Give me
light
Glass man itching to craft
again in Waldport
DEEP
DIVE
GO BENEATH THE
SURFACE WITH
PAUL HAEDER
One never knows where a story about
a “character” and a “celebrated” artisan will
take both writer and subject.
Chuck Franklin and his American bull
terrier, Rocky, greet me at their house near
Eckman Lake. Rocky and Chuck have been
living here with his wife Carol since 2015.
Retirement for the 72-year-old self-
described ex-hippie (“actually, I am still a
hippie”) has not been such an easy thing for
a man who once had more than 20 artists
and craftspeople working for him in his
glass studio in Portland.
Well-known-in-glass circles, Chuck
Franklin Glass Studio, a 2008 book written
about his stained-glass work — “Windows
of Character and Style” (Wardell
Publications) — covers a lot of territory.
Chuck hands over the book as a gift — a
bridge to understand the depth and breadth
of his stained-glass operation.
He prepared for the interview —
photocopies of articles, photos of stained-
glass and mosaics; the DVD with an 2002
OPB Oregon Art Beat featurette of his
work; an accompanying slide show of his
creations.
His traditional, classic, art deco, freestyle
and psychedelic glass work is all over the
country inside churches, casinos, dozens
of restaurants, private homes and public
spaces.
Inside their house, the couple has
ceiling-to-fl oor artwork, as well as plenty
of glass from Chuck’s repertoire — large
complex stained-glass abstracts and
landscapes catching light and sun, abutting
windows; wall art, to include his mosaics;
and some fused glass pieces.
Everywhere I look, that spectrum of
colors imbues the living space. Shadow,
refl ections, refraction, cascading colors.
Chuck Franklin and his wife, Carol, at their Waldport home.
One of Chuck’s self portraits from almost 40
years ago.
Ancient discovery brings Heavenly
light
“It is more likely that Egyptian or
Mesopotamian potters accidentally
discovered glass when fi ring their vessels.
Th e earliest known manmade glass is in the
form of Egyptian beads from between 2750
and 2625 BC. Artisans made these beads
by winding a thin string of molten glass
around a removable clay core. Th is glass is
opaque and very precious.” — Stained Glass
Association of America
If we could go back in time with Chuck,
the reader would have a heck of a journey
and some juxtapositions of a young fellow
who was destined to be a fi ghter pilot
to a jet-setting artisan fl ying out to jobs
in towns like Boston, Chicago, Atlanta,
Austin, LA, New York.
His narrative cantilevers back to Benson
Polytechnic High School in Portland
(founded, 1917) — a school which
really prepped him to learn the value
craftsmanship.
Using drafting skills, exploring
mechanical and engineering problems,
designing art whether through
woodworking or metal craft, Chuck learned
more than academic tricks.
“I feel bad for today’s youth. Th ere
should be shop classes, and more crafts and
trades. Not everyone thrives in an academic
setting.”
When Chuck was 18, he headed to
OSU with a Navy scholarship, but found
out his eyesight wasn’t good enough for
pilot school. He glommed on to aerospace
engineering because of his talent for math.
“I would sign up for math courses for the
easy grades. But as a child, I always was
success. One year, the total gross for his
business was upwards of $2 million.
He’s been at the art of glass since the age
of 28, 41 years with his Portland studio.
Th e steam of business picked up at the
right time. He met Carol more than two
decades ago while she was cashiering at
Hippo Hardware. When they married,
Carol took over the books, the bookings,
the travel, payroll and all the back of the
house stuff not related to arts and crafts.
Chuck holds Carol’s hand telling me
how instrumental she was in helping the
business stay afl oat and grow.
Deep down, Chuck realizes how layered
his life turned out gaining all these skill
sets and all these compadres in the business
of designing, crafting and making great
interiors of these high-end restaurants.
“I know when I die, I will be taking my
craft and many techniques with me to the
grave.”
However, even at 72, he has an eye
to keep going, on a small personal scale.
His smaller pieces are at Earthworks and
Touchstone in Yachats. He is taking on
commissions.
“I know I’ve had a really good run
at this,” he tells me while fi nishing up a
window for a homeowner in Toledo.
•••
Read on, as Deep Dive continues at www.
oregoncoasttoday.com.
Paul Haeder is a writer living and working
in Lincoln County. He has two books coming
out, one a short story collection, “Wide Open
Eyes: Surfacing from Vietnam,” and a non-
fi ction book, “No More Messing Around: Th e
Good, Bad and Ugly of America’s Education
System.”
doing art. I loved drawing.”
He tells me that the Vietnam War,
the protests, the prospect of military
endeavors overseas and other issues threw a
boomerang into his youthful plans.
His last hurrah in the aerospace fi eld
was a short stint in California with 29 other
students to work on the preliminary design
of the Mariner Mars lander.
Once back in Portland, he knew that sort
of work was not his forte or drive.
Down but not out in Stumptown
We talk about how life can take these
curves to completely remake and refocus
someone.
He was in Portland kicking around
working odd jobs. He tells me this was both
a low point and a very necessary new step
in his life — “I was out of work, living in a
friend’s garage, and I was a hippie.”
He started making candles selling them
out of his VW microbus.
Th en a trip to the hospital put Chuck in
front of a wood sculpture displayed in the
lobby. He told himself he could do that and
commenced to carving.
Th at was in 1974. A tsunami of good
fortune, being in the right place at the
right time, and his engineering and artistic
fortitude with a “no fear” attitude quickly
coalesced into the budding glassman he is
today.
Big-time glass works
His 34 years at that point in the fast-
paced commercial stained- glass fi eld
garnered him a lifetime achievement
award from the Art Glass Association
in 2008. His glass studio. Another seven
years working largely on McCormick and
Schmick’s restaurants garnered his studio
oregoncoastTODAY.com • facebook.com/oregoncoasttoday • May 22, 2020 • 5