‘The people demand mustard’: This stained glass artist dipped into corn dogs (and hungry shoppers ate it up)

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LAWRENCE — Selling holiday shoppers on stained glass corn dogs was unexpectedly easy, said Darleen Schillaci; adding mustard and keeping up with buyers’ appetite, however, proved the meatiest challenge.

Corn dog ornaments hang on display within Darleen Schillaci’s booth at the Merry Market at City Market; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

The Lawrence stained glass artist’s ornaments — both corn dogs and a variety of pickles — have become a hot commodity in Kansas City via the annual Merry Market organized by Art Garden KC at City Market. The holiday shopping event series wraps this weekend.

“Seeing people’s reactions in real time and seeing them get joy from my silly designs is really fun,” said Schillaci, who turned her hobby into a business — Artistained Glass — about a year ago. She’d been making custom pieces for a couple of years, but hadn’t yet attempted to take the products mainstream.

Most of her customers are familiar with the Christmas pickle ornament tradition, she noted, but after the success of her whimsical water corn dog plant stake design, she decided to “make Christmas corn dogs a thing.” 

“When I went to do a market (in September) I had already thought of making a cattail as a water corn dog. That’s what they are,” Schillaci explained. “So I put some mustard on it and people liked that. They thought it was hilarious.”

While the water corn dog plant stakes proved popular, she continued, they weren’t easy to package for shoppers who were traveling; nor was shipping a convenient option.

“It’s big,” Schillaci said. “It’s on a 12-inch stake and the leaves come out. It takes up a lot of space.”

So the more portable Christmas corn dog ornament was born, some with bites out of them and some with squiggles of mustard.

A selection of stained glass pieces — including Darleen Schillaci’s popular water corn dogs — sit ready for customers at the Merry Market; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

A floral bookend — another of Darleen Schillaci’s more popular pieces — sits within her Lawrence home studio; photo by Tommy Felts, Startland News

“You see ornaments of every kind now, but there aren’t corn dogs out there,” Schillaci explained. 

“People really like it, but they like it more with the mustard on it,” she added, noting cutting glass in a squiggle is a pain, so she will be using a friend’s glass saw to keep up with the popularity. “The people demand mustard.”

While the Christmas corn dogs and pickles are hot sellers, Schillaci makes a variety of stained glass designs — many of them nature-themed — like a possum in a cowboy hat, mushrooms, and flower and floral bookends. After the holidays, she noted, she will have more time to focus on her new Give a Hoot collection, in which she will donate 15 percent of the proceeds to Operation Wildlife.

“Most of it is all antique and vintage glass, which is really nice and fun to use,” she explained or her materials sourcing. “It makes a lot of my pieces truly one of a kind.”

 

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Darleen Schillaci, Artistained Glass, stands inside her tent at the Merry Market at City Market over a cold holiday weekend; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

This year marks her first Merry Market and Schillaci’s been losing a lot of sleep trying to keep up with the demand of — not only corn dogs and pickles — but all of her products, she said.

“I did not expect it to be this wild,” she continued, noting she had already sold through most of her inventory two weekends before Christmas. “It’s been a lot of fun. Talking with everybody and having people come and look at my stuff, it feels like I have my own little art gallery. I love it. Bringing people joy through art is such an honor.”

Piecing it together

Darleen Schillaci discusses her artistic journey outside her Lawrence workspace for Artistained Glass; photo by Tommy Felts, Startland News

Schillaci — a Chicago native who has a degree in fashion design and has worked in costuming — discovered her passion for art as a child, she shared, starting with drawing.

“I’m just always trying something new like crocheting and embroidery,” she explained. “I’ve taken metal smithing classes, which I really love, but that’s a lot of work.”

Stained glass making joined her “things to try” list after watching videos of glass artist Neile Cooper on Instagram, she continued. And when Schillaci saw listings on Facebook Marketplace for a grinder, other stained glass tools, and sheets of glass for a bargain, she decided it was time.

“Then I’m like, ‘Alright, I guess I need to commit to this and make a space,” Schillaci recalled. “So I made the space.”

She built a tiny, purple studio in her backyard where she stores her glass pieces — most from estate sales — and has her equipment set up.

“I do the cutting and the grinding out here during the colder months,” Schillaci explained, “and then do the foiling and the soldering inside because the solder will not flow when it’s this cold. I can barely cut the glass once it’s cold. I have to heat the glass.”

Her first major project was making the character Audrey II from “Little Shop of Horrors” for her sister as a Christmas gift a few years ago, she noted.

“I was just doing it as a hobby,” she said, “just to explore and make silly things and ended up really loving it.”