About Wardell Publications

A Brief History of Wardell Publications Inc

Wardell Publications was founded in 1983. Randy Wardell began his stained glass career in 1977 and opened a full service stained glass studio creating custom stained glass windows and selling art glass supplies and tools. The studio offered glass craft instruction and students would often ask for patterns of the custom designed lampshades displayed in the showroom. His research revealed a need for reliable, full-size pattern books and in 1983 he formed Wardell Publications and released his first lampshade pattern book.

Since then he has personally written 12 additional books and Wardell Publications Inc has released more than 50 books since it began. In 1985 Randy wrote and published Introduction to Stained Glass, a Teaching Manual. We are proud that this title quickly became one of the stained glass industry’s best selling books and since its release has started over a quarter of a million new crafters on their way to a rewarding experience in glass crafting.

In 1995 Carole Harris Wardell joined the publishing company offering her considerable skills in management and acquisitions. In 1996 Wardell Publications released a collection of Carole’s stained glass work titled ‘Windows of Elegance’ and in 2005 ‘Windows of Elegance II’. For more information on Carole’s Studio visit her web site at www.glassreflections.com

Our line of fusing molds came as an unexpected development after we published our book Joy of Fusing in 2014. We used a variety of slumping and draping molds in the book and later found a few of the molds had been discontinued. We didn’t want to disappoint our customers, so we researched mold developers and had the M35 Starfire mold made, and the B300 Drop Thru Bundle the next year, followed by B310 Circle-Square Drop Thru and S205 Binasphere Mold. We have developed a number of innovative molds and are continuing to come up with new ideas for slumping and draping mold for the beginner to advanced fuser.

In 2016 we developed The Glass Tattoo Stencil System, a simple and ingenious way to add intricate designs to your fusing projects. This technique uses custom designed acrylic stencils, Glass Tattoo Gue, and powdered glass frit. The Tattoo Gue combined with frit powder creates a paste-like mixture, and the stencil spaces can be filled with multiple Tattoo Gue colors keeping clean lines between the design elements.  Glass Tattoo colors can be blended to create unique abstract combination effects.