The Last Stained-Glass Shop Standing

Have you ever strolled through historic downtown Wilmington, or any other historic locale, and found yourself transfixed by the beauty of a stained-glass window, or sat speechless inside, mesmerized by the way outside light dances through brilliant colors? It’s hard to find the right word for that kind of ethereal artistry, but Bill and Patricia McClanahan found theirs: enchanting. They first used it after a trip to a Renaissance festival, where they watched skilled artisans at work and came home with inspiration that would years later culminate in the establishment of Enchanted Realm Stained Glass.

Bill fell in love with stained glass during childhood family church visits. “I couldn’t tell you about the sermons, but I loved the colors [of the stained-glass windows] and the way the light came through,” he says.

It would be 40 years before Bill would actualize that childhood experience. In the interim, he earned a degree in CAD design from Cape Fear Community College, worked for GE and Corning, and owned two local restaurants. Clearly, Bill was no stranger to the skills — precision, artistry, determination, business-building and patience — that he would later channel into the next chapter of his career.

Along the way, Bill dabbled in candle-making and stained glass out of a spare bedroom at home until Patricia encouraged him to take his craft to the next level and share his skills with the world. With her support, he opened a small candle-making and stained-glass shop in the Old Wilmington Market. There, at customers’ requests for custom work and repairs, he began demonstrating his craft in the shop’s large picture window. Over the years, Bill improved his work by reading books and through extensive practice.

By the time he moved his shop to a bigger space on Carolina Beach Road in 2013, Enchanted Realm had soon become the only remaining stained-glass shop in town. The closest shop now is in Durham. Referring to the other shops, he muses, “They all got old and retired, and left me the kingdom.” Over the next 14 years, he built a loyal following of customers, students and fellow artisans — not to mention a breathtaking array of stained-glass works.

At the tail end of last year, I signed up for one of his 10-week classes. I had inherited a beautiful antique mirror from a dear family member — a mosaicist — who had almost completed the project before passing away. I asked her husband if I could honor her by completing it, although I had never done mosaics before.

That led to making a few pieces of my own, modeled after the Starship Enterprise, the Trylon and Perisphere from the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair, and a Dunkin’ Donuts image. I had fallen in love with glass and wanted to extend my passion from mosaics to stained glass. That’s when I met Bill. Under his tutelage, I established a small studio in my garage.

Now the windows in my home are nearly filled with stained-glass images, including a lava lamp, a canna lily, the famous scene from the movie “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” a cityscape borrowed from a collage I found in a thrift shop for $3, Vincent van Gogh’s “Starry Night,” Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” and a Picasso. Like Bill, I love not only the images but also the way light plays through them.

Bill, a student of both the art and science of stained glass, can casually chat about surface tension, melting points and chemical reactions while reminding his students that, like most things in life, stained glass is about having courage.

“I know what I know about what I know and very little about everything else,” he says, humbly. But from my perspective, he has created some of the most magnificent pieces I’ve come across.

Most of Bill’s work adorns private homes, but it can also be seen around town at Seabird, where he built a prismatic glass-and-tile reproduction of an original stained-glass window built in 1905. He has also worked on several panels for First Baptist Church in Wallace and is currently working on a massive six-panel project for Grace Baptist Church in Bolivia — a project he admits he feels a bit nervous about because, he says, “I don’t want to disappoint.”

Bill does a large number of repairs on stained glass of all kinds, from suncatchers to lamps to single decorative panels to larger displays. His oldest — and most challenging — repair came on a centuries-old leaded church window. When presented with the piece for consideration and asked whether he had done that particular kind of work before, Patricia jumped in enthusiastically: “Of course he can!” The 165-year-old stained-glass image of St. Philomena adorns a church in upstate New York and remains one of Bill’s proudest accomplishments.

Bill continues to teach 10-week stained-glass classes at Enchanted Realm, which will soon be home to a large kiln for fusing glass. There, Rhyne Jones will also teach eager crafters how to mold and shape glass into beautiful decorative and functional pieces — from trays and bowls to lamps — while Jenny Abney will continue leading mosaic classes. Bill prides himself on being able to answer just about any stained-glass question, and he’s known for his sleuthing skills, too: If he doesn’t have the glass you need, he’ll do his best to track it down. He even knows where the “good stuff” is, including vintage glass tucked away in dusty corners or available only through glass-matching services, like the kind that can help you replace a missing piece from your grandmother’s tea set.

If you’d caught Bill before his 2025 health scare, he says he would have told you, “I wanted to work till I was 80.” That goal was rooted in his belief that “if you can find a job that you love, you’ll never have to work again.” Since then, he has adjusted his plans. He still wants to keep sharpening his skills and knowledge — and to keep teaching the next generation of stained-glass artists.

When I asked whether his students are truly “the next generation,” Bill was quick to point out that they range from 20 to 80. Many are retired or come from other crafts, especially quilting. And just as important, he says, many of them want to support local businesses.

Bill would also like to begin displaying and consigning the work of some of his crafters and inviting guest instructors since, “You learn something new from every person, and there are 500 ways to do stained glass, and nothing is wrong if it’s right for you!” Perhaps, at least for me, his most impressive goal is to “get better at recognizing each person’s skills and growth so I can encourage them as best I can.”

While Bill would someday like to turn Enchanted Realm over to the next “keeper of the craft,” in the meantime, he would like to ensure that it “continues to grow as a hobby.” An enchanting goal, to be sure.

For more on all things glass and Enchanted Realm, visit Facebook.com/EnchantedRealm.