Fuquay-Varina — that really motivated us.”
ogcstainedglass.com
@ogcstainedglass
